April 23, 2006
NEW YORK -- Sen. Charles Schumer has called on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to send an elite military unit to search for human remains at ground zero following revelations that nearly 600 new bone fragments have been found at the former Deutsche Bank building in recent months.
In a letter sent to Rumsfeld on Sunday, the Democrat backed recent calls by Sept. 11 family groups for the U.S. military to deploy members of its JPAC, or Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command unit, to augment the work of local agencies at ground zero.
The White House has said previously that it will let local authorities handle the recovery of remains, but Schumer said that the recent discovery of so many new bone fragments, which he called "miraculous," warrants more extensive recovery efforts involving the federal government.
"The appearance of these new fragments, all of this time after the attacks, leads me to believe that we have to cast a wider net," he said at a news conference Sunday overlooking the World Trade Center site.
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