Hearing on Tillman, Lynch Incidents: Cummings’ Questions
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. Elijah Cummings questions Specialist Patrick Tillman’s brother Kevin Tillman about communications inside the White House related to his brother.
Video Transcript
we're going to try to get for youmysterieseurope this summer and i'm start to
expressunless something i thank yousettlement family for your sacrificeand tourists want to thank you for your
serviceand to you doctor bold so i think you
knowalarmto his home and family stillman usaid
delamyou believe that the military was hopingthat your family was simply partly in
your griefi want to thank you for not sitting
quietly in your griefwell that was written on april twenty
eighth two thousand foursixties epoch thomas taski don't know if you leave us a news
update on the screenperson this email but it describes how
the white housewas asking for information about poor
bull tormentfor the president to use in a speech at
the white house correspondent stepgot to make this coming up on the record
instrumentwithout objection let me read to tell
you what the email said in partquotesjust received a call from a secure anwhite house speechwritermister clinton said the information is
for the president's speechat the correspondents dinner this coming
saturdayit will probably be televised rightc_ span and a votethe next daypeople twenty nine two thousand fourand written communication was sent to
the highest levels uh... of the armycommand structure alerting themdeferments are was a suspectedcause of deaththis commitment efficient is called
eight a personal four noticed beforeas i understand it p four memos on
military communicationsthat require special handlingmissus on you probably know more about
that this that i dobut from what i have been told about
before memos they are fridays onlycommunicationsmeaning that the addressee must open it
personally ingredient immediately areyou familiar with themannual aware of that type of memoi'm by announced their honey i
understand it but i don't know any morethan you do i was aunlistedjaggi fouraccident i'd better get off that i had
the same timethrough this before memo was sent by
general crystalwho was your brother's regiment
commander in afghanistantwo three high-ranking generals
including generalten singerahead special operations and general
avasaramthe head of central commandthe p four memo walenceblackwellit is highly possiblethat corporates cockroach that woman was
killed by friendly firethen the boatand this seems to be responding to
inquire as from the white houseand here's what it saysand i quotevoters maneuvers in the united states
secretary of the army might includecomments about poeple tiptoe means
heroes fromand is approved so we'll start meddling
speech is currently being preparednot knowing this a civic surrounding his
death and the worldhe does want to express concern that the
presidentor the first secretary might suffer
quotepublic embarrassment if the
circumstances of their vote on the staffbecome public and locali would also like to make this before
memo part of the hearing recordwithout objection one questions we have
is whether this d four memo correct madeit to the white houseand here's what we do knowon april twentieth the white house as
for informationabout tillman for speech by the
president was giving the next day the pfour memo was setstating that that tillman was still by
friendly fire and wanting the presidentagainst mentionedwhen the president spoke at
correspondents' dinnerhe was careful in his wordhe prays that tillman skirts carefully
avoided describinghow he was stillthis is possible that the people memo
was a direct responseso white house is enquiringand yet that is true it means that the
white house knew the true facts aboutcohost illness death before the memorial
serviceand weeks before the thomann family was
toldstillman do you know whether the army
ever investigated how high up the chainof command disinformation wentand second do you think this ought to be
a cigaretteyou or misteruh... i don't i don't know how far they
went up by thenlooks like they stoppedof the department of fence looks like
they started aboutgeneral can bearit's it seems pretty disingenuous and i
i i don't have the answers because thesethings get the smell to us whether their
lead to the press for eleven oron this kind of why we were open we
could get to you guys could you havethat accessyoung my mama's specifically among a lot
of other people have really worked hardto get gather information try and figure
out through all these redactionsto figure out who's doing or just
figuring out it took a sipexhibits like nine months to figure out
who actually did the investigationthe second one for the first one that
was who also that the first official oneso it's tough to get informationand that's whyit's a bit disingenuous to think that
