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New details on Pat Tillman's death

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Kristina
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« on: July 27, 2007, 01:24:45 pm »

AP: New details on Tillman's death




By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer Thu Jul 26, 7:59 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - 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.
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.
Among other information contained in the documents:
• 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.

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.
With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another hearing next week.
The Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments, including a stinging demotion of retired Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., 60, according to military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the punishments under consideration have not been made public.
In more than four hours of questioning by the Pentagon inspector general's office in December 2006, Kensinger repeatedly contradicted other officers' testimony, and sometimes his own. He said on some 70 occasions that he did not recall something.
At one point, he said: "You've got me really scared about my brain right now. I'm really having a problem."
Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking for answers and looks forward to the congressional hearings next week.
"Nothing is going to bring Pat back. It's about justice for Pat and justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived," she said.
The documents show that a doctor who autopsied Tillman's body was suspicious of the three gunshot wounds to the forehead. The doctor said he took the unusual step of calling the Army's Human Resources Command and was rebuffed. He then asked an official at the Army's Criminal Investigation Division if the CID would consider opening a criminal case.
"He said he talked to his higher headquarters and they had said no," the doctor testified.
Also according to the documents, investigators pressed officers and soldiers on a question Mrs. Tillman has been asking all along.
"Have you, at any time since this incident occurred back on April 22, 2004, have you ever received any information even rumor that Cpl. Tillman was killed by anybody within his own unit intentionally?" an investigator asked then-Capt. Richard Scott.
Scott, and others who were asked, said they were certain the shooting was accidental.
Investigators also asked soldiers and commanders whether Tillman was disliked, whether anyone was jealous of his celebrity, or if he was considered arrogant. They said Tillman was respected, admired and well-liked.

The documents also shed new light on Tillman's last moments.
It has been widely reported by the AP and others that Spc. Bryan O'Neal, who was at Tillman's side as he was killed, told investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again.
But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.
The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."
___
Associated Press reporters Scott Lindlaw in Las Vegas and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this story.


 
 
« Last Edit: July 27, 2007, 01:34:30 pm by Kristina » Report Spam   Logged

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

Thomas Jefferson

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Kristina
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« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2007, 01:38:01 pm »

Just to reitarate the details on this case, Pat Tilman joined after 9/11 to fight in Afghanistan, giving up a lucrative football career to defend his country.

He DID NOT support the war in Iraq and was going to speak out against it when he was shot.

With shots fired from ten feet away, he may have well been "fragged."
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"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

Thomas Jefferson
Volitzer
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« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2007, 03:44:50 pm »

You say Ranger I say Danger.

Infantry people are so easily pissed off it could have been over anything.
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Penny
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« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2007, 10:45:55 pm »

Tillman comrade recalls final moments
By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer

 


SAN FRANCISCO - As bullets flew above their heads, the young soldier at Pat Tillman's side started praying.


 
"I thought I was praying to myself, but I guess he heard me," Sgt. Bryan O'Neal recalled in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "He said something like, 'Hey, O'Neal, why are you praying? God can't help us now.'"

Tillman's intent, O'Neal said, was to "more or less put my mind straight about what was going on at the moment."

"He said, 'I've got an idea to help get us out of this,'" said O'Neal, who was an 18-year-old Army Ranger in Tillman's unit when the former NFL player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.

O'Neal said Tillman, a corporal, threw a smoke grenade to identify themselves to fellow soldiers who were firing at them. Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again when he was killed, O'Neal said.

A chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman's death later described this exchange to investigators conducting a criminal probe of the incident. But O'Neal strongly disputes portions of the chaplain's testimony, outlined in some 2,300 pages of transcripts released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The chaplain told investigators that O'Neal said Tillman was harsh in his last moments, snapping, 'Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

"He never would have called me 'sniveling,'" O'Neal said. "I don't remember ever speaking to this chaplain, and I find this characterization of Pat really upsetting. He never once degraded me. He's the only person I ever worked for who didn't degrade anyone. He wasn't that sort of person."

The chaplain's name is blacked out in the documents.

Tillman gave up a multimillion-dollar football contract to enlist with his brother in the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. It was only weeks later, when the truth was about to be published, did the Pentagon acknowledge that he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.

The Pentagon conducted a criminal investigation and ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

Congress is preparing for another hearing this week, while the Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments.

Soldiers and commanders who worked with Tillman have repeatedly testified that he was respected, admired and well-liked.

In the same testimony, medical examiners said the bullet holes in Tillman's head 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.

O'Neal said the shooters were "close, close enough for me to recognize them, but they sure weren't 10 yards away. They were further than that. I've thought about this plenty of times. They wouldn't have been more than 50 yards away."

Another key issue raised in the transcripts involved never-before-mentioned snipers who were apparently there when the firing broke out, got out of their vehicle and walked alongside the convoy, cutting up the canyon firing.

O'Neal said Saturday that he knew there were snipers in the convoy that fired at them, but that he can't remember their names. Were they fired at by the snipers? "Not that I know of," O'Neal told the AP.

His recollections of the snipers reflected other testimony in the transcripts, including answers given by Capt. Richard Scott, who conducted the first, immediate investigation:

Q: Are you aware whether or not any U.S. forces snipers were at the scene?

