Who doesn’t love a good souvenir these days? Especially if you don’t have to pay for it. Evidence schmevidence. It’s just a piece of a plane that plunged into the Pentagon, that’s all. No big deal. Old Rumsy just wanted a token to remember the largest tragedy in American history. I mean, it is very easy to forget what happened, why it happened, how it happened, how it could have not happened, who did it, why they did it and all of those other petty questions. You can’t exactly expect the secretary of the US Department of Defense to really keep track of things like this, can you? That’s exactly why he needed a piece of the plane to remember, well that and I’m sure it makes for a superior paper weight. His desk is probably made entirely out of all the black boxes from 9-11 too.

It brings to mind the unfortunate tragedy of the Space Shuttle Columbia. How some people that were pocketing the space shuttle debris. They too wanted a reminder of some sort. I guess that was different though. It was different because those who managed to get a hold of and keep pieces of the shuttle were considered criminals for stealing government property. Even if you worked for NASA, you just can’t do things like that. Consider Michael Pankiewicz, a NASA employee, or former employee I should say, he was charged with three felonies and faced 25 years in prison. Luckily, he copped a plea and had the charges lessened. Why? Because he wanted to keep a piece of the shuttle. Maybe he too liked paper weights.

But remember what the spokesman from NASA said in reference to keeping pieces of the shuttle, “We live in an evil world, and there are people that will do those types of things.”

The whole situation is completely different, I know. Had Michael Pankiewicz worked for the government, the stolen government property would have just been considered a souvenir. I guess the whole situation is completely different when you look at it. They had no idea what caused Columbia’s fate. They needed all the evidence they could find to come to a conclusion. That’s how things work. Something happens, nobody knows why, you gather a team of investigators, and immediately go to work gathering evidence to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together to make sure what went wrong never happens again.

That’s just what they did. On that very day of the Columbia disaster, two official investigations were announced and an independent panel was formed and immediately went to work.

That wasn’t necessary with the events of September 11th. We all know how it happened: Planes were hijacked and flown into buildings. We know why it happened: because there are evil doers out there that hate us because of our freedom, and we also know who did it: because amongst all the ruins and burning debris, passports were found! Amazing! Passports can outlive the black boxes of planes!

That’s all you need to know.

Therefore, knowing all this, what normally would be considered evidence becomes a souvenir and is free for the taking. Unless you aren’t a government official.