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.