Tillman Investigation Hampered by 'Near Universal Lack of Recall'

[sabra]

Source: ABC News


Report Sought Answers on Who Knew About Friendly Fire Incident

White House officials interviewed as part of an investigation into the misleading information given to the public and the Tillman family in the weeks after the death of Corporal Pat Tillman have said they do not recall when they first learned that Tillman was killed as a result of friendly fire, according to a proposed report released today by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The committee set out to determine when top officials at the White House and Defense Department learned that Tillman had been killed in a friendly fire incident. Tillman, a former NFL star and perhaps the most famous soldier to die in Afghanistan, was killed on April 22, 2004. His death was widely covered by the media and Tillman was posthumously awarded a Silver Star just days after his death.

It was not until over a month later, on May 29, 2004, that the public and Tillman's family were officially informed that his death was very likely due to friendly fire.

The committee says that in their quest to find out when officials first knew about the possibility that Tillman's death was not due to enemy fire, they were "frustrated by a near universal lack of recall," according to the report.

The committee interviewed several senior White House officials including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, communications director Dan Bartlett, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and chief speech writer Michael Gerson.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5371986&page=1

[sazemisery]

1. These bastards wake up in a new world everyday

how are they expected to remember what happened? :sarcasm:

[tanyev]

2. Over 200 emails right after his death vs absolutely nothing about fratricide.

The death of Corporal Tillman on April 22, 2004, generated a flurry of attention and action inside the White House. On the day following his death, April 23, White House officials sent or received nearly 200 e-mails concerning Corporal Tillman. Several e-mails came from staff members on President Bush’s reelection campaign, who urged the President to respond publicly to Corporal Tillman’s death. The White House did respond, rushing out a statement notwithstanding a Department of Defense policy intended to provide 24-hour period for private grieving before officials publicly discuss a casualty.

In comparison to the extensive White House activity that followed Corporal Tillman’s death, the complete absence of any communications about his fratricide is hard to understand. The Committee requested all White House documents related to Corporal Tillman. The White House provided what it described as a complete response, giving the Committee access to approximately 1,500 pages of e-mails and other documents and withholding only drafts of a speech in which the President discussed Corporal Tillman. Yet there is not a single discussion of the fratricide in any of these communications.

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080714111050.pdf

[EFerrari]

3. Anyone on any committee that continues to accept this answer

is complicit. Period. Just like with torture, Katrina, 9/11 and Iraq.

We don't believe THEM or YOU.

[MadrasT]

5. 100% agreed

I am so sick and tired of this BS... :banghead:

[Ian David]

4. Eventually, the final roadblock will be "Executive Privilege." n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. wrong. the final (disgusting) act will be a blanket pardon.

for himself, and everyone else in his administration.

[barbtries]

6. it really hurts me to think of

what these bastards are putting his family through.

[Patsy Stone]

7. Fuck these fucking fucks.

Fuck.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Fucking fucked, fuckers, fucking fucks! fuck

fucked fuckers fucking.

I forget most of Boon Dog Saints, but it does seem to fit at this point in time.

[Hugabear]

8. A fucking WAR CRIME was committed here

Of course the military is going to cover this up. They can't have the truth come out, themselves embarrassed, and quite possibly have some of them stripped of their rank & benefits, and possibly do prison time, can they?

[pnwmom]

11. More like: "100% unwillingness to cooperate." n/t

[drm604]

12. Republican amnesia.

People with such severe memory problems aren't fit for office and should be removed from office for medical reasons.

[Plucketeer]

13. A Massive

GOP CYA event. Or NON-event as it may be. :crazy:

[mbperrin]

14. Umm, maybe some "aggressive questioning" is needed.

Waterboard their asses, since waterboarding ain't torture - just ask THEM!

I volunteer to be the questioner, pick me, me, me, me...(waves hand frantically straight up in air)

[paparush]

16. 100% Agree. Its time for "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

I mean, c'mon..its not like its torture or anything. Freedom tickles!

[DinahMoeHum]

19. Hey, live outside the law, get questioned outside the law. . .

:evilfrown:

[Faygo Kid]

15. Sounds like Alberto Gonzalez is back in harness.

These people have zero respect for the troops, and zero respect for human life.

But we have known that for some time now, haven't we?

[baldguy]

17. Sounds like a job for RICO.

[NBachers]

18. Of course they know

But now they've used him; abused him, his family, his service, and all of us. They don't need him any more. He's of no more concern to them than a used piece of toilet paper to flush away and forget about. That's how these sociopathic deviants regard everyone. Thank God we have a strong and active "opposition" party to keep them in check . . . NOT!

[underpants]

36. Did anyone ask them what they remembered about planning it?

Sorry but I have seen how these subhumans have operated for too long to not see that they couldn't possibly have word that he supported Kerry nor that he was going to meet with Chomsky if he ever got home on leave...couldn't have that no way.

