An Update on the Pat Tillman Cover-Up
The Associated Press reports that a day after approving a medal claiming that former NFL player Pat Tillman had been cut down by “devastating enemy fire†in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal tried to warn President Bush that the story might not be true.
AP reporters Scott Lindlaw and Martha Mendoza, who have been all over the cover-up story, say that in a sometimes contentious November 2006 interview under oath and via videoconference, Pentagon investigators sharply questioned McChrystal about the conflicting accounts:
“He said that suspicion led him to send a memo to top generals imploring ‘our nation‘s leaders,’ specifically ‘POTUS’ — the acronym for the president — to avoid cribbing the ‘devastating enemy fire’ explanation from the award citation for their speeches.
“Despite numerous questions, the general never directly explained the discrepancies.â€
McChrystal’s secret back-channel message was sent on April 29, 2004, to General John Abizaid, head of Central Command, and to two other generals.
Last week, former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, making his first appearance since President Bush sacked him late last year, took no personal responsibility for the cover-up of the circumstances behind the death of Corporal Tillman.
He also evaded the primary reason that Representative Henry Waxman had called the hearing — to ascertain when the White House learned of the coverup of the fact that Tillman died from friendly fire, or has recently been revealed, possibly was murdered.
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4 Responses to “An Update on the Pat Tillman Cover-Up”
Yawn.
I’m not thrilled, either, because I’ve already read this story elsewehere, and the only new fact it adds is that lots of officials involved must still be lying. Their accounts simply don’t make any sense. But maybe they’re all on drugs?
|-(
I’m not thrilled. I’m discusted.
The fast pace of news means that a significant story is over before it gets suffiencient attention and investigation by reporters and news media.
Rumsfeld’s assertion that he know nothing about it got more coverage than this piece of news. Any rurther developments would need to come with a giant scandal or a celebrity name attached in order for it to show up in MSM.
On to the next story.
I’m disgusted as well. Some investigative reporter could have seized onto this story and put the pieces together- showing how the evasiveness of all parties involved, as well as this important piece of the puzzle, mean that an obvious cover-up took place in the Tillman case. The family and nation deserve better than these white-livered military higher-ups covering their own and each other’s behinds, as well as those in the administration.