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WASHINGTON – Estimates of the number of graves that might be affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery
grew from hundreds to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery's
former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the
scandal that forced his ouster.

John Metzler, who ran the historic military burial ground for 19 years, said he accepts "full responsibility" for the problems.

But he also denied some of the findings by Army
investigators and suggested cemetery employees and poor technology were
to blame for remains that may have been misidentified or misplaced. He
said the system used to track grave sites relied mostly on a complicated
paper trail vulnerable to error.

"Personally it is very painful for me that our team
at Arlington did not perform all aspects of its mission to the high
standard required," he told a Senate panel. He was subpoenaed to
testify.

Metzler and his deputy, Thurman Higginbotham, were forced to retire after Army
investigators found that as many as 211 graves were unmarked or
misidentified. The report by the Army Inspector General's office accused
Metzler of repeatedly failing to ensure burials were being done
properly and of failing to respond after unmarked graves were
discovered.

Sen. Claire McCaskill,
chairwoman of an oversight panel on the Senate Homeland Security and
Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that her investigation has
revealed far higher estimates of the number of graves affected.
McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said she believes that between 4,900 and
6,600 graves may be unmarked or mislabeled on cemetery maps.

Kathryn Condon, who was hired to fix the cemetery's
problems, testified that the Army was still trying to determine exactly
how many burial sites could be affected. But, she said, "I am confident
there are probably other map errors" beyond the 211 sites initially
identified by Army investigators.

Metzler said an inspector general finding that more
than 100 graves lacked a headstone or burial card was not entirely
accurate and that it was mostly internal working maps used by cemetery
employees that were mislabeled.

Metzler insisted that discrepancies on those maps wouldn't necessarily affect operations.

He also said any problems that came up over the years
were quickly fixed and suggested he was surprised by the findings of
the Army's Inspector General.

His testimony angered and confused lawmakers.

"The notion that you would come in here and act like
you didn't know about it until a month ago is offensive. You did know
about it, and you did nothing," McCaskill said.

A visibly frustrated Sen. Scott Brown abruptly ended his questioning.

"I'd have a lot of fun with you in a deposition because I don't think we're getting straight talk here," said Brown, R-Mass.

Higginbotham testified in general about his tenure at
the cemetery but left the hearing early after asserting his Fifth
Amendment right not to respond to many of the lawmakers' more pointed
questions.

As deputy superintendent who ran day-to-day
operations at the cemetery, Higginbotham is accused of directly
contributing to the chaos. While Army officials have described Metzler
as an ineffective manager who turned a blind eye to the cemetery's
problems, investigators accuse Higginbotham of botching contracts and
creating an "unhealthy organizational climate" for employees.

When asked whether he was aware of problems at the
cemetery, Higginbotham said: "It was always conceptual that anything
done by hand for 40-plus years, that there would have to be some errors
somewhere."