FBI lab went boom in 1987
George at Orwellian.Org
George at Orwellian.Org
Tue Jun 12 07:56:54 PDT 2001
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0123/ridgeway.shtml
#
# Posted June 5th, 2001 11:30 AM
#
# Feds Accused of Hiding Accidental D.C. Blast Explosive FBI Coverup
#
# As if the FBI hadn't taken a big enough hit for its handling
# of documents in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, Soldier of
# Fortune Magazine is set to report in its August issue that
# munitions stored at the bureau's Hoover Building headquarters
# in Washington, D.C., blew up in 1987.
#
# The blast is said to have gutted the crime lab and destroyed
# evidence in several major cases.
#
# In recent months, the lab itself has been under attack, especially
# for its slipshod analysis of the Oklahoma City bombing. According
# to Soldier of Fortune, the feds covered up the D.C. explosion
# by saying it was a fire in a broom closet.
#
# Freelancer J.D. Cash, a reporter for the eastern Oklahoma
# McCurtain Gazette, said he stumbled onto the story of the FBI
# explosion when he interviewed rescue workers who said they'd
# seen munitions inside the Murrah Federal Building. He later
# queried an ATF agent about why the feds would store explosives
# in a public place, and remembers the agent laughingly saying
# it was a common practice and had actually resulted in an explosion
# at FBI headquarters.
#
# That led Cash, joined by the former network TV producer and
# investigator for the Timothy McVeigh defense team, Roger Charles,
# to submit Freedom of Information inquiries to the FBI. Four years
# later, the agency made available its internal report, along with
# photos.
#
# The McCurtain Gazette is in the process of putting the findings
# on its Web site. In addition, Soldier of Fortune will include
# excerpts from the 197-page report. They indicate that in the
# predawn hours of May 5, 1987, military explosives-including
# Soviet-made rocket-propelled grenades-ripped through evidence
# lockers at the crime lab. The authors claim the FBI report
# acknowledged that lab personnel ignored cardboard boxes sitting
# on the floor. These contained some 22 pounds of the explosive
# C4, numerous blasting caps, and several pounds of TNT.
#
# Reached on Monday, FBI spokesperson Bill Carter gave a limited
# account of the incident. "It was a fire," he said. "It occurred
# in the FBI lab, in the explosive unit. It wasn't an explosion,
# not a traditional explosion. The fire did cause some damage,
# and it was in the middle of the night. I still remember it. I
# came in and the fire engines were here."
#
# Cash and Charles write that the internal FBI document describes
# a firestorm that "threatened the lives of FBI personnel and
# firefighters, as missiles and shrapnel blasted through evidence
# cabinets and tore gaping holes in the walls of the world-famous
# crime lab."
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