Posted on 04/24/2007 10:52:18 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON - Pat Tillman's brother accused the military Tuesday of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in portraying the football star's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.
"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," he said, contending that the military's misstatements amounted to "fraud."
"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed," said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn't see it.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., accused the government of inventing "sensational details and stories" about Pat Tillman's death and the 2003 rescue of Jessica Lynch, perhaps the most famous victims of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
"The government violated its most basic responsibility," said Waxman.
Lynch, then an Army private, was badly injured when her convoy was ambushed in Iraq. She was subsequently rescued by American troops from an Iraqi hospital but the tale of her ambush was changed into a story of heroism on her part.
Still hampered by her injuries, Lynch walked slowly to the witness table and took a seat alongside Tillman's family members.
"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales," Lynch said.
Kevin Tillman said his family has sought for years to get at the truth about Pat Tillman's death, and have now concluded that they were "being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served."
Lawmakers questioned how high up the chain of command the information about Tillman's friendly fire death went, and whether anyone in the White House knew before Tillman's family.
"How high up did this go?" asked Waxman.
Pat Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, said she believed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must have known. "The fact that he would have died by friendly fire and no one told Rumsfeld is ludicrous," she said.
Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, after his Army Ranger comrades were ambushed in eastern Afghanistan. Rangers in a convoy trailing Tillman's group had just emerged from a canyon where they had been fired upon. They saw Tillman and mistakenly fired on him.
Though dozens of soldiers knew quickly that Tillman had been killed by his fellow troops, the Army said initially that he was killed by enemy gunfire when he led his team to help another group of ambushed soldiers. The family was not told until May 29, 2004, what really happened, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.
In questioning what the White House knew, Rep. Elijah Cummings (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., cited a memo written by a top general seven days after Tillman's death warning it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire and making clear his warning should be conveyed to the president. President Bush made no reference to the way Tillman died in a speech delivered two days after the memo was written.
A White House spokesman has said there's no indication Bush received the warning in the memo written April 29, 2004 by then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command.
"It's a little disingenuous to think the administration didn't know," Kevin Tillman told the committee. "That's kind of what we hoped you guys would get involved with and take a look," he said.
Mary Tillman told the committee that family members were "absolutely appalled" upon realizing the extent to which they were misled.
"We've all been betrayed ... We never thought they would use him the way they did," she said.
The Tillman family has made similar accusations against the administration and the military before, but has generally shied away from news media attention. The family had never previously appeared together and summarized their criticism and questions in such a public, comprehensive way.
"We shouldn't be allowed to have smoke screens thrown in our face," Mary Tillman said. "You're diminishing their true heroism to write these glorious tales. It's really a disservice to the nation."
"Our family will never be satisfied. We'll never have Pat back," she said. "Something really awful happened. It's your job to find out what happened to him. That's really important."
Last month the military concluded in a pair of reports that nine high-ranking Army officers, including four generals, made critical errors in reporting Tillman's death but that there was no criminal wrongdoing in his shooting.
Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Lawmakers also planned to press the Pentagon with questions still hovering over Tillman's shooting, including whether a Predator drone was flying overhead when Tillman was killed and whether it videotaped the incident. The military says no such videotape exists.
___
Associated Press writer Scott Lindlaw contributed to this report from San Francisco.
BINGO again!
I’m not sure I get it. Sure, at first they announced merely that he was killed in action. But didn’t it come out within a couple of weeks that it had in fact been friendy fire?
Wouldn’t there have be an investigation before an official determination of fratricide was announced?
So what?
Either his brother needs to be educated regarding combat (including,unfortunately,the fact that "friendly fire" incidents *do* happen) or else he needs to be bi*chslapped for being a worthless punk.
“Treason helps me deal with my pain/grief! Don’t question my motives!”
BINGO 3X!
And non stop hearings and demands for apologies will accomplish what? The “cover up” has been uncovered.....what more needs to be done? I don’t think most people here have blamed the family, and have nothing but respect for their grief. But, enough! This rehashing accomplishes nothing.
I see that Jessica Lynch testified and said that she was no hero, that she ducked and prayed and didn’t shoot, like Pentagon reports said she did.
Has anyone seen any threads on this?
Kevin Tillman has served in combat as a US Army Ranger.
His betrayal does not arise from ignorance or cowardice or inexperience, but from something darker.
The murky, heroic, rendition was circulated for a short time, if I remember correctly. Then the actual tragic facts came out later. So what is the problem? Part of me wishes a man who gave up his life did so in some storybook way. But in life tragic things happen. The question is: Why don’t thy just let it rest?
WRONG! Over time, this Abu Grabing of every military mis-step accomplishes plenty for the Islamists and their Democrat buddies.
BDS helps heal the pain, how sick.
Good grief, they even had Code Pink there to help with the anti-war efforts.
You’re right! Should have worded that better!
The brother will be running for office on dem ticket. The family will want to sue and cash in. I don’t know how this got screwed up but they want to drag Rummy in on it. It’s politics.
Wouldn't lie. Wouldn't cover it up.
These hearings, and the media coverage, are just another attempt to embarrass and drag down GWB. They think he is responsible for all evil in the world. Apparently every single mistake the federal government makes, from friendly fire accidents to hurricane relief ALL are the fault of the president. He has to micromanage every single thing the government does. I guess we need to elect Superman as president then.
Of course when a Democrat wins the presidency he or she will be blameless and everything will be beautiful.
Oooh! Dark forces at work! (I'll bet Rove and the EVIL U.S.Army conspired over this.)
How right you are!
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