Congressional investigators said Friday their tests did not support the Navy's finding that sabotage caused the explosion that killed 47 sailors aboard the USS Iowa.
The congressional report, which came a day after the Navy reopened its investigation into the disaster, said the explosion could have resulted from gunpowder bags in the ship's guns being rammed at "higher than normal speeds."The report was presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee by the General Accounting Office, which investigated the Navy's controversial finding that gunner's mate Clayton Hartwig probably sabotaged the battleship in the April 19, 1989, explosion.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said Friday's testimony by the GAO report "cast grave doubts on the Navy's findings" that foreign material had been found in the gun barrel.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, responding to the GAO report, said he would "reserve judgment" until further investigation.
"They did the best job they could. Now there's new evidence, new information that warrants reopening the investigation," Cheney said.
The Navy said it would have no immediate comment. But, on Thursday it ordered a halt to any firing of 16-inch guns aboard the service's four battleships after an "unexplained" ignition of some gunpowder bags during testing.
Hartwig's father hailed the decision to reopen the probe. "My son is not guilty. The Navy was barking up the wrong tree," Earl Hartwig said of the announcement Thursday.
Nunn said the GAO finding "will essentially eviscerate the Navy's conclusion" that the explosion aboard the USS Iowa was the result of a wrongful, intentional act.
The GAO said tests at the Sandia National Laboratory "could not corroborate the Navy's technical finding that an improvised chemical device initiated the explosion."
Last fall, the Navy said Hartwig, who was killed in the explosion, "most probably" had placed "some type of detonation device" between gunpowder bags when he supervised the loading of the warship's guns.
The report said the Sandia Laboratory was "confident in its findings, which conclude that the foreign materials that the Navy found were not inconsistent with the nominal levels found throughout gun turrets and were consistent with the maritime environment."
Elements of calcium and chlorine, which the Navy contended came from a detonator placed between the gunpowder bags, were readily found in turret No.1 aboard the Iowa and in turrets on the battleships New Jersey and Wisconsin, the report said.
"Therefore, Sandia could not corroborate the Navy's finding that such foreign material was evidence of a detonator," the report said.