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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