Scott: They were in serial two.

Q: And, and do you know whose GMV (ground mobility vehicle) they were traveling in?

Scott: I don't think they were in a GMV. I think they were in a cargo Humvee.

Q: Okay. Do you know if the snipers fired any rounds during this incident involving CPL Tillman?

Scott: I do not, no.

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Penny
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« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2007, 10:46:45 pm »



Cpl. Pat Tillman is seen in a this 2003 file photo provided by Photography Plus. Congressional investigators told the White House on Tuesday, July 24, 2007, that they intend to question several former Bush administration officials about their knowledge of Tillman's death, escalating their inquiry into the high-profile friendly fire case. (AP Photo/Photography Plus via Williamson Stealth Media Solutions, FILE)
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Penny
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« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2007, 11:06:58 am »

Rumsfeld: No cover-up in Tillman's death
Story Highlights
NEW: Former defense secretary says he would not engage in cover-up


NEW: Donald Rumsfeld says White House did not suggest a cover-up to him

Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger refuses to appear before committee

Former NFL star Pat Tillman killed in 2004 friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan

     
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday there was no evidence of a cover-up of the circumstances of Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman's death.






 
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears Wednesday before a hearing on Pat Tillman's death.

 1 of 3  "I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me," Rumsfeld testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is examining what senior Defense Department officials knew about Tillman's April 2004 death by friendly fire and when they knew it.

Tillman's parents, brother and widow attended the hearing.

Rumsfeld said he was sure Tillman's family felt "great sorrow at their son's death" and "the handling of the circumstances could only have added to the pain of losing a loved one. I offer ... my deep regrets."

Rumsfeld testified that he didn't recall precisely when he learned of Tillman's death. "It could have been internally or it could have been through the press," he said.

"The only action I can recall taking was to draft a letter to the family," he added.

He said he didn't remember when he first heard of the possibility that Tillman's death was the result of fratricide.

Rumsfeld said he did not recall discussing the case with the White House until it had become public knowledge that Tillman was killed by friendly fire.

He said he did not instruct his staff to try to influence news coverage of Tillman's death.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, asked Rumsfeld how he could not have known that Tillman was killed by American troops.

"You're talking about an institution of something like 3 million people -- active duty, reserve, guard, civilians, contractors," Rumsfeld said. "There are so many things going on in that department in any given year. ... It's like a city of 3 million people. It's not possible for someone to know all the things that are going on."

Rumsfeld was joined by Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. John Abizaid, former chief of U.S. Central Command; and Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. All of the generals are now retired.

Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, whom the secretary of the Army censured Tuesday for his handling of the military's investigation into Tillman's death, was invited to testify, but Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said the general had refused to appear and had been subpoenaed but couldn't be located.

Kensinger's attorney said he was away on business.

"He declined the committee invitation to testify two weeks ago, so it was no surprise to the committee that he had no intent to participate in a hearing that is all about show and no substance," attorney Charles W. Gittins said in an e-mail to the AP.

Army Secretary Pete Geren also ordered a grade-review board to consider whether Kensinger should be stripped of a star.

On Tuesday, Geren found the retired three-star general "guilty of deception" after reviewing recommendations from the Pentagon's inspector general and Gen. William Wallace, a four-star general who investigated the death and its aftermath.  Watch Geren apologize for how the Army handled Tillman's case »

"When you look at all of the events that led to where we are today ... and you look at what Gen. Kensinger's role was, had he performed his duty, we wouldn't be standing here today," Geren said.

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Tillman -- who turned down a contract offer from the NFL Arizona Cardinals to join the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks -- was killed by members of his platoon in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. For five weeks, his family was not told that the death was a result of fratricide, or friendly fire.

Kensinger failed to notify Tillman's family in a timely manner of the friendly-fire investigation, failed to notify then-Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee of the probe and failed to convene a safety board to investigate the incident, Geren said.

And then, when an investigation and the Army's handling of it began seven months later, Kensinger "provided false official statements in order to protect himself from criticism," he said.

"Gen. Kensinger was the captain of that ship, and his ship ran aground," Geren said. "It ran aground because he failed to do his duty, and the results were calamity for the Army."

The secretary said the grade-review panel, made up of four-star generals, would recommend whether to bump Kensinger down to major general. Their recommendation, however, is nonbinding; Defense Secretary Robert Gates will make the final decision.

The investigation also raised questions about whether the citation for Tillman's Silver Star was in order, but Geren said he found nothing questionable in that. In 2007 a review board affirmed the awarding of the posthumous decoration to Tillman but corrected the citation to reflect the facts accurately.

Last March, Defense Department Inspector General Thomas Gimble faulted nine Army officers -- including Kensinger -- for making critical errors in reporting Tillman's death.


Geren said the failure to notify the family of the friendly-fire investigation was one of "an incredible number of mistakes" the Army made in handling the situation, ultimately "destroying our credibility" in the eyes of the Tillmans, who have publicly disputed the Army's investigations.

"I can understand, considering how the Army mishandled this matter from very early on, how they would reach the conclusion that I'm afraid many Americans have reached, that there was a cover-up," Geren said. "But the facts don't support that conclusion." E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/01/tillman.probe/index.html
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