[RamboLiberal]

20. I was always amazed how quickly the Army awarded the Silver Star

Nothing against Pat Tillman - I admire him for the man of conviction he was and how he thought for himself - but IMHO he really didn't deserve this medal.

IMHO only reason they so quickly awarded it was that their poster boy was dead and they wanted to spin him as a Big Hero and recruiting tool.

[MinM]

21. House Oversight Committee has unearthed a key quote from the 50-page report on Pat Tillman

Via Talking Points Memo: the House Oversight Committee has unearthed a key quote from the 50-page report on Pat Tillman - the former Arizona Cardinals star killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan under circumstances that the military labored to conceal from Tillman's family - and Jessica Lynch, who was caught up in some Iraq War mythmaking of her own.

On page 21 of the report, the committee reprints an email exchange between Ron Fournier - then a reporter for the Associated Press, now the head of the AP's Washington bureau - and Bush's chief adviser Karl Rove:

Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

An email to Fournier, seeking clarification on what "fight" he thought Rove was engaged in at the time, was not returned.

***UPDATE 8:24pm ET, July 14, 2008***

In a story that crossed on the AP wires, Fournier is quoted as saying he was simply interacting with a source in the course of his duties as a political reporter, and regrets the "breezy nature of the correspondence." ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/14/aps-ron-fournier-to-karl_n_112696.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/fournier_to_rove_keep_up_the_fight.php

[Barrett808]

22. Bush officials' 'lack of recall' thwarted Tillman, Lynch probe

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Bush officials' 'lack of recall' thwarted Tillman, Lynch probe
By Mark Seibel

WASHINGTON — A congressional investigation has failed to determine whether the Bush administration attempted to build support for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by deliberately misrepresenting the details of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Patrick Tillman and the capture of Jessica Lynch in the first days of the Iraq invasion.

In a report released Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said its efforts to determine whether Bush administration officials tried to hide the details of both cases was thwarted by what it called "a near universal lack of recall."

About Tillman's death, "The committee interviewed several senior White House officials, including Communications Director Dan Bartlett, Press Secretary Scott McClellan and chief speech writer Michael Gerson," the committee said. "Not a single person could recall when he heard about the fratricide or what he did in response." Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also said he couldn't recall when he learned that Tillman had been killed mistakenly by fellow American soldiers and not by Taliban fighters, the committee said.

The committee said its investigation revealed that the first word of Tillman's April 22, 2004, death had been widely disseminated at the White House, which put out a press release before the usual 24 hours had passed. "One the day after Tillman's death, April 23, White House officials sent of received nearly 200 e-mails concerning Corporal Tillman," the report noted, including several from Bush's re-election office.

"In comparison to the extensive White House activity that followed Corporal Tillman's death, the complete absence of any communications about his fratricide is hard to understand," the committee said. They said of 1,500 pages of documents the White House surrendered in the Tillman probe, "there is not a single discussion of the fratricide."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/44191.html

---

Read the committee's report here: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080714111050.pdf .

[bemildred]

23. What part of "F**K YOU" do the Congresspersons not understand? nt

[frylock]

30. it seems that they enjoy it..

it's a shame we have to get caught up in it. but, i suppose we do own some culpability in that we keep electing the same pond scum based soley upon the (D) appended to their names.

[HiddenCSLib]

32. I have an issue

WITH anyone that says "I dont recall".

[rpannier]

24. That's one more to the list of things they (the admin) doesn't remember

With the number of things these people can't ever remember
It's amazing these people can get dressed in the morning and find their houses in the dark.

[opihimoimoi]

25. Amazing the many ways for sayin fuck off..and the ways of getting away with it...

[aquart]

26. I understand waterboarding can help with that.

Something about all your memories passing before your eyes as you think you're drowning.

[LynnTheDem]

27. And amazingly, the freeping rightwingnuts are totally fine with a "government" that

have a "near universal lack of recall".

Misspokes and lacks of recall run rampant amongst this regime.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

28. These frigging cumquats couldn't find their asses with

both hands. They are (without stating directly) showing how little Pat's sacrifice meant to them. In essence they pretty much suck.

[tabasco]

29. Yet they "recalled" shit that didn't happen in the Jessica Lynch recovery.

Like the "fierce firefight, going in and out" that they invented for propaganda.

[DeepModem Mom]

31. K&R

[Jim Lane]

33. One passage from the committee's report is clearly wrong.

"In comparison to the extensive White House activity that followed Corporal Tillman's death, the complete absence of any communications about his fratricide is hard to understand," the committee said.

If they really think it's hard to understand, then I'd like to tell them about $8.3 million sitting in a Nigerian bank account.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

34. Ironically, their party symbol is an elephant.

Just another example of everything being the opposite in the repug party.

[MessiahRp]

35. Tillman Investigation Also Hampered By Near Univeral Lack of Balls

If they don't recall this often some perjury and obstruction charges need to be brought forth.

Rp