Panel Demands Records on Tillman's Death

[steve2470]

Source: AP

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- 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.

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.

Tillman, a San Jose native, turned down a lucrative contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to join the Army following the Sept. 11 attacks. He was killed April 22, 2004, by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TILLMAN_FRIENDLY_FIRE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[pkz]

1. "executive privilege" again!

White House, Pentagon cite executive privilege to hold up documents on friendly fire victim Tillman
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_House_Pentagon_hold_up_documents_0713.html

[Berry Cool]

4. And Keith Olbermann is on it!

Tune in now...

[msongs]

2. bush knows paper tigers when he sees them nt

[BrotherBuzz]

3. We expect there to be transparency.

"We expect there to be transparency. People who have something to hide make us nervous." - G W Bush, Anchorage, Alaska, 16 Feb, 2002

[rodeodance]

5. The little man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth has demanded more priviledges!!

[still_one]

6. Time is running out. Congress and the Republic are under attack by this administration

if Congress is constantly ignored, then we have lost our Democracy

Either they force the issue NOW, or start impeachment

This is ridiculous

[rodeodance]

7. Executive "confidentiality" is a lesser claim than "executive privilege" -

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."