FACTS AND LIES / PAT TILLMAN CASE by Allen L Roland

[Demeter]

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__070804_facts_and_lies__2f_pat.htm



There comes a time when the lies become so blatant, so obvious that shock overcomes incredulousness and the deteriorating moral bearings of our once proud Republic are laid bare for all to see...The Pat Tillman case could bring down the Cheney/Bush Administration for every key top level official, both Pentagon and white House, is involved and they are all apparently lying. Let me lay it out for you. Here is the narrative that Rumsfeld and Myers offered last week ( under oath ) and let's look at this obvious deception in detail ~ together with the known facts ( courtesy of RJ Eskow, Huffington Post )

Then you decide ~ Was a deliberate execution ordered by higher ups of Tillman because he was about to go public with his anti-war views and support kerry in 2004 during a Presidential election campaign or were honest mistakes made by honest men ~ like Donald Rumsfeld ??

The Cheney/Bush administration stonewalled the 9/11 commission before reluctantly allowing it to go ahead but with their own people in charge and Cheney and Bush not having to testify under oath . What were they hiding ??

Pat Tillman's questionable death was stonewalled by top Pentagon Generals until the freedom of Information Act brought it to light . What were they hiding ??

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/28/state/n181202D33.DTL


Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/08/04.html


Truth About Tillman ... Murder's Not 'Friendly Fire'

RJ Eskow / Huffington Post / Excerpt /
1. Pat Tillman dies. Medical examiners request a fratricide investigation sometime thereafter. Their request is denied.

2. Gen. McChrystal sends a cable to Gen. Abizaid and another general on April 22 urging them to notify the President of this probable fratricide "in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death becomes public."

3. Gen.Abizaid claims he didn't receive it for 10 or 12 days, because he was in Iraq. (They don't have email, or even secure pouches for urgent memos?) Defense Department records later show that Gen. Abizaid was not in Iraq, but was actually in Qatar and Afghanistan - where the killing occurred - during that 10 to 12 days.

4. Gen. Myers learns the true nature of Cpl. Tillman's death in late April, yet - according to his testimony - did not feel the need to inform either the Secretary of Defense or the President.

5. Military records show that dozens of officers knew of the true nature of the Lieutenant's death within days, yet senior officers and Pentagon officials still maintain they didn't know for weeks. (Surprisingly, they did not undertake a massive review of military procedures in order to determine how such a massive series of communications failures could occur - one that eerily affected every single senior officer with responsibility for this case simultaneously.)

6. The military continues to press the story that Tillman was killed while courageously leading a counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass. (Nice poetic touch, that "mountain pass" - good for recruitment.)

7. A national memorial service is held for Cpl Tillman several days later. The President and others talk about Cpl. Tillman's heroism in that mythical mountain pass - yet Gen. Myers, per his own testimony, still felt no need to inform either the SecDef or the President .

8. Rumsfeld says he was not told the truth until "some time after May 20," or approximately a month after Gen. Myers learned of the incident. Yet he seems strangely undisturbed to learn that the truth was known six weeks earlier and he wasn't informed.

9. Neither Rumsfeld nor the President felt the need to correct the record publicly upon learning the truth.

10. It wasn't until reporters filed a Freedom of Information Act that the following information became public on July 27: ""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."

Let's say it again, to be very clear: The White House and Pentagon withheld the facts about this killing until they were legally forced to reveal them months later by Freedom of Information laws. And they never ordered a criminal investigation.

As for the testimony by Myers and Rumsfeld: What they have described is a command structure that was brutally indifferent to the situation on the ground and uninterested in pursuing a murder. Gen. Myers, if he is to be believed, allowed the President and Secretary of Defense to pay tribute to a man as if he had died in combat, knowing full well their words were untrue.

Is that plausible, with everything we know about Rumsfeld? Remember, this is the micromanager who hectored generals on little details, arrogantly told them he knew more than they did about the military, and issued regular memos to a wide range of Pentagon personnel on a variety of topics, great and small.

We are also supposed to believe that Rumsfeld was so uninvolved in the human issues his troops faced that he wasn't informed of the facts on this case - and that once he found out, he was unconcerned about the delay in telling him the facts. And that the President wasn't disturbed enough to order an investigation into the killing. Nor did he or Rumsfeld inform the family, or the nation, that they had been misled - at a hero's funeral.

As the conservatives used to say in the 90's: Character matters. And that's if they're telling the truth ... Can you imagine what we could learn about their character if, as is very possible, they're still lying?

And make no mistake, the beat goes on:

Freelance columnist Allen L Roland is available for comments , interviews and speaking engagements ( [e-mail] )




Authors Website: www.allenroland.com

Authors Bio: Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net

[AzDar]

1. K & R .....

:kick:

[Vincardog]

2. he was about to go public with his anti-war views and support kerry in 2004: says it all

[Jackpine Radical]

6. How do we know this was the case?

I've seen this allegation several times but don't now the source for it.

[Vincardog]

8. His Mother said so. I say her on the TV. Why do you think they burned his diary?

[noel711]

3. Has there been an comment from Tillmans' commander...

Or the men who served with him in his unit? Why are they so silent if this is simply an huge misunderstanding?

