# What should be done with the remains of the 9/11 hijackers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 16, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259 "2002-08-16T22:37:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/21 "2002-08-17T07:20:03Z")
Same thing that was done to Hitler. Cremated and dispersed. Vindictive acts against human remains is pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Motarts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Motarts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motarts)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/22 "2002-08-17T08:18:44Z")
Same thing that was done to Mussolini. Spat on and beaten. Vindictive acts against human remains make everyone feel better. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/23 "2002-08-17T12:31:46Z")
I’m torn on this one. My first thought was to take a dead pig, slice it open, stuff the remains inside, stitch it up, then throw it in a sewer. That would make me feel better. The noble thing to do would be to ship the remains to Afghanistan and let their families claim them. That might make them feel worse (or would they consider us weak?) Damn, I wish I hadn’t read the article. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/24 "2002-08-17T12:36:58Z")
My vote goes to sewing them up in pig carcases and dumping them over strategic points on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/25 "2002-08-17T13:25:05Z")
Treat them as dead enemy combatants. They have declared war on us years ago - we were just so arrogant not to take them seriously. I have stopped calling it the atrocity (even though that term still fits) and have been calling it the attack. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/26 "2002-08-17T13:29:14Z")
The linked article states that the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, _not_ Afghanistan. My vote? Bury their bodies in a common, unmarked, preferrably secret grave. They could also be cremated first and the urn buried similarly. Then again, I’m a big fan of taking the moral high road. ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/27 "2002-08-17T15:59:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Genseric \* > \*\*Vindictive acts against human remains is pointless. \*\* God, yes. At least somebody makes sense. This thread is annoying and stupid. “Ooooh…maybe if somebody feeds the remains to hyenas, THAT’LL show 'em!” “Hey I know! Let’s piss on them!” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/28 "2002-08-17T16:30:31Z")
Agreed, **Turpentine** , **Genseric**. Bury them like decent human beings; don’t defile them. It’s funny how some sorts of people so nonchalantly ignore that ‘love thy enemy’ bit from some old book they keep throwing around… Revenge is pointless and childish. It’s something I did on the playground when I was in elementary school. He hit me, maybe I’ll hit him. Then he hits me back and a teacher has to seperate us. Apply this metaphor to the real world in any way you see fit. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/29 "2002-08-17T18:52:08Z")
I’m quite ambivalent. The Mussolini comment led me to research the (possibly apocryphal) story, which George Orwell repeated in a most interesting essay called “Revenge is Sour”: > [@](#): > > It is said that when Mussolini’s corpse was exhibited in public, an old woman drew a revolver and fired five shots into it, exclaiming, ‘Those are for my five sons!’ It is the kind of story that the newspapers make up, but it might be true. I wonder how much satisfaction she got out of those five shots, which, doubtless, she had dreamed years earlier of firing. The condition of her being able to get close enough to Mussolini to shoot at him was that he should be a corpse. The whole essay can be found [here](http://orwell.ru/library/articles/revenge/e/e_revso.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/30 "2002-08-18T08:12:45Z")
The right thing, and what I think we SHOULD do? Return them to their families and let them do what they wish. Going for symbolism? Cremate, grind up, and mix in the concrete that builds the new World Trade Center. They destroyed it, now they’re part of it, forever. Muahaha. Or just feed 'em to the pigs. ---
**Author:** ![Montezuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/31 "2002-08-18T11:47:09Z")
Try to crush the remains into some sort of oil and let the ‘Great- satan’ Consume them, poetic justice I say. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/32 "2002-08-18T12:58:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lodrain \* > \*\*Revenge is pointless and childish. It’s something I did on the playground when I was in elementary school. He hit me, maybe I’ll hit him. Then he hits me back and a teacher has to seperate us. Apply this metaphor to the real world in any way you see fit. \*\* My experience was if he hit me, and I hit back harder, he’d quit bothering me. I think a little feeling of revenge is natural. These guys hit us out of the blue and hit us hard. The fact that they were killed along with 3,000 others prevents us from exacting a more noble revenge…trial by jury, treating them as enemy combatants, etc. Wanting to do **anything** to them, since we were thwarted by their suicide mission, is not unexpected. In any event, I seriously doubt the remains will be defiled. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/33 "2002-08-18T13:07:58Z")
Treat them with respect but notihing OTT. Small ceremony and walk away. Don’t let them be made into any more special than they are already too certain people. Don’t let them rob your society of it’s humanity. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/34 "2002-08-18T18:15:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lodrain \* > Agreed, **Turpentine** , **Genseric**. Bury them like decent human beings; don’t defile them. It’s funny how some sorts of people so nonchalantly ignore that ‘love thy enemy’ bit from some old book they keep throwing around… > \*\* Does shoving the remains of terrorists up the asses of other terrorists until they shit out their mouths count as revenge? In any event, they will probably be disposed of like any other medical waste. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259/35 "2002-08-18T23:11:25Z")
- - - Scatter them in the NYC city dump. ~ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-with-the-remains-of-the-9-11-hijackers/124259.md?page=1)