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. Chairman Waxman gives opening remarks.
Video Transcript
ias of last nightfour thousand and sixty three of our
brave as soldiers have diedin the afghan and iraq warseach death has its own compelling storyeach brought incalculable grieffor the soldier's family and friendsand each is a tragic in irreplaceable
loss for our countryin today's hearing we will continue our
investigation of the misinformationsurrounding the death of one of those
soldierscorp apac tillmanwe're focused on corporal thomas case
because the misinformation was soprofound and because he persistedso longand if that can happen to the most
famous soldiers serving in iraq andafghanistanit leaves many families and many of usquestioning the accuracymany of the uh... of the information for
many other casualtiesthere have been seven investigation into
corporal tillman skatesyet the army announced sanctions against
sixyesterday the army announced sanctions
against six officersbody incor important questionsstill remain unanswerednormally in investigations we learnmore and the more we learnthese hearings it is the oldest and what
actually happenedthe opposite is true with the tillman
caseas we learn moreeverything that happened in two thousand
four from april twenty twotoday pat tillman diedto may twenty nine the day the defense
departmentfinally analysis was afriendly-fire incidentmakes less senseone possible explanation is that aseries of counter-intuitiveillogical blunders unfolded accidentallyand haphazardlyas the army noted yesterday in seven
investigations into thistragedy not one has found evidenceof a conspiracyby the army to fabricate a herodeceive the publicor mislead that tillman family about the
circumstances of carpal term until hisdeaththe other possible explanations
explanation is a someone or sir or somegroup of uh... officialsacted deliberately and repeatedly to
conceal the troopkevin tillman who served with his
brother in afghanistanexpress that view and our last hearinghe saidapril two thousand four was turning into
the deadliest month to datein the war in iraqamerican commanders essentially
surrenderedfor leisure to members of theiraq resistancein the midst of this the white house
learned thatchristian peremptory seymour hersh in
other journalistswe're about to reveal a shocking scandalinvolving massive and systemicdetainee abuse in facility known as abu
graberevealing that pathpat's death was fratricidewould have been yet another political
disaster during the month alreadyswollen with political delegate
disasters and a brutal truth of thepublicbut unbowed atlee find unacceptableso the fax needed to be suppressed
alternate to avert narrative had to beconstructedthis freshly manufactured narrative was
then distributedto the american publicand we believe the strategy have the
intended effectis shifted the focus from the grotesque
tortureat abu grabeto a great american who died hero's
deathwell i was a view of kevin tillmanour committees challenges to determinewhich explanation is trueat our last hearing specialist brian
o'neill testifiedspecialist o'neill was standing next to
corporate tillmanduring the firefighthe knew immediately that this was a case
of friendly fireand described what happenedand then i witness statement he
submittedup his chain of command immediately
after corporal thomas deathbut specialist o'neill told us something
elseafter he submitted his statement someone
else rewrote itthis unnamed person made significant
changes that transformed o'neill'saccountinto an unending into an enemy attackwe still don't knowwho did that and why he did itwe just know that althougheveryone on the ground knew this was a
case of friendly firethe american people and tillman familywe're told thatcorporal tielemans what i was killed by
the enemyand that doesn't make any senseour focus has been to look up the chain
of command but that has proved to beas confoundingas figuring out what happened to
specialist o'neill's witness statementwe've tried to find out what the white
house new about corporate illness deathwe know that in the days following the
initial reportat least ninety seven white house
officials sent and receivedhundreds of emails about corporal deathand how the white house and the
president should respondnow there's nothing sinister about thisboth at sundownthere's nothing sinister about this and
there's nothing sinisterin the emails we have receivedcorporal tillman is a national heroit makes sense that white house
officialswould be paying attentionbut what does it make sensedoes that weeks laterin the days before and after the defense
department announcedthat corporal someone who's actually
killed by our own forcesthere are no emails from any of the
ninety seven white house officials abouthow corporal tillman really diedthe concealment of corporate elements
fratricidecaused millions of americansto question the integrity of our
governmentyet no one will tell us when and how the
white housewhen the truthtoday we will be examining the actions
of the senior leadership of thedifferentapartment of defensemuch of our focus will be on a personal
four message also known as a piece forthat major general stanley crystalsent on april twenty ninth two thousand
