Arlington Burial for Pentagon Victims
— -- Memorial Service for Pentagon Victims
A R L I N G T O N, Va., Sept. 12 — With hymns, Scripture readings andspeeches from military leaders, relatives and friends paid theirrespects today at Arlington National Cemetery to the 184 victimsof last year's terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
"While there's nothing we can do to bring back those lovedones, we can celebrate who they were, how they lived their lives,and how their lives were lost: in a struggle to bring about humanfreedom," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld spoke next to a flag-draped casket containing crematedremains from the Pentagon rubble that could not be identified. Forfive of the victims, the internment in Arlington will be the onlyburial because no remains were confirmed to be theirs.
The five include a 60-year-old retired Army colonel and a3-year-old girl killed with her parents and sister aboard hijackedAmerican Airlines Flight 77.
Relatives of the victims sat solemnly, some hugging and weeping,others wiping away tears, as the crowd sang "Amazing Grace" andlistened to eulogies from military chaplains.
"Know that your country shares your sorrow, mourns your lossand prays that God will comfort you," Rumsfeld told the families.
A five-sided granite marker bearing the 184 names will standover a shared grave at the Arlington National Cemetery — thenation's most prestigious burial ground — holding the unidentifiedremains.
The 4-foot-5-inch-tall marker, with names of the dead inscribedon aluminum plaques, will be placed over the grave later, saidJennifer Lafley, spokeswoman for the Army Military District ofWashington. The Army oversees Arlington cemetery.
Most of the 64 victims already interred at Arlington are nearbyunder simple headstones, within sight of the repaired Pentagon.
In some cases, as recovery efforts continued, additional remainswere identified after a person was buried. Some of their familieschose to have those fragments held for the common burial site,Lafley said.
Many of the dead, including some who were working inside thePentagon on Sept. 11, did not qualify for burial at the nation'smost famous cemetery.
Arlington is generally reserved for active duty personnel,military retirees, retired reservists who reach age 60, winners ofthe military's highest decorations, and former prisoners of war.Their spouses also qualify.
Among the 275,000 people buried there are presidents John F.Kennedy and William Howard Taft, the crew of the space shuttleChallenger, and veterans of every war the United States has fought.
A year and a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, all ofthe dead from the Pentagon attack also share in the honors ofArlington.
"It's nice that they're remembering all the victims," saidSteve Push, whose wife, Lisa Raines, died inside the Pentagon. Shewas buried in November; Push said he wouldn't attend the additionalservice.
Some 13,000 people gathered to grieve and hear President Bush'swords at Pentagon memorial service on Wednesday, as Sept. 11 wasremembered across the nation. The Defense Department also plans tobuild a larger monument at the Pentagon.
The five victims whose remains were not identified are:
Dana Falkenberg, 3, who loved dressing up as a princess anddied alongside her sister Zoe, 8, and parents Leslie Whittingtonand Charles Falkenberg, as they began a trip to Australia.
Retired Army Col. Ronald Golinski, 60, an avid golfer whoworked as a civilian employee at the Pentagon. A memorialheadstone, used when no remains are present, was placed for him atArlington in December.
Ronald Hemenway, 37, a Navy electronics technician first classwho left behind a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. Hismemorial headstone was placed at Arlington in March.
James T. Lynch, 55, a civilian video technician for the Navyknown for handing out butterscotch candies to everyone he passed.
Rhonda Rasmussen 44, a civilian worker for the Army and motherof four who was planning to transfer to California when she died.
Five sets of remains believed to be those of the hijackers,because they did not match DNA provided by victims' families, wereturned over to the FBI in February and will be excluded from theburial, officials said.
— The Associated Press
Six Muslim Men Detained in Terror Probe
B A L T I M O R E, Sept. 12 — Police and federalauthorities in Baltimore detained six men from predominantlyMuslim nations as part of an investigation into possible linkswith terror groups, officials said today.
All six were taken into custody on Sept. 10 after Baltimorecity police discovered suspicious photos, notebooks and otherwritten material, some of it in Arabic, inside their apartment.Investigators were having the Arabic texts translated.
Five of the men, described as natives of Afghanistan,Pakistan or Somalia, faced possible deportation by the U.S.Immigration and Naturalization Service for alleged visaviolations. A sixth man from Morocco was in state custody on aseparate matter.
Two other men, also taken into custody on Tuesday, werelater released without being charged.
"We can't say yet whether there's any link to terrorism,"said Ragina Averella, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City PoliceDepartment, which was leading the probe with FBI assistance.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the Sept. 11attacks, with fears of renewed violence running high, citypolice arrived at the men's apartment to serve an unrelatedarrest warrant on Abderrahim Houti of Morocco.
Investigators became suspicious after examining thecontents of the sparsely furnished apartment and learning thatthe premises were due to be vacated on Oct. 31.
Police could not confirm an ABC report that men had photosof Times Square and Union Station. But officers decided to callon the FBI and the INS "in the interest of homeland security,"according to a police department statement.
The FBI said later that the investigation had turned up noevidence of a terrorist threat.
The arrest warrant against Houti was issued in suburbanBaltimore County and accused the Moroccan national ofthreatening a former employer with arson, police said.
