Hearing on Tillman Fratricide: Tierney’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. John Tierney questions witnesses on why nobody informed the White House that it was likely a case of fratricide.
Video Transcript
thank you very muchif we had record tension back to the
uh... p_-forty four memo that gentlemancrystalsent out and he said he had become awarealkalinity of suspected reports that
congress the president had statesand the secretary of the army might
include comments about corporate illnessheroism disapprove civil stand-alone
speech is currently being prepared notknowing the specific surrounding his
deathuh... so obviously the objective of that
before was to get those specifics thethe fact that they might have been a
fratricidal investigation going on tothe appropriate people at the white
housegenera of his aideyou were the primary addressee on on the
memoand i think it was common did not
uncommon for the president of directedconversations with a combatant
commanders such as yourselfso we start with you did you take any
steps to alert the white house becausepurple till his death was the suspected
as friendly firei'm not sure i dotalk directly to the termhaving their direct relationship with
the president and knowing that it wasspecifically for the fee for that in
factthere was a concern that the president
might make a statement about theconditions surrounding that event why
didn't you take it upon yourself to makesure the white house was informedi did not take it upon myself toinform the white house directlynor did i ever when i was in command one
something would come upin our normal meetings with the
president of a have free phoneconversation bookby using communicated through chairman
or directly with sector and that's thecase evil into some immediacy in a memo
like that indicated the president mightbein a position taken embarrassing
statement unless he was one otherwisefull wellfirst of all i received the message latewhich is clearly problem within my own
headquartersuh... when i received the message laid
out talked of chairman i also saw thattwo other addressgeneral brown and the armyand after having talked to the chairmanit became clear to me that the chairman
knew about it and i presumenow that the information flowed in
washington through army channelsas i might have expectedthose assumptions wereobviously incorrectover general brown what about you did
you notify the white house is about thepossibility the crop of films was killed
by his own unit at what you saw thatmetal sir i didand why didn't you do that knowing that
there was some media sees the situationyeah first of all in a message on the
before i was an infrared dressing whichis a not the primary dressed you know if
i can do everything i understand thegeneral of the state just above the
reason he didn't do it because you werealso on the memo schemas as expected
thatyou do somethingthat was my ill placenow i i don't think anybody would expect
me who will call the person on statesbased on a comment made on an intro
message where i was unemployed dressywith jeremiah was at that time you with
the chairman joint chiefs of staffyou are the principal military adviser
to the president of the nationalsecurity council the secretary of
defensecould you advise the president or anyone
at the white housethat there was a fratricide
investigationburning out and i have not seen the
before all i know that there waspotential for fratricide there is an
investigation ongoingi do not recall and from a surviving
talk to anybody at the white house aboutthemdelivering your stafftalk to him at the white house i can
tell you that there are some thingsby the way that uh... circulate and
public affairs channelswillthat they could be like that but but i
was aware of that julia staff therewould have been in that loopthe public affairs at www more public
affairs officer meals and uh... captainfacts organd i do remember talking to him aboutthe potential of fat decided to say we
are the cautious here if we if we makeany comments we just got a very well in
mind in who would that person'scontacted the white house p i well i
don't know i think he would not benormally he would not routinely ever
talk to the white house he would talk totheir services uh... public affairs
officer steven also talkedthrough the office occurred census
public-affairs folks that he would notbe coming out i can imagine ever talking
to the white housepuzzles on some kind of conference call
where he was includedthe secular so let me ask you the same
questions at the close is our duty toadvise the president or anyone at the
white housethat there was evidence a cook summer
was killed by friendly fire at any timei don't recalluh... clearlyit would be logical that that i would
have or someone in my office would haveafter he theinformation became readily available and
the family was notified and it becamesubject of interest then one would want
to make sure that the white house wasaware of it and there were daily calls
back and forth between the nationalsecurity council in the office
generalizing in one point it was fairlycommon knowledge around it so itthat point of time hu yar office of the
secretary's office would have hadthe kind of contact with the national
security council staff of the whitehouseriviera subject like that there are
multiple contacts each day and theywould happen through themilitary assistance there would have
interested in this instance thathappened to the public affairsgeneral meyers and i would meet with the
president at least once a weekponds setting aside and just a second
placeand and and it would just completed a
fraudin addition we were in national security
council meetings in principle committeesmeetings on a regular basis during the
week probably five times a weeku_s_ italian value general myers you
have any recollection of either of youjoannetelling anybody so who on your staffwho would you suggest we talked to on
your step that might have had contactwith the white house on itconservatively recorder i'd just don't
know of other than response to youraddress to the kinds of contact stricter
place on a regular basisi agree i i would notice through the
secondary although they decide that's aregular basis i don't knowbothers multiple people that are subjectyou know but on the subject i would know
that the security year suspect kidswhitethe chemistry right
Marie Tillman discusses her experience at CGI U and as advocate and founder of the Pat Tillman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that invests in veterans and their families through education and community. In the fall of 2008, she began a major initiative, the Tillman Military Scholars program, which aims to create the next generation of leaders by helping a select group of veterans, active service members, and their dependents fulfill their academic dreams.
Video production courtesy Triton TV /
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
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
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holds a hearing entitled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield." The hearing focuses on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The Committee examines why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable. Rep. Danny Davis questions Specialist Patrick Tillman's mother Mary Tillman about what senior military officials knew and when they knew it.
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.
