Are the details in this report part of the reason why the Bush administration has invoked executive privilege with Congress’ clamor to find out more info about former NFL player Pat Tillman’s death?
Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
The doctors – whose names were blacked out – said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
Does that sound like friendly fire? Or something perhaps a bit more…deliberate?
Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman’s comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
The medical examiners’ suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
And some of the other things the AP discovered to raise eyebrows:
— In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”
–Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.
–The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn’t recall details of his actions.
— No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene – no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.
AP then summarizes the controversy:
The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been criticized in recent months for lying about the circumstances of Tillman’s death. The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. Only weeks later did the Pentagon acknowledge he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.
In other words:
It’s one more controversy involving a credibility problem.
With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another hearing next week.
UPDATE: ABC News reports that the Army plans to punish some officers:
ABC News has learned that seven Army officers will receive career-ending administrative punishments for mishandling the Pat Tillman case. The Army has decided not to punish three other officers who had been accused of wrongdoing by the Pentagon inspector general.
None of the officers will face criminal charges.
The most severe punishment is planned for Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger. Kensinger is accused of misleading investigators about when he knew the truth about circumstances surrounding Tillman’s death.
Senior defense officials tell ABC that Army Secretary Pete Geren is likely to recommend that Defense Secretary Robert Gates strip Kensinger, a three-star general, of his stars, a move that would reduce Kensinger’s pension by approximately $1,000 a month.
Army officials would not confirm the punishments and cautioned that nothing had been finalized.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.