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…