[lebkuchen]

4. If you read through the DoD Inspector General's review of the case

the screwups from PFC to four star general are absolutely staggering. It was as if no one had been trained to do their job. The report says Tillman's uniform and armor were burned because it was starting to smell and bring down troop morale. No records/photos were made, no thought was entertained of an investigation since the soldiers figured it was a simple fratricide. Put his body in the cooler and ship him out.

http://www.defenselink.mil/home/pdf/Tillman_Redacted_Web_0307.pdf

[glitch]

9. They always hide behind "incompetence" when it looks like they're getting caught.

They've been doing it for 20 years and people still buy it.

[lebkuchen]

12. McChrystal, head of Black Ops, is the highest ranker in this mess

recommended in the Inspector General's report for punishment.

The Sec. of the Army reprieved him of wrong doing last week despite the Pentagon report's recommendation and the day before Kucinich had asked him to testify. He declined. Rummy decided to show up instead. I think that was all a cover.

McChrystal said he didn't know that he was supposed to notify the family if there are suspicions/an investigation of friendly fire, not AFTER the investigation had been completed. He received his 3rd star under this administration.

Four star Abisaid said he didn't get an e-mail from McChrystal until several days after it was sent, the e-mail warning that the citation for Silver Star was highly possibly false, and McChrystal sent that the day after he approved the citation. McChrystal heads Black Ops and his e-mail didn't reach Abisaid immediately?? If everyone from PFC to 4 star is really this incompetent, then I'm scared.

McChrystal has refused to testify, and General Kensinger, whom the Army sec. censored, is retired and is avoiding a Kucinich subpoena right now. I don't understand the cloak and dagger/executive privilege being used in this friendly fire incident. It's so Keystone Cops.

I hope Kucinich cuts a wide swath.

[eridani]

5. We still don't have real evidence

Tillman timeline

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tillmantimeline

Five possibilities--

1. Someone higher up ordered the hit to get rid of a potentially embarassing campaigner for Kerry and the Dems in 2004, or to forestall undermining of popular support for the war.
2. It actually was a 'fog of war' incident, which higher-ups reflexively tried to cover up because Tillman was a poster boy and that would look much worse than the typical friendly fire incident. There are probably a few odd scenarios you could think up that might result in a panic shooting at 10 yards, and very unlikely things occasionally do really occur.
3. Personal rancor--someone didn't like it that he was anti-Bush, an atheist, promoted over their heads just because he was a football star, a smartypants intellectual, etc.
4. Tillman was preparing to reveal someone's wrongdoing (high-handedness with civilians, getting cozy with drug trafficking warlords, etc.) and was taken out to prevent this.
5. Tillman was the gung-ho sort who took on dangerous and pointless missions, and was killed by someone who didn't want to keep doing that. (Standard Vietnam fragging motive.)

The burning of his diary points to 1, 3 or 4, but lots of speculations are plausible in the absence of full information. At some point, investigators wondered enough about the possibility of 3 to actually ask whether anybody in his unit might have had a grudge against him. The executive privilege invocation might or might not mean something--by this time it's more of a tropism than a strategy coming from Bushies.

[Prophet 451]

7. I think 2 is doubtful

Unless his head and the rifle were carefully braced, you'd expect some muzzle climb over three shots, far too much to reliably hit an (approximatly) 4" x 8" at that distance quickly enough for it to plausably be an accident. If the weapon was fired full-auto, it's even worse because the muzzle wouldn't return to battery before it fired again.

No, I think accident can safely be eliminated from the options. Of course, that doesn't say who killed him or why.

[benEzra]

10. M-249 at 40 meters, not M-16.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=299074

IMHO, the assassination conspiracy theories distract attention from the very real spin and coverup the Administration threw over it.

[Prophet 451]

14. Not sure I agree

For the simple reason that so much about this has still to come out. So far we have a definate cover-up (which amounts to "conspiracy" in itself) but we won't be able to rule out the assassination theory until we get to the bottom of the lies woven around this case.

Thanks for the correction with the weapon, that changes things slightly.

[eridani]

15. Stan Goff doesn't agree with you

He thinks the cover-ups were initiated because of very serious violations of RoE.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/eridani/234

[farmboxer]

11. Bush does not have to worry, Dems will protect him

as usual. I have decided that I like Kucinich, but he is too honest an actually dares to be for "We The People" which is a huge sin to most politicians.

[lebkuchen]

13. If Kucinich is persistent, he'll get McChrystal and Kensinger to testify

They're both avoiding that right now.

Kensinger is retired.

Had Bush not used executive privilege, I probably wouldn't be paying too much attention to this case. I tend to think it's a story of gross incompetence (if you read the IG report). Because Tillman was a Ranger (and was on a classified mission), he falls under the auspices of McChrystal, whose command is Rangers, Delta Force and Black Ops. Because McChrystal heads Black Ops, I think the Bushies are more concerned about keeping him out of the limelight should any uncomfortable questions be asked. He's been around since the beginning and has the trust of Bush.