Retired General Censured in Tillman Case

July 31, 2007
Retired General Censured in Tillman Case

_ The Army on Tuesday censured a retired three-star general for the chain of errors that followed the friendly-fire death in 2004 of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

It referred to a special panel whether retired Army Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger should also have his rank reduced.

Army Secretary Pete Geren told a Pentagon news conference that Kensinger was "guilty of deception" and had deceived investigators.

"It's a perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership," said Geren in announcing his decision after an investigation into the death of the former pro football player.

Kensinger headed Army special operations.

New Details on Tillman's Death

July 27, 2007
New Details on Tillman's Death

SAN FRANCISCO -- Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

White House Refuses To Give Congress Records on Tillman's Death

July 13, 2007
White House Refuses To Give Congress Records on Tillman's Death

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee's top-ranking Republican, said Friday the documents were inadequate. They insisted that the Defense Department turn over the additional material by July 25 and asked that the White House do likewise.

Although Pentagon investigators determined quickly that he was killed by his own troops, five weeks passed before the circumstances of his death were made public. During that time, the Army claimed he was killed by enemy fire.

Tillman's Fictional Heroic Death: Did Bush Know?

April 24, 2007
Tillman's Fictional Heroic Death: Did Bush Know?

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 — The Bush administration and the Pentagon came under fire today for creating false myths of military heroes, and the criticism came from unlikely sources — one of the heroes, and the family of another.

He charged the Pentagon with falsifying information to achieve those ends — "writing up a field hospital report, stating that Pat was 'transferred to an intensive care unit for continued CPR' after most of his head had been taken off by multiple 5.56 rounds … stating that a giant rectangle bruise covering his chest that sits exactly where the armor plate that protects you from bullets as being, quote 'consistent with paddle marks' from a defibrillator.' These are not misleading comments," he charged. "Falsifying soldier witness statements for a Silver Star is not a misstep," Tillman said. "These are intentional falsehoods that meet the legal definition for fraud."

Noting a Pentagon e-mail from April 28 about White House speech writer John Currin seeking information about Tillman for the president's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner a few days later, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., suggested that it was more than just a coincidence that when "the president spoke at the Correspondents' Dinner, he was careful in his wording.

"[President Bush] praised Pat Tillman's courage but carefully avoided describing how he was killed," said Cummings. "It seems possible that the P4 memo was a direct response to the White House's inquiry. And if that is true, it means that the White House knew the true facts about Cpl. Tillman's death before the memorial service and weeks before the Tillman family was told."

Kevin Tillman added, "It's a bit disingenuous to think that the administration did not know about what was going on, something so politically sensitive."

The White House today said it could find no evidence to suggest that the president was informed of that memo at the time. The Pentagon has yet to discipline anyone for spreading any of this false information.

Ranger alleges cover-up in Tillman case

April 24, 2007
Ranger alleges cover-up in Tillman case

WASHINGTON - An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when he died by friendly fire said Tuesday he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman's family.

"I was ordered not to tell them," U.S. Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He said he was given the order by then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, the battalion commander who oversaw Tillman's platoon.

Pat Tillman's brother Kevin was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened, but didn't see it. O'Neal said Bailey told him specifically not to tell Kevin Tillman that the death was friendly fire rather than heroic engagement with the enemy.

Jessica Lynch, Tillman's brother accuses military of 'intentional falsehoods'

April 23, 2007
Jessica Lynch, Tillman's brother accuses military of 'intentional falsehoods'

WASHINGTON — Former Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch and the brother of Pat Tillman castigated the U.S. government on Tuesday for lying to the American public to create heroes from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating inaccurate accounts of the battlefield actions of Lynch and Tillman.

Lynch was badly wounded in Iraq in 2003, in the early days of the war; Pat Tillman, a former NFL star and Army corporal, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.

Early versions of Lynch's capture and rescue, quoting unnamed U.S. officials, said Lynch fought her captors fiercely — "little girl Rambo," in her words. In truth she said she was wounded too badly to fight.

AP details Tillman’s death cover-up

April 19, 2007
AP details Tillman’s death cover-up

SAN FRANCISCO — Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform.

New investigative documents reviewed by The Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman's family for five weeks.

The clampdown, and the misinformation issued by the military, lie at the heart of a burgeoning congressional investigation.

House questions military on Tillman and Lynch lies

April 10, 2007
House questions military on Tillman and Lynch lies

SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. House committee announced Tuesday it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public.

"The truth, the truth, this is only a search for the truth," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference in San Francisco. "It's about holding this administration accountable for the message that it sends out. ... It's about reality."

Word of the hearings comes two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its own investigations into Tillman's death, and three years after he was killed.

Gen. Tried to Warn Bush on Tillman

March 31, 2007
Gen. Tried to Warn Bush on Tillman

SAN JOSE, Calif. Mar 31, 2007 (AP)— For weeks after his death, the Pentagon maintained that Pat Tillman was killed in an enemy ambush, even after a top general tried to warn President Bush that the NFL star-turned-soldier likely died by friendly fire, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

In the memo sent to a superior officer seven days after Tillman's death, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that the evidence strongly pointed to friendly fire and the nation's leaders risked embarrassing themselves if they publicly said otherwise.

"I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public," McChrystal wrote.

The family was not told until May 29, 2004, what really happened. In the intervening weeks, the military continued to say Tillman died under enemy fire, and even awarded him the Silver Star, which is given for heroic battlefield action.

Tillman's mom: Congressional hearings on son's death neede

March 27, 2007
Tillman's mom: Congressional hearings on son's death needed

The meeting began civilly enough, she said, when the family - including Tillman's mother and father, his widow, Marie, and his younger brother, Kevin - agreed they would not interject until the investigators completed their presentation.

"It became obvious that they were giving a one-sided account," she said, focusing on the statements of the soldiers doing the shooting in the Afghanistan canyon instead of the soldiers on the ridgeline near where her son was killed.

"What about the other point of view?" she said she asked them. "They just stared at us."

Tempers flared.

"They told us that we were being very abusive to them," she said. "I said, 'You've lied to us for three years and that is a form of abuse."'

"We got very angry," she said.

She hopes congressional hearings, where witnesses would be subpoenaed to testify under oath, will get to the truth.

Four Generals blamed for Pat Tillman Lies

March 23, 2007
Four Generals blamed for Pat Tillman Lies

WASHINGTON (KCBS) -- CBS News has learned that an investigation by the Pentagon inspector-general into the "friendly fire" death of San Jose's own football-star-turned-soldier, Pat Tillman, will blame nine officers, including four generals, for failing to follow regulations and using poor judgement in a series of missteps that kept the truth of how he died from his family for more than a month.

From her home in San Jose, Tillman's mother, Mary, told KCBS that the Pentagon has not contacted her, and that the investigation's conclusions were "absolute news to me." She declined further comment. Pat Tillman, a San Jose native, graduated from Leland High School.