September 11
Despite the number of terrorism-related investigations the FBI had conducted previously, nothing could have prepared the Bureau, and, in fact, the world, for what occurred on September 11, 2001. Up until then, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 had been the largest and most complex investigation the FBI had ever conducted. All of that changed in the blink of an eye, when two airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York, another flew into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania.
The ensuing response and investigation used more FBI resources than any other investigation before or since. Employees from across the globe—at FBI Headquarters, field offices, and legal attachés; both special agents and support staff—worked wherever they were needed. They joined personnel from other government agencies, employees from private industry and nonprofit organizations, and members of the public.
From evidence response and recovery to the creation of demonstrative evidence for courtroom testimony, work on the FBI’s biggest case in history continues to this day.
The Laboratory’s Explosives Unit coordinated the identification, collection, and examination of the massive amounts of evidence at the three crime scenes. Personnel from the Bomb Data Center, which is now part of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), coordinated the response of Special Agent Bomb Technicians from FBI field offices,
who cleared each scene for potential explosive devices and supported the Evidence Response Teams. The Crisis Response Unit, also now a part of CIRG, ensured constant, secure communication between the crime scenes and FBI Headquarters. Personnel from the Technical Programs Section (now assigned to the Operational Technology Division) restored radio communications at the FBI’s New York Field Office and deployed to the Pentagon and Pennsylvania crash sites with emergency communications equipment (FBI Laboratory 2002).3
The Hazardous Materials Response Unit (HMRU) assessed the hazards—including jet fuel, bloodborne pathogens, sewage, structural and confined-space issues, and electrical and explosive environments—present at the crash sites. Working with local emergency medical personnel, the HMRU ensured the health and safety of personnel working at the scenes.
The Laboratory’s Evidence Response Team Unit coordinated the deployment of the FBI field office Evidence Response Teams and provided the specialized equipment and supplies they needed to recover human remains and collect and preserve physical evidence at the crash sites. The teams also coordinated the search of rubble removed from the crash sites to off-site locations. The mountains of evidence at each site required the coordinated efforts of numerous personnel, including FBI and other federal, state, and local employees who would not normally work such matters. Evidence Response Team personnel provided on-the-spot training to individuals eager to serve. These enhanced teams were able to find many significant items of evidence.
The Disaster Squad deployed to the three crash sites,
assisting the New York Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at the World Trade Center. T
he Laboratory’s Latent Print Units conducted 126,632 fingerprint comparisons from approximately 3833 pieces of evidence received between November 12, 2001, and January 17, 2002.
From September 12 to November 30, 2001, the Questioned Documents Unit received more than 1600 pieces of evidence. Fire and moisture had damaged some documents; others were torn. Using specialized techniques, QDU personnel were able to stabilize and reconstruct the documents to extract information of potential value, including indented writing and deciphered numbers.
Personnel from the Laboratory’s DNA Analysis Units supported the identification efforts at all three crash sites. Items recovered from the crash sites and the hotel rooms where the hijackers had stayed allowed DNA examiners to develop DNA profiles for several of the hijackers.
In the first 30 days of the investigation, the Computer Analysis Response Team (now assigned to the FBI’s Operational Technology Division) examined more than 35 terabytes of data. Examinations covered computers and disks used by the subjects, data obtained from Internet Service Providers, and a disk recovered from the Pennsylvania crash site.
Working with the National Transportation Safety Board, personnel from FAVIAU recovered data from the Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania) cockpit voice recorder, even though it had been damaged in the crash. With the help of the Federal Aviation Administration, personnel also obtained audio from the air traffic for all four flights. Other audio and video recordings came from the crash sites and FBI field offices. These recordings were restored, duplicated, enhanced, and compared. FAVIAU personnel also videotaped the Pentagon site following the crash.
Personnel recover the cockpit voice recorder from Flight 93.
The Special Photographic Unit (now POISU) provided photographic support to the investigation. Personnel took aerial photographs of all three crash sites. They also photographed hundreds of items of evidence received in the Laboratory. They photographically enhanced damaged personal identification photographs and obliterated and indented writings recovered from the crash sites. Finally, unit personnel took more than 170,000 photographs, including 5000 photographs of the hijackers and other suspects, making copies and distributing them to investigators, prosecutors, and FBI executives to use for briefings and press conferences and to distribute to the field and the media.
Many cases require models and exhibits to reconstruct the event and present the evidence clearly and cogently in court. After September 11, personnel from the Laboratory’s Investigative and Prosecutive Graphic Unit and the Structural Design Unit (now the Special Projects Unit) completed site surveys of the Pentagon crash site, detailing victim and evidence locations, building damage, and the path of the airliner and its debris (FBI Laboratory 2002). Unit personnel also created hundreds of displays for court. These ranged from simple organizational charts, to scale models of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, to complex digital displays showing multilayered interactions between individuals and events (FBI Laboratory 2007).
In June 2003, an FBI executive testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI had collected and submitted for analysis more than 7500 pieces of evidence, helped process more than 2.8 million tons of debris in New York alone, and took more than 45,000 crime scene photographs (Rolince 2003).
