Read It And Weep
AP Enterprise: 9/11 Thefts Not Prosecuted
Friday June 16, 2006 4:01 PM
AP Photo WX102By MARGARET EBRAHIM and PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writers
NEW YORK (AP) – Once-secret documents obtained by The Associated Press show a disaster supply management company went unpunished for Sept. 11 thefts after the government discovered FBI agents and other government officials had stolen artifacts from New York’s ground zero.
And not just any bog-standard government officials either: step forward the FBI and Donald Rumsfeld.
The lead investigators for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told AP that the plan to prosecute KEI for those thefts stopped as soon as it became clear in late summer 2002 that an FBI agent in Minnesota had stolen a crystal globe from ground zero.
That prompted a broader review that ultimately found 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.
“How could you secure an indictment?” FEMA investigator Kirk Beauchamp asked. “It would be a conflict.”
While the globe’s discovery had been widely reported, its impact on the Sept. 11 thefts had remained mostly unknown.
Prosecutors “and the FBI were very conscious of the fact that if they proceeded in one direction, they would have to proceed in the other, which meant prosecuting FBI agents,” said Jane Turner, the lead FBI agent. She too became a whistleblower alleging the bureau tried to fire her for bringing the stolen artifacts to light. Turner retired in 2003.
