-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 27, 2007 12:08:37 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: If Tillman Was Fragged, Bush Is An Accomplice to Murder
After the Fact
AP: New details on Tillman's death
By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer Thu Jul 26, 7:59 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_re_us/
tillman_friendly_fire;_ylt=AlGiIfbhJtGDTYu0n02oDM.s0NUE
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.
Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and
asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and
whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed.
The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of
his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
The medical examiners' suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of
testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among other information contained in the documents:
• In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped
at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."
• Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping
criminal investigators at bay when the Army conducted an internal
friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-
criminal, punishments.
• The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death
from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times
that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.
• No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene — no one
was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.
The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been criticized in
recent months for lying about the circumstances of Tillman's death.
The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that
he had been killed by enemy fire. Only weeks later did the Pentagon
acknowledge he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.
With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration
the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another
hearing next week.
The Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments,
including a stinging demotion of retired Lt. Gen. Philip R.
Kensinger Jr., 60, according to military officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the punishments under consideration
have not been made public.
In more than four hours of questioning by the Pentagon inspector
general's office in December 2006, Kensinger repeatedly
contradicted other officers' testimony, and sometimes his own. He
said on some 70 occasions that he did not recall something.
At one point, he said: "You've got me really scared about my brain
right now. I'm really having a problem."
Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son
was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking
for answers and looks forward to the congressional hearings next week.
"Nothing is going to bring Pat back. It's about justice for Pat and
justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived," she said.
The documents show that a doctor who autopsied Tillman's body was
suspicious of the three gunshot wounds to the forehead. The doctor
said he took the unusual step of calling the Army's Human Resources
Command and was rebuffed. He then asked an official at the Army's
Criminal Investigation Division if the CID would consider opening a
criminal case.
"He said he talked to his higher headquarters and they had said
no," the doctor testified.
Also according to the documents, investigators pressed officers and
soldiers on a question Mrs. Tillman has been asking all along.
"Have you, at any time since this incident occurred back on April
22, 2004, have you ever received any information even rumor that
Cpl. Tillman was killed by anybody within his own unit
intentionally?" an investigator asked then-Capt. Richard Scott.
Scott, and others who were asked, said they were certain the
shooting was accidental.
Investigators also asked soldiers and commanders whether Tillman
was disliked, whether anyone was jealous of his celebrity, or if he
was considered arrogant. They said Tillman was respected, admired
and well-liked.
The documents also shed new light on Tillman's last moments.
It has been widely reported by the AP and others that Spc. Bryan
O'Neal, who was at Tillman's side as he was killed, told
investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease
fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and
again.
But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain
who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.
The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at
Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to
him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to
help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."
___
Associated Press reporters Scott Lindlaw in Las Vegas and Lolita C.
Baldor in Washington contributed to this story.
-------------
White House cites ‘executive branch confidentiality’ over Tillman
Administration won’t release some papers
relating to ex-NFL player’s death
Updated: 5:17 p.m. PT July 13, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19753831/
SAN FRANCISCO - Two influential lawmakers investigating how and
when the Bush administration learned the circumstances of Pat
Tillman’s friendly-fire death and how those details were disclosed
accused the White House and Pentagon on Friday of withholding key
documents and renewed their demand for the material.
The White House and Defense Department have turned over nearly
10,000 pages of papers — mostly press clippings — but the White
House cited “executive branch confidentiality interests” in
refusing to provide other documents.
Tillman’s family and others have said they believe the erroneous
information peddled by the Pentagon was part of a deliberate cover-
up that may have reached all the way to President Bush and then-
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. The committee said Friday
it had scheduled a second hearing on Tillman’s death for Aug. 1,
this time to probe what senior Pentagon officials knew and when.
Rumsfeld and Richard Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, were among those the committee invited Friday to appear.
Renewed request for papers
The White House has turned over nearly 1,100 pages of documents and
the Defense Department nearly 8,500 pages since the committee
requested information from them in April, part of an inquiry into
why Tillman’s family and the public were misled.
“The document production from the White House sheds virtually no
light on these matters,” Waxman and Davis wrote to White House
counsel Fred Fielding, part of a renewed request for additional
papers.
The committee made public a letter last month in which Fielding
said the White House was holding back certain papers “because they
implicate executive branch confidentiality interests.” He added the
White House had blacked out portions of “purely internal e-mails
between White House personnel.”
Argument used in fired attorneys case
The White House’s argument for withholding some papers is the same
one it used last month as it rejected congressional subpoenas for
documents in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Executive
“confidentiality” is a lesser claim than “executive privilege” —
more a polite way of declining than a firm refusal — and thus still
leaves room for negotiation, congressional staffers involved in the
matter said.
Fielding added the White House had blacked out portions of “purely
internal e-mails between White House personnel.”
Waxman and Davis fired back that “these are not appropriate reasons
for withholding the documents from the committee.” And they charged
that the White House had simply held other papers back.
In particular, they expressed doubt that the two documents they’d
received on communications between the White House and Pentagon on
Tillman’s death were the only ones of their kind. One was simply a
packet of newspaper clippings.
“Corporal Tillman’s death was a major national story,” they wrote.
“It is not plausible that there were no communications between the
Defense Department and the White House about Corporal Tillman’s
death.”
“The committee was fully aware that certain documents were withheld
as our letter to them made clear last month — along with our offer
to discuss possible accommodation that meets the committee’s
interests while respecting separation of powers principles,” Blair
Jones, a White House spokesman, said Friday evening. “We continue
to offer an opportunity for the committee to move forward in a
spirit of accommodation, rather than conflict.”
Friendly fire suspected from start
Waxman and Davis complained to Defense Secretary Robert Gates of a
“failure to provide a complete production to the committee.” For
instance, the committee received no documentation on how Rumsfeld
learned of Tillman’s death.
They said the Pentagon had not produced any papers from, among
others, the offices of Gen. John Abizaid, then head of Central
Command.
A week after Tillman died, a top general sent a memo to Abizaid
warning that it was “highly possible” that Tillman was killed by
friendly fire. The memo made clear that the information should be
conveyed to the president.
--------------
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