Word: labs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What has made Jones and "Tim" feel very good, first of all, is a Justice Department report on the FBI crime lab in Washington that criticizes some of the handling of evidence from the Oklahoma City bombing. The other development is last week's filing of a brief that gives a new, comprehensive description of the witnesses the government plans to call. In much more detail than an account back in 1995, the brief describes the witnesses' confusion about the man they said accompanied McVeigh when he rented a Ryder truck--the infamous John Doe No. 2. The disclosure calls...
...lapses in the FBI crime lab have triggered a staff shake-up. On Jan. 20 the Justice Department gave FBI officials a preliminary report that found errors, sloppiness and poor management in the agency's crime lab. The investigation had its origins in charges made since the mid-1980s by Frederic Whitehurst, a senior chemist. The report is still secret, but Justice and FBI officials say that while it found nothing illegal, it did identify some serious lapses. FBI Director Louis Freeh has already launched reforms. Meanwhile, the agency announced that three bomb investigators have been removed from their positions...
...nitrate and exploded at a velocity of about 13,000 ft. per sec. According to officials, the report severely criticizes Williams for basing his observations on his experience and instinct rather than precise measurements. In fact, his assessment was accurate. But FBI managers concur with the report that the lab's chief failing has been the practice of letting veteran explosives specialists--"the bomb guys"--write reports and give testimony that reflect their surmises rather than careful calculations...
...comply with a law that requires the government to share possible exculpatory evidence with defendants, the Justice Department has for months been providing the attorneys in various cases with the interviews it has conducted. Last week accusations based on these interviews were leaked to the press. Lab personnel were quoted as saying that McVeigh's black jeans were stuffed in a brown paper sack instead of a sealed, plastic evidence bag and that a shipment of bomb-truck fragments arrived in a "mess." But these raw interviews may not become part of the report, because some of the complaints have...
Taborsky's Kafka-like ordeal began in 1987, when as a student at the University of South Florida, he took an $8.50-an-hour lab-assistant job to help pay his tuition. He was assigned to a $20,000 project contracted by a subsidiary of Florida Progress, a local power company, to determine if bacteria can be used to extract ammonia from clinoptilolite, a clay used in filtering water. The clay, similar to Kitty Litter, absorbs ammonia from water and can be cleaned and used over and over...