http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/28/us/washington-pentagon-human-remains/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
QuoteA Pentagon report released Tuesday on the military's Dover mortuary finds that not only did some remains of U.S. troops end up in landfills — so did remains from the 9/11 attacks.
Dover AFB is where the remains of deceased U.S. armed forces first arrive home from overseas. How the Dover Port Mortuary (DPM) handled military remains caused an uproar last November, and the new report says much the same thing happened to remains from the Pentagon attack and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site of September 11, 2001.
Whoops.
Some of this smells of bullshit:
QuoteThe report said that the Sept. 11 remains in question "could not be tested or identified," apparently because they were too small or charred to allow for DNA analysis.
Too charred? Sure, I can accept that. Burning fuel etc. Too
small? That's a new one on me. Given you can get DNA from a single hair-strand, I question the smallness or testability of some of these remains.
When you're dealing with small samples contamination is easy. We're all 'radiating' DNA molecules that get passed between people and diffused to other locations which is why DNA from small samples is controversial as forensic evidence. That might have been part of the problem.
That sounds more likely, for sure. Also, depending exactly how many small samples there are, testing them on top of the contamination issue would be a nightmare.