Hearing on Tillman Fratricide: Maloney’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. Rep. Carolyn Maloney questions witnesses.

Video Transcript

thank you mister chairman and i think other panelists for your service and forcooperation with the committee todayand i would like to follow up on general meyerson testimonyuh... where you testified that youlearned is that uh... corporal tillman had been killedby friendly fireat the end of the paypaland that you reached out to your public affairs officer twocalibrate your response in order to be absolutely accurateand precisein your responseyet make theirthere was a memorial service soheld for corporalkilled ninewhich got a great jobhe was on the cover of sports illustrated it was national newsthat he had been killedand hostile fireand at this memorial service he received at the silver star if i recalland yet the family andthe world at this point on may thirdworked to hold that hedied with hostile firewhen you knewas head of the joint chiefs of staffthat he diedfriendly-fireand you knew this for a month before in in your own words he wanted to beprecise about this informationwhy did you not come forwardand tell the familyand tell the publicthe family was not told the truthuntil the and of menwell first of alluh... i did not knowthat uh... couple tillman have been killed by friendly fire did say thatwhat i said it wasthat i was informed that it's possibly from afar and that there is aninvestigation ongoingin terms of notifying the family that is an army channelsand we've just talked aboutthe regret there isfor for the fact that that was not done properly it'd been done properlymy assumption would be they would have known before the memorial servicei did not know it was from a fire until the investigation likecircuit rumsfeld when you're in a senior position you've got to be very carefulwhat you say about it that's why i talked to public affairs officerby the way dietalk to my former public affairs officer yet yet general myers the you newthat he died that there was a possibility that he diedby friendly firewe are told all the time in the presspossibilitieswe are toldhopefully the truthso at that point you knowthen i assume many people knew that there was a possibility that he died byfriendly fireand yet that was not disclosedand tell hateful monthhave to worrythe familywould have wanted to hear the truth they testified they would want it to you thetruthand if there was a possibilitythey would have wanted to hear the possibilitiesand usually in this countrybut we hearthe possibilities and hopefully the truth are comingafford and yet in this this was not he sat on your hands and he didn't sayanything about itand i find that hard to understands you understand i think from the materialsand presented to the committee so far and all the testimonythis is the responsibility that states are men of theofficers chairmani regret for the army did not do theredo their duty here and follow their own policy which we talked aboutbut they did notmy assumption would have to be display and i asked do you regret your actionsthat you did notreaching out in he was where they had a joint chiefs of staff army is under youand uh... mess not methodically paramus not this to what's right and fair and ithink i was frightened fares exactly what uh... sector trumps all talkedabout was like a fairerthis apollo army policy and notify the family when theythey said it sounds as though they've been notified that there was aquesadilla d according to the army regulations landis tandem that's rightby the way the marine regulations don't they don't know if i'm fairly sure as iknow they are you did nottheir guidelines that they should have told the familyand the publicthat there was no possibilitythat uh...arhar zero our football hero in war herodivide by friendly firethey should have talked about the possibility has moved into a cornerregulations that soi don't like to ask uh...secretary rumsfeld dob corp attempt tillman was a very very famous oursoldierwhen he enlisted it was uh... there you have a knowledge by many people he was aprofessional football player he was offered a millions of dollars an hourcontract that he turned down to serve our countryhe captured your attentionalbany and they've been listed in may two thousand two when you sent a letteron june twenty eighth at two thousand two which i would like to make part ofthe the record and that you write in and you say ii heard that you're leading the national football league the common army rangerit is a proud unpatriotic saying that you're doingwe also received yesterday objection i will be made thank youare without we also we see the s_b_a_ snowflake andthat you sent it about corporal till monday tuesday june twenty fifth twothousand two emma snowflake is uh... name that you get to memos that are sentto senior up defense officialsand you sent this snowflake to thomas whitethen secretary of the army in the subject line is pat tillman and let meuh... read up which he said here here is an article on a fellow who is apparentlyjoining the rangershe sounds like he has world-classwe might want to keep an eye on him a up with this in the records are going tochurch reviewergentle lady's time has expired you wantman with a strangerwe were you leading to a questions i will ask you what would you escapeabout one hundred approachhilemon was killed and two thousand fourwas this a blow to youwhen you heard this newsit is urclearly it's a blow when you read it but the death of a young man or young womanwho's serving our country in uniform and gives their lives it is alwaysand heartbreaking thing for anyone in a position of responsibility to read aboutand i think this will only

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