Pat Tillman's Brother Wonders How This Happened

What has really impressed me (negatively) re this story is how insuffiently the media has covered it. I think in part that is a function of the number of scandals and deceits they have become used to. In part too, it is a function of the media's decline as an agent of civic conscience.

Nimh re-awakened a thread on the Jessica Lynch deceit which had become apparent as propaganda (from Brit reporting) four years ago. Four years. That's two thirds of the time it took to fight WW2 for the Pentagon and administration to be taken to task for something so disgusting. And by 'taken to task', we can only point to slight coverage of testimony from the Tillman's and Lynch last week.

That's horrifying.

Ask her if she's got a friend....

You can probably use the same rough damsel. Bill Bennett is in and done in seconds.

Paul Rieckhoff: Don't invent heros
To the Pentagon: Americans Don't Need You to Invent Incredible War Stories -- We Have Real Ones
by Paul Rieckhoff
5/1/07

Anyone who saw last week's testimony given by Jessica Lynch and the Tillman family should be as livid as I am. The exploitation of these young troops' stories, and the terrible and unnecessary additional suffering the Pentagon caused their families, is simply unconscionable. That those at fault still haven't been held responsible makes it even worse.

On the fourth anniversary of the "mission accomplished" speech, it is no wonder less than half of Americans believe that the military is giving the public an accurate picture of the war.

But the most infuriating part of this scandal is the fact that the military brass and Pentagon PR consultants thought they needed to invent stories at all.

Over 1.5 million troops have served with honor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their stories are rarely caught on film in time for the evening news, so they aren't easily packaged for a ratings bounce or a public distraction from an unpopular and poorly-planned war. I wrote about the thirty-eight heroes I had the honor of leading in my book, Chasing Ghosts. At IAVA, I have had the privilege of working with thousands of these heroes, and I'd like to share two real-life stories with you.

Meet Mike Zacchea, who spent a year in Iraq training the Iraqi Army and leading them in combat. When he was wounded in an RPG attack in the Battle of Fallujah, he refused to be evacuated, unwilling to leave the side of the Iraqis he had trained. Mike was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor and a Purple Heart, but he doesn't usually talk about that. Instead, he'll tell you about a different award, one he received from interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi: the Lion of Babylon Medal for service to Iraq.

Meet Brad Kasal, a Marine who was awarded the Navy Cross for his valor during the Battle of Fallujah. You probably don't know his name, but most Marines do. On Nov. 14, 2004, Marine Sgt. Major Brad Kasal risked his life to pull another wounded Marine out of the line of fire. Although he was severely injured, he insisted on giving up his medical supplies to his fellow Marine. Then, as a grenade landed a few feet from the two injured Marines, Kasal instantly reacted to use his own body to shield the other Marine from shrapnel. According to the Defense Department, by the time he was evacuated from the battle "Kasal had lost approximately 60 percent of his blood from more than 40 shrapnel wounds and seven 7.62 mm AK-47 gunshot wounds." An excellent book about Kasal's incredible story is out this week.

Zacchea and Kasal are heroic examples of incredible courage and sacrifice on a battlefield. And there are numerous others that have emerged from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But I guess their stories aren't the type that PR flacks in Washington like to hold press conferences around.

Jessica Lynch and Kevin Tillman showed incredible patriotism last week, when they bravely held the Pentagon to account for their lies. As Jessica Lynch said so clearly, "I'm still confused as to why they choose to lie and try to make me a legend, when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary."

We have real heroes. The sad part is that some generals and politicians don't believe that real heroism is enough.

Bush cites presidential privilege re Pat Tillman documents
Panel Demands Records on Tillman's Death
by SCOTT LINDLAW
July 13, 2007

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.

Although Pentagon investigators determined quickly that he was killed by his own troops, five weeks passed before the circumstances of his death were made public. During that time, the Army claimed he was killed by enemy fire.

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.

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."

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."

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. The White House said there is no indication that Bush received the warning.

Two days later, the president mentioned Tillman in a speech to the White House correspondents dinner, but he made no reference to how Tillman had died.

A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

Separately, Waxman asked the Republican National Committee for copies of e-mail communications that involved Tillman and White House officials. That request was an outgrowth of the oversight committee's finding last month that 88 White House officials had e-mail accounts with the RNC, and that the administration may have committed extensive violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved.