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AP Enterprise: Rumsfeld Kept 9-11 Souvenir

Posted on: Friday, 12 March 2004, 06:00 CST

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department investigation that criticized FBI agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the Sept. 11 attack scenes.

The final investigatory report said the Justice Department inspector general confirmed Rumsfeld "has a piece of the airplane that flew into the Pentagon." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report Friday.

Investigators learned Rumsfeld had the airplane part after an FBI agent saw a television interview in which the defense secretary was "holding up pieces of building from the WTC and the Pentagon, saying he kept those items on his desk to remember the terrorist attacks."

A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond Friday afternoon for comment.

The Justice Department investigation also collected testimony that Pasquale D'Amuro, FBI Director Robert Mueller's executive assistant director for terrorism until last summer, asked a supervisory agent to "obtain a half dozen items from the WTC debris so the items could be given to dignitaries."

Six items that weren't evidence were gathered and sent to D'Amuro, the report said.

D'Amuro, now the head of the FBI's New York office, said that "he asked for a piece of the building as a memento" and that he was aware that agents had taken such items from other terrorist crime scenes over the years.

He said he got a piece of the building in June 2003 but denied asking for items for dignitaries. D'Amuro left the following month from FBI headquarters as Mueller's top terrorism official to become an assistant director in charge of the New York office.

Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the New York FBI office, declined to comment Friday.

Surviving family members were surprised by the news.

"Unbelievable," said William Doyle, whose son died in the World Trade Center.

A New York woman suing local authorities for alleged negligence in the Sept. 11 attacks said any souvenir-taking by officials was part of a larger failure to keep enough items, like steel beams, as evidence.

"Everybody has things that they probably should not have from the World Trade Center site," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the towers. "I'm sure there's probably all kinds of people that have all kinds of artifacts."

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