`Insulting' statement in Tillman case probed [View All]

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

`Insulting' statement in Tillman case probed
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/18/2007 01:37:43 AM PDT



Congressional investigators have asked a high-ranking general what punishment was given to an Army officer who investigated the death of one-time NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and later made remarks that offended the Tillman family.

The query came in a letter this week from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has been investigating the circumstances surrounding Tillman's 2004 death by "friendly fire" and the Pentagon's handling of it. The panel's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and ranking GOP member, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, asked Gen. Carter Ham about the remarks by Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich questioning the religious faith of Tillman's parents.

"We believe these statements were crass, insulting to the Tillman family and completely inappropriate for an Army officer and an official representative of the U.S. military speaking to the press," Waxman and Davis wrote.

Kauzlarich was serving in Afghanistan in May 2004 when he was tapped to investigate Tillman's death. He concluded Tillman's fellow Army rangers shot him during a chaotic ambush.



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