fourthis before alerted his superiorsthat despite press reports that corporal
tillman diedfighting enemy it was highly possible
the corporate tillman was killed byfriendly firewell three officers receive this p four
reportlieutenant general can sing good general
abas eight in general browngeneral can singer refused to appear
todayhis attorney informed the committee that
general casimir would not testifyvoluntarilyand if issued a subpoena would seek to
rebate servicethe committee did issue a subpoena to
general can seeger earlier this weekbut u_s_ marshals have been unable to
locate or serve youso we will not be able to ask general
testing jerand with the peace corpswe won't be able to ask him why he
didn't notify the tillman family aboutthefriendly fire investigationand we won't be able to ask him why he
didnothingto correct the recordhave to return to corporate illness
memorial servicein early mayand heat any heard statements he knewwere falsefortunatelywe do havethe other two recipients of the people
workgeneral abas eight in general bound here
this morningand we will ask them what they did after
they've received generalthe crystals messagewe're also credit grateful that general
meyers and secretary rumsfeldrearranged his scheduleso that he could be here today are here
to testify and weare pleased that you have takenthis opportunity to be with usmembers of the committee like americans
across the nationare looking for an answer to simple
questionswho know about the friendly fire attackwhy wasn't the family toldwhy did it take over a month for the
leadership of the defense departmentto tell the public the truthtoday i hope we will at least get
answers to these questions and bringclarity to this investigationi commend the army for its continued
investigations into the tellme incasean army secretary darren for the
forthright approach he is takingprogress has been madebut we still don't knowwho was responsible for the false
informationand what what roles of anythe defense department and the white
housethe deceptionswe owe it to the tell my family and to
the american peopleto get the answers to these fundamental
questionswomen are recognized
Keith Olbermann asks Wes Clark about the cover-up of Tillman's murder. Clark says orders for such a whitewash would have to come from "the very top." The Rabbit Hole on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rabbitholenews
August 1, 2007, Congressional Hearing of the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who died due to friendly fire. However, the family of the fallen soldier and the American people were not told this information until a month after. In this clip, Rumsfeld apologizes for the situation being poorly handled.
I Wrote this song for our fighting men and their families.
I do NOT support the wars.
I DO support our Brothers and Sons who fight them!
On this night I dedicated this song to Pat Tillman. At the time I had no idea of the lies that had been told.
We are just starting to learn the truth about what really happened to Pat.
ESPN Nov 2009 - Marie Tillman, the wife of former Arizona cardinal and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, speaks for the first time since her husband's death from friendly fire.
Prior to joining ESPN in June 1999, John covered Pat Tillman's college and football careers when he worked as a sports reporter and weekend sports anchor in Phoenix, AZ. In addition to his roles as SportsCenter anchor, Wipeout host, husband and dad -- John has added Team Tillman New York member to the list to help raise funds and create awareness for the Pat Tillman Foundation. All he has to do is run 26.2 miles -- can't be that hard right? Today he invites you to learn more about the efforts of Team Tillman New York. Donate at: http://www.active.com/donate/teamtillmannewyork10
Arizona Cardinal football player turned Army Ranger, killed in action during operation Iraqi Freedom. Tyler Griffin Reporting (2004) - www.Mindshift-Media.com
Pat Tillman was a professional football player with the Arizona Cardinals.
In response to the September 11, 2001 incident, he passed up a $3.6 million contract and joined the Army. His sacrifice became made him a symbol of patriotism and a poster child for Army recruiters.
Pat Tillman came to his senses and turned against the wars. Through friends and family, he made contact with anti-war icon Noam Chomsky.
Perhaps Tillman was ready to make a public statement of opposition to the wars, which would have been a public relations catastrophe for the Army. We will never know. Perhaps the Army knew he was going to go public with a statement of opposition. We will never know.
Pat Tillman took three bullets through the head on April 22, 2004. He was shot at close range by his own men while on paatrol in Afghanistan.
A massive coverup followed, in which the public was told that Tillman had been killed by hostile fire. He was awarded the Silver star. The conspiracy to deceive Tillman's grieving family and the public went to the highest levels of the Army, and centered on one Lt. General Stanley McChrystal.
Eventually, the fraud was exposed, and a half-hearted congressional investigation followed.
Pat Tillman is still dead. His mother, Mary Tillman, still grieves. Lt. General Stanley McChrystal was promoted to supreme commander of the Afghan theater.
