The grinding noise began the morning after the presidential election, emanating from the sixth floor of the Justice Department as the Conveyor-400 paper shredder started up. The giant machine is reserved for destroying highly sensitive documents -- not just shredding them but turning them into powder. "It made a terrible racket that went on for 2 1/2 days," says Rita Machakos, a paralegal who works nearby. She had never seen so many records destroyed.
Alerted to the incident, the FBI investigated but found no wrongdoing. Justice officials claim that the documents were merely duplicates of classified material. But the outcry over...
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