Remains of Two 9/11 Hijackers Identified 
Fri Feb 28, 4:21 PM ET
By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer 

NEW YORK - The city medical examiner's office has identified remains of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, using DNA profiles supplied by the FBI (news - web sites), a spokeswoman said Friday. 

The remains were immediately removed from the city's Memorial Park, where unidentified and unclaimed remains are kept, according to Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner. 

What will be done with the remains has not been decided, she said. The office does not know which of the terrorists' remains they have, because the profiles provided by the FBI did not have names attached, she said. 

John Cartier, a member of the victims advocacy group Give Your Voice, said he was relieved to hear that some of the terrorists' remains had been separated from those of their victims. 

"I think they should be used as dirt in the road," said Cartier, whose brother James Cartier died in the World Trade Center attack. 

Ten terrorists hijacked the two planes that crashed into the trade center towers. Borakove said more matches are possible. 

Some family members had asked the medical examiner's office to try to separate the remains, especially because some hope someday to put remains of the unidentified victims into ground zero "tomb of the unknowns." 

The huge effort to identify victims' remains is expected to continue for years. Of the 2,792 people listed as missing in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, the remains of 1,468 have been identified. 

Nearly 20,000 body parts were recovered in all, more than 13,000 of which are still being identified. The medical examiner expects several hundred people will never be identified. 

"We have to deal with the realization that our loved ones are coming home to us in small, little, tiny pieces," said Cartier, whose brother was identified. "We just wanted the efforts made to remove — as best they can, with the technology available — those cowards who murdered our loved ones." 

To identify remains of victims, the medical examiner's office requested family members provide items such as toothbrushes from which DNA could be taken. 

But in the case of the hijackers, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said, authorities had to develop DNA profiles from items the men were believed to have handled or had in their possession.

 


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