First published at My Left Wing
For me, it was Olbermann who broke the bad, sad news from the Associated Press. And I know that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t surprised, knowing how morally-bankrupt, oppressive, lying and craven this Administration is:
<align=center>
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.
Now it only stands to reason how far up the chain of command does this wretched crime go.
I had a bad feeling when this young man with everything to live for as a football pro making gazillions of bucks VOLUNTEERED to go feet first into this quagmire in the making. I knew he was going to die. And I knew that they were going to make his heroism into a public altar to nationalism.
That’s right: nationalism, not patriotism. The extreme, chest-thumping love of country that brings in fresh recruits and blinds people to what death and loss of limb, of friends, and of innocence truly mean.
What I didn’t figure was that his own government was going to fuck him, and then cover up its complicity like Mafia families.
Why? Because he was reading the likes of Noam Chomsky and was going to meet with him after returning from Afghanistan. Because he questioned the war. Because he told soldiers to vote for Kerry.
Because he was going to call BULLSHIT on this war.
Goddamn them ALL to hell: those who were the trigger fingers, and those who ordered it.
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.
Naturally, Congress sprang into action:
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee’s top-ranking Republican, also pressed for drafts of a speech President Bush made in the weeks before it became publicly known that the former NFL star was killed by his own troops. In the 2004 speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner, Bush didn’t mention how Tillman died.
Someone remind me: was this the dinner where Dubya ran that fucked montage of him looking around the Oval Office for weapons of mass destruction?
The congressmen informed White House counsel Fred Fielding of their intentions in a letter Tuesday. The White House was reviewing the letter, spokesman Trey Bohn said.
[…]
The five former White House officials the committee plans to question are Dan Bartlett, the recently resigned White House counselor and communications czar; Scott McClellan, a former White House press secretary; Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter; John Currin, a former fact-checker on the speechwriting team; and Taylor Gross, another former spokesman.
The seven officers responsible for the cover-up will not face criminal charges. Why not?
The bereaved parents, pursued for comment, refused to be mollified:
Tillman’s mother, Mary, told the Associated Press that the impending punishments were inadequate.
“I’m not satisfied with any of it,” she told the AP in a telephone interview Thursday.
A central issue in the case has been why the Army waited five weeks to tell the family after suspecting Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Tillman’s family believe officials within the Bush administration hid the facts surrounding Tillman’s death to limit public-relations damage.
Yeah, that certainly is part of it, but I’m willing to be convinced that this boy’s death is more than just window-dressing. Call it a feeling after so many months of lying. I’m saying that they could not allow Pat Tillman loose during the 2004 election. A dead hero was much more pliable than a live one.
Don’t end with just these guys’ testimony, Waxman, because the buck may just stop at Cheney’s door again. After Plame, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Update [2007-7-28 1:4:47 by blksista]: AP via BuzzFlash dated last evening had this interesting retake of the seconds before Tillman was shot:
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 …”
Read and compare, boys and girls.
