Is there no knowledge and/or speculation of who actually shot Pat Tillman?

[shance]

Doesn't it seem they would have to know who shot Pat being at such close range?

[Richard Steele]

1. Is anyone even asking the question?

Because OF COURSE someone who was there knows who did it.

[EFerrari]

3. The question was studiously avoided in yesterday's hearing

as it was in the previous hearing. At that one, they had a guy - O'Neal? - who was at the scene. I got the impression that a deal had been cut between the committee and the Pentagon so that he would be allowed to testify. He himself seemed very credible, imho.

[bryant69]

2. You want speculation?

How about the Bush Administration arranged for the "friendly fire" incident to silence a powerful anti-war voice before he opened his mouth?

A lot of people have speculated that.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[rurallib]

4. The 'executive privelege' claim makes you wonder what they are

hiding don't it? Like an order to have Tillman shot?

[Elidor]

5. Here are the names of the shooters

One of the four shooters, Staff Sgt. Trevor Alders, had recently had PRK laser eye surgery. Although he could see two sets of hands "straight up," his vision was "hazy," he said. In the absence of "friendly identifying signals," he assumed Tillman and an allied Afghan who also was killed were enemy.

Another, Spc. Steve Elliott, said he was "excited" by the sight of rifles, muzzle flashes and "shapes." A third, Spc. Stephen Ashpole, said he saw two figures, and just aimed where everyone else was shooting.

Squad leader Sgt. Greg Baker had 20-20 eyesight, but claimed he had "tunnel vision." Amid the chaos and pumping adrenaline, Baker said he hammered what he thought was the enemy but was actually the allied Afghan fighter next to Tillman who was trying to give the Americans cover: "I zoned in on him because I could see the AK-47. I focused only on him."

All four failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/09/terror/main2165223.shtml

[NI4NI]

6. Hell no!

They don't even know who "generated" the death by enemy fire "report" after editing the original friendly fire statements about the incident witnessed and written by soldiers who were there.

[eridani]

7. Five possible options

1. Someone higher up ordered the hit to get rid of a potentially embarassing campaigner for Kerry and the Dems in 2004, or to forestall undermining of popular support for the war.
2. It actually was a 'fog of war' incident, which higher-ups reflexively tried to cover up because Tillman was a poster boy and that would look much worse than the typical friendly fire incident. There are probably a few odd scenarios you could think up that might result in a panic shooting at 10 yards, and very unlikely things occasionally do really occur.
3. Personal rancor--someone didn't like it that he was anti-Bush, an atheist, promoted over their heads just because he was a football star, a smartypants intellectual, etc.
4. Tillman was preparing to reveal someone's wrongdoing (high-handedness with civilians, getting cozy with drug trafficking warlords, etc.) and was taken out to prevent this.
5. Tillman was the gung-ho sort who took on dangerous and pointless missions, and was killed by someone who didn't want to keep doing that. (Standard Vietnam fragging motive.)

The burning of his diary points to 1, 3 or 4, but lots of speculations are plausible in the absence of full information. At some point, investigators wondered enough about the possibility of 3 to actually ask whether anybody in his unit might have had a grudge against him. The executive privilege invocation might or might not mean something--by this time it's more of a tropism than a strategy coming from Bushies.