Very special agents

In the recently published American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone, there's a transcript of this curious exchange between co-author Four Arrows and Frank Hildrup, lead investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board:

FOUR ARROWS: Why was the FBI not listed as party to the investigation in the final NTSB report on the Wellstone case?

FRANK HILDRUP: They were not a party to the investigation.

FA: Then what were they doing on the scene for about 8 hours prior to the arrival of the NTSB team?

FH: I can’t say for sure, since I only took over on Monday; but maybe they were responding to the – you know – the conspiracy theories.

FA: How could there have been any conspiracy theories operating before the plane crashed?

FH: Well, uh, of course, that’s true. Well, the FBI might have been there to identify the bodies as they sometimes do in airplane accidents. I’m not really sure but there is someone with the FBI I can call who was there. I’ll get back to you about this.

FA: I’d really appreciate it. Don’t you think it strange?

FH: Well, I just know everything is above board but I do want to find out.

FA: One more question. Why no public hearing for this incident?

FH: We only have hearings for high profile cases.

There's no shortage of reasons why this exchange is curious, but chief among them is the fact that the only explanation the NTSB's lead investigator can offer for the praeternaturally early arrival upon the crash scene of the FBI is that it was responding to "conspiracy theories."

The Wellstone crash site was located by Eveleth Airport Assistant Manager Gary Ulman at approximately 11:00 AM. Ulman didn't contact the FBI, yet a team of special agents arrived to secure the site just an hour later, according to the Sheriff of St Louis County, Rick Wahlberg. Even more astonishing, the FBI contingent was from Minneapolis, not the closer Duluth, even though they had driven to Eveleth from Duluth in cars they had rented at the airport.

As authors Jim Fetzer and Four Arrows write:

The crash, you may recall, did not actually occur until about 10:20 AM and had not been visually confirmed until 11:00 AM. Ulman did not notify the FBI that there had been a crash - ever. Even if a 911 operator had notified the FBI around 11:00 AM, how in the world did these very special agents know that they needed to head for the airport by 9:28 AM in order to be in Eveleth by noon? Perhaps the FBI possesses psychic powers and can anticipate the occurances of tragedies of this kind in advance.

Good thing the FBI got an early start. Conspiracy theories are a helluva thing.