DISTURBING

Human 9/11 Remains Dumped in Landfill

New review argues mortuary’s mismanagement.

The Defense Department admitted for the first time Tuesday that partial remains of the 9/11 victims in the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., attacks ended up in a landfill after being incinerated at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary. The dumped remains were unidentified, not unlike those of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan that were discovered to have also been dumped in a landfill by the same mortuary last year. The review found that following cremation, the remains were given to a biomedical-waste-disposal contractor who, apparently, found residual material that was then deposited in a landfill. Since 2008, the Dover mortuary has changed its policy to bury unidentified incinerated remains at sea. This latest review appears to confirm arguments that the mortuary is badly mismanaged.