First posted on My Left Wing.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Official reprimands issued to three high-ranking Army officers are only mildly critical of their mistakes after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman and at times praise the officers.
The Army also said it would not include the reprimands in the officers’ military records, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Tillman’s direct superiors knew within hours of his April 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former football star had been killed by fellow Army Rangers, but the truth was kept from the public and Tillman’s family for five weeks – in direct violation of Army regulations.
“You should not consider this as an adverse action,” letters to the officers say. “This document will not be filed in any system of records maintained by the Army.”
General Philip Kensinger, the Pentagon’s fall guy, is the only one mentioned as receiving a severe reprimand. He testified over 70 times to previous investigators to a faulty memory. The three–retired Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, Brig. Gen. Gina Farrisee, and Brig. Gen. James Nixon–received “memorandums of concern” regarding their failures to undertake independent inquiries, to follow-up on doubts raised by medical examiners, and to limit information to civilians, including the Tillman family, respectively.
A few weeks ago I wrote this essay regarding the Tillman case. Of course, I was afraid of being accused of tinfoilery regarding the murder. The more that comes out about how well the brass have been served by this burgeoning scandal, the less I’m able to squelch flights of fancy, because there is no depth to which this administration and the Pentagon will sink to protect the present occupants and minions of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With Mary Tillman seated in the back of the chamber, however, Rummy and the rest of the generals before Waxman’s committee continued to claim faulty or no memories of what occurred after before and after the slaying. Rummy even blurted out during his testimony that he was glad Mary Tillman and the surviving family didn’t have access to this information before and after her son’s funeral. What is worse is that few committee Dems pressed the attack hard enough for what ultimately became a yawner of a stonewall.
Of course, these three only did what they were expected to do at the behest of highers-up, hence the slaps on the wrist. The highers-up won’t slip up at any cost and incriminate themselves, thus protecting everyone else involved, including the White House, in a cloak of silence.
Not released for public consumption was the reprimand of Tillman’s battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, for his handling of the punishment meted out against the Rangers involved in the shooting. “Nor has the Army released names or disciplinary letters received by two other unnamed officers.”
The cover-up continues…
There’s a very good set of articles by Stan Goff at CounterPunch explaining how Tillman was killed, how and why it was covered up, and the Pentagon policies and culture that created the conditions that led to Tillman’s getting killed by friendly fire. Goff has been working closely with Pat’s mother Dannie Tillman, so these articles are an attempt to get what she has learned over three years of struggling against the Pentagon’s stonewalling and obfuscation out into the open.
The Fog of Fame: Pat Tillman as Everyone’s Political Football
How Pat Tillman Died
The Cover-Up of Pat Tillman’s Death
…keeping that off the table; he refuses to believe that BushCo would murder, just like Pelosi puts impeachment off the table. Like I said, I wouldn’t put it past this administration and its minions doing this after all that has occurred over the past eight years. I’d keep that on the table until the very last minute.
Rummy and the brass kept tabs on Tillman. To sit there in front of Waxman, and lie about how they weren’t hands on about the young man states volumes that they continue to view human life as cheap and expendible.
I wouldn’t put it past them either. But assassinating Tillman would have required the kind of superlative competence that one sees in action movies, whereas the Bushies don’t have a minimal degree of competence.
The only things they know how to do is drop bombs, destroy countries, steal elections, and intimidate Democrats.
at getting their war industry budies into rich contracts.
The money trail leads *some*where…
Poor Tillman family. This is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong in the “War on Terror” since 9/11. Lies, rewarding incompetence, cover-ups, propaganda, dying in vain, etc.
ooh…’memorandum of concern’, gee I bet that strikes fear in everyone’s hearts. And I really wish reporters would quit using the friendly fire meme as there was no damn firefight, that’s incredibly misleading.
If you look at the second link I give above, you’ll find that the conspiracy theory that Tillman was executed has little basis. (I must admit that I repeated this conspiracy theory at the orange place.)
All three of Goff’s posts are highly recommended: he shows what the Pentagon is really trying to hide, for instance, that the Pentagon’s procedures for promotion created an incentive scheme whereby officers aim to stick to set timetables at all costs, which is why the order for Tillman’s unit to be split up was given, which created the circumstances under which the friendly fire could occur.
The three-shell burst could have been accidental–in the sense of a panicky soldier shooting at an unidentified target–or deliberate.
One thing is clear: Tillman was worth more to the Army dead than alive. They did not actually have to plan an assassination: In combat the chances of death can be enhanced in many easy ways.