An FBI Guide To Possible Crimes At Arlington National Cemetery

The FBI is conducting a criminal inquiry into Arlington National Cemetery. The burial mixups there have made big news. Was any of it against the law? Probably. Here are a few reasons to think so.

Reserving graves:

It's against the law to reserve grave locations at Arlington. The previous Superintendent, Jack Metzler, did it anyways. Anybody who strolls the rounds of Arlington will notice how generals and other powerful people seem to be buried up on hills overlooking Washington in plots that are easily accessible to visitors, while a private ends up in some back corner of the cemetery. A year ago, I explained how Metzler kept a separate set of books to reserve graves for important people and that the new director of the cemetery, Kathryn Condon, found out about it when she started last summer.

Army officials confirm that in her new post, Condon has reviewed cemetery burial paperwork. That review "raised questions as to whether Mr. Metzler pre-assigned grave sites," according to (Gary) Tallman, the spokesman.

Condon confronted Metzler. "Mr. Metzler stated he had identified sections (for the burial of certain people) but did not assign specific grave sites," according to Tallman.

That story also contained this sentence: "When asked on Tuesday if this seemed to violate the law, Army spokesman Gary Tallman responded, 'Yes, it would.'"

The Army says this practice stopped immediately when Metzler was pushed out and Condon took over the cemetery on June 8, 2010. Nearly three weeks later the husband of Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Ginsburg, died of cancer. Arlington buried Ginsburg in the prestigious section 5 of the cemetery, along with a handful of Supreme Court judges.

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