— Reuters
Man Questioned in Explosives Theft Probe
G E O R G E T O W N, Texas, Sept. 12 — Central Texas law officers who havequestioned a man in connection with theft of 330 pounds ofpotentially explosive fertilizer say they know where to locate thechemicals, which were taken two days before the Sept. 11 terroristattacks' anniversary.
Eleven tubes of ammonium nitrate — a substance used in a4,800-pound nitrate-fuel oil bomb in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — were reported missing early Monday from a storage trailer inGeorgetown.
Williamson County sheriff's investigators have not found a linktying the theft to possible terrorist activities, but they werebeing extra cautious because of the anniversary, with state andfederal agents also brought into the case.
"We feel extremely confident that this has nothing to do withterrorism," said sheriff's department spokeswoman Wendy Denson. After questioning the man arrested Wednesday night, Sheriff JohnMaspero said he believes the theft was a "local job."
The investigation was stalled for about 16 hours after AustinPowder Co., the company that owned the trailer, demanded thatemployees be represented by lawyers before being questioned.
Maspero said the investigation was suspended about 4:30 p.m.Tuesday after an Austin Powder manager told the sheriff's officethat its employees could not release any information without alawyer present.
Investigators were unable to interview two Austin Powderemployees who reported the theft until Wednesday morning, afterthey were assigned lawyers.
Maspero said the U.S. attorney's office in Austin negotiatedwith Austin Powder's lawyers to arrange the meeting between theemployees and investigators. Federal prosecutors acted on behalf ofthe agencies involved in the case, including the FBI; the U.S.Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and the Texas Departmentof Public Safety.
The sheriff said he did not know why Austin Powder officialshalted the questioning, but he said their decision was unusualbecause the company had been victimized and has not been accused ofwrongdoing. The company supplies explosives to construction andexcavation firms.
A message left for Austin Powder's Chief Operations Officer MikeGleason at his office in Cleveland, Ohio, was not immediatelyreturned.
Darren Holmes, FBI special agent in San Antonio, said the FBIhas no evidence that the theft could be linked to a threat ofterrorism. He has said that authorities suspect the materials couldbe sold on the black market.
Workers reported the ammonium nitrate was missing from thecompany shortly after 5 a.m. and said they saw a dark-coloredsport utility vehicle speeding away.
Also stolen was the paperwork that would allow the material tobe transported across state lines. Authorities have said there wasno sign of forced entry.
The ammonium nitrate, in tubes weighing about 30 pounds each,must be attached to a detonator to explode. Authorities said eachtube would make a crater about 1 foot deep and 7 feet wide ifexploded on the ground.
Georgetown is about 30 miles north of Austin in Central Texas.
— The Associated Press
Air Force Academy Closed to Public
C O L O R A D O S P R I N G S, Colo., Sept. 12 — The Air Force Academy was closedto the public and there were no immediate plans to reopen itsgates.
Officials ordered the shutdown of the 19,000-acre campus Tuesdaynight. There was no specific threat but officials decided theyneeded to increase security, academy spokesman Lt. Greg Hignitesaid.
"At this point, it's indefinite," Hignite said of the closure.
On Tuesday, the Bush administration raised the color-codeddomestic alert system to orange, its second-highest level, based onintelligence warning of possible strikes.
The academy, one of Colorado's most popular tourist attractions,was closed for nearly three month's following the Sept. 11terrorist attacks.
The only people allowed on base are people with militaryidentification, including retirees and students.
Nonmilitary visitors will only be allowed if accompanied bysomeone with military identification.
Officials were discussing what to do about access for publicevents such as football games. During last year's shutdown,visitors were allowed to attend football games and concerts butthey could not go anywhere else on base.
About 750,000 people visit the academy each year.
— The Associated Press
Engineer: Trying to Outbuild Terrorist Attacks Is a Waste of Money
S E A T T L E, Sept. 12 — A year after the terrorist attacks that destroyedthe World Trade Center, the lesson to developers is clear, says thehead of the firm that did the structural engineering for the twintowers.
Anything capable of withstanding the forces of the jetlinersthat hit the towers and the the ensuing fires would be tooexpensive to build, said Jon Magnusson, chief executive of SkillingWard Magnusson Barkshire in Seattle.
"Trying to out-build the terrorists is the wrong thing to do,"Magnusson said Wednesday. "You're just wasting money."
He said he had spent about a quarter of his time in the pastyear studying, discussing or thinking about the World Trade Center. "We can out-build earthquakes, we can out-build windstorms, butwe can't out-build military attacks," he said. "There are certainthings we can't design for."
Magnusson, a boy when the World Trade Center was on the drawingboards in 1960, is now one of the nation's top experts on tallbuildings.
He takes dim view of a suggestion in a Federal EmergencyManagement Agency report on the collapse of the towers that in thefuture, structural engineers should be involved in rescue attemptsso they can warn firefighters when a building might collapse.
"It's frustrating to hear people say a structural engineercould somehow know," he said. "We all wish someone could haveknown, but sending an engineer out there will not solve theproblem. Nobody could have known."
— The Associated Press