Hearing on Tillman Fratricide: Holmes Norton’s Questions
The Oversight Committee holds a hearing, “The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew.” The hearing is part of an ongoing investigation and follows a previous hearing held in April. Witnesses will include former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Former Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. John P. Abizaid (Retired), Former Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers (Retired), Former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown (Retired). Gen. Kensinger has been served with a subpoena, but has not been able to be located over the past several days and will not appear. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton questions Secretary Rumsfeld on apparent gaps in his preparation to testify.
Video Transcript
thank you mister eisner i'd want to be
clear for thatthe family askedthis committeeto investigate the circumstances of
corporate almondsand that kevin tillman himself indicatedthat this hearing was no reflection upon
the braveryall ofthis if you are on the no implicationshould be left that our continuing
investigation had is anything but anattempt to do with his familyonce done ardent secretary outrun selfi've got you you have indicated i think
quite eloquentlythat it's your responsibility onslaught
in the military to tell the truth and iwant to make sure thisalso involves uncovering the truthparticularly in a delegation to the name
of person elsewhereabout the weather you select deniability
and reconstructingwhat you were told and women in
responding to the inspector general inparticularyour lawyer bomand preparing a response to the defense
to put d_o_d_ in inspector generaluh... said that usda junior staff member
in your officeto help determineuh... when you learned that corporal
tillman to deathuh... was a possible fratricide himthe contact the the staff of our
committee then contacted that staffmember and he told us thatof placing a few phone callsdown the person who have been meeting
with you in a meeting with you on maytwentiethtwo thousand fouruh... during which he said corporal
tillman skates was mentionednap this person claimed that however
that he was not the sourceof the information and cannot remember
who wasthis does not sound likethe most thorough attempt to reconstructwhat you knew or what actions you tookduring our own investigation the
committee staff talk with lieutenantgeneralthat he was your senior military
assistance at the time in two thousandfourhe told us that he worked closely with
youon a daily basis sometimes corpin touch with you many times a day but
he saysthat your office never contacted him to
askfor hisrecollection or documentsno i'm asking why did you not consult
thisare close assistantof your ownone general craddock before responding
to the attorney generalconcerning what you knew and when you
knew itmy recollection of this is forclose to thatit was the i believe the last series of
days i was in the departmentthere were a great many things going onthe inspector general astsome questionsand mycivilianassistantmister rendell as i recall uh...i said figure out if there's any way we
can know when i was told cuz i don'trememberwhether and yet that senior military
system might have been one way you mighthave knownheat he of course was go onhe was a remarkable try to keep them
from being consultednothing to say that i'm i'm going to
answer questionsthen check with some people and one of
the individuals who said what you saidhe said they way that he was in a room
when i was toldand uh... it was honor after he got back
from iraq and that was this colonelbushes has been mentioned previouslybutwe were we were not asked what we
recalls and recollected we were notaskedto undertake an investigation and go
back and consulta series of peopleand find out the answer that was the job
of the inspector general lucky i thinkhe said attorney general i think you
missed by three o'clock in the effortand that was his job to do try to
fashion all of that and he did any anyproduced a report and he said he felt
that i won't hurt my responses workmethe was a pleasure he was trying to find
out something very specificwhat you knew and when you do it in his
job was that the question you want tofind outthe best of your ability what you would
like you when you knew it in here wasyour senior military assistant one
person we would expect that you canconsult when he was not consulted in a
masking while i was not consulted byguess is there any number of people who
were not consulted and i guess theanswer that question iswith one would have to ask the inspector
general or ask mister rendellnot asking you because you don't get
sultan sirno they asked me what i recall and i've
told them what i recallat and and simply noting that he didn't
didn't consult eight union member ofyour office but not the man who would
have been most likely to developthe man who reported to you several
times a day we didn't get salt is wellwith themister listed if we don't know director
of communications and during this periodhad been in touch with the white house
if you feel important to consult withhim before respondingtightening up instead of the junior
member of my office i consulted with thesenior civilian assistant who's your
principal assistantdefense along with your senior military
assistancemister rangel was that individualis the one who then talk to people to
find out and one of the people we talkedto was was colonel bootybut mister to read also was no longer in
the departmentthere are any number of people one could
have what we could havegoing to take my wrist was no longer in
the department and and uh...and the there must bethirty twenty thirty people who were in
the wrong people meeting were on thevery well have been informedbut buti was asked what i recall and i gave a
very direct honest answer for thatmake is that correct understand it that
the point we are making is when theinspector general in trying to find outsomething thatexperience they're very difficult for
you yourself out of your ownconsciousness to have to remember to
have consulted with those most likely tohave helped you remember buddha seem to
be appropriate and uncovering the truththank youthank you mr
John Anderson, ESPN SportsCenter Anchor, Co-Host of ABC's Wipeout and Pat Tillman Foundation supporter - invites you to support the Tillman Military Scholars program.
This ESPN Sports Century biography on Pat Tillman is divided into six parts. I think this aired in 2005. For updated information, read "Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman" by Mary Tillman http://www.amazon.com/Boots-Ground-Dusk-Tribute-Tillman/dp/1594868808 and "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" by Jon Krakauer http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385522266/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1594868808&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1R1ZC333SDPTXNBP09RW
MARY TILLMAN: The documentary in part is to try to present Pat as a human being and not this caricature that was created. But the biggest reason for this documentary is to point out the horrible way that he was used. His death was lied about by the military, by the government. But he's not an isolated incident. This happens on a regular basis. It's a systemic problem. It's not isolated to the Bush Administration. It's happened for years. And it's tolerated.
Telling the truth about Pat Tillman at
http://www.michaelmoore.com
The construction contract for the Colorado River Bridge, was awarded to the joint venture partnership of Obayashi Corporation and PSM Construction USA, Inc., in October of 2004 for US$ 114 million. Construction began in early 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2010. When completed, the 2000 ft-long (610 m) Colorado River Bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1500 ft/457 m south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900 ft (274 m) above the Colorado River. The construction requirements and challenges are as difficult as any in the world.
The mother of former NFL player Pat Tillman said the military let him down when it misreported his death. Katie Couric says the military let us all down. (CBSNews.com)