the administration did not knowabout what was going on something sopolitically sensitiveso that's kind of what we were hoping
you guys couldto get involved with and take a lookmain week we only can go so far we don't
have access to these people we don'thave access to the unreacted information
werelandlockedmust admit i was up but we'll do the
best we canmixer things are some things about theseyes it is something thatuntil we do now the case thenalani've been doing a lot of reading aboutrumsfeldformer secretary of defense rumsfeldi believe just from what i've learned
about him as a personin his expectations for his staffthat he would havehad this informationon he was in an individual who
appreciate itunder peoplehigh-tech tied house without it going to
come firsti can imaginethis memo could have been senthong konggeneral at the state in generalyou noted ttenzing original brown with
the expectation that they would tell thepresident because rumsfeld wouldn't wantthere to be any direct line because he
liked to beto go to the white housemonths i believe that he would have
intercepted this memo first of allthe other thing is that he was doneyou know he britain had a letterwhich i don't think he makes a practice
of doing that and it was an extravagantletter by any stretch it was about a two
sentence letter but the fact that hestayed at the letterand pat was a very high-profile
individual he was probably the mosthyped high-profile individual in the
military at the timethe fact that he would be killed by
friendly fire and no one would tellrumsfeld is is ludicrous because he
would have had a fati need to have become you've been known
to himafter the facts that have been extremely
upsetting to himand i a m redyou know a particular but my head but
there's a lot of research i've done onthe internet againstyou know this is my conclusion and i
have no nothing to back it up i admitthat i have no paper trail no-fatbut just snap knowing the type of
individual in the way he operatedi believe these generals would be
absolutely foolishto not tell himthe system and you don't know whether it
was ainvestigate all wearablegenerality art that you think that right
you agreeyes of course thank you very much
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 /
Michael Moore discusses 'The Tillman Story' with (L-R) Actor Josh Brolin, former soldier Russell Baer, producer John Battsek and director Amir Bar-Lev following a special screening at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 on August 11, 2010 in New York City.
'The Tillman Story' opens Friday, August 20th in New York and Los Angeles. Don't miss it: http://www.tillmanstory.com/
Pat Tillman was a professional football player with the Arizona Cardinals.
In response to the September 11, 2001 incident, he passed up a $3.6 million contract and joined the Army. His sacrifice became made him a symbol of patriotism and a poster child for Army recruiters.
Pat Tillman came to his senses and turned against the wars. Through friends and family, he made contact with anti-war icon Noam Chomsky.
Perhaps Tillman was ready to make a public statement of opposition to the wars, which would have been a public relations catastrophe for the Army. We will never know. Perhaps the Army knew he was going to go public with a statement of opposition. We will never know.
Pat Tillman took three bullets through the head on April 22, 2004. He was shot at close range by his own men while on paatrol in Afghanistan.
A massive coverup followed, in which the public was told that Tillman had been killed by hostile fire. He was awarded the Silver star. The conspiracy to deceive Tillman's grieving family and the public went to the highest levels of the Army, and centered on one Lt. General Stanley McChrystal.
Eventually, the fraud was exposed, and a half-hearted congressional investigation followed.
Pat Tillman is still dead. His mother, Mary Tillman, still grieves. Lt. General Stanley McChrystal was promoted to supreme commander of the Afghan theater.
Jim Axelrod previews at tonight's "Evening News" stories. At center stage are hearings on the death of Pat Tillman, the former NFL star who was killed in Afghanistan. (CBSNews.com)
The construction contract for the Colorado River Bridge, was awarded to the joint venture partnership of Obayashi Corporation and PSM Construction USA, Inc., in October of 2004 for US$ 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 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. Elijah Cummings questions Specialist Patrick Tillman's brother Kevin Tillman about communications inside the White House related to his brother.
A tribute video to the late Pat Tillman, former defensive player for Arizona State and the Arizona Cardinals, who gave his life in service to our country in the fight on terror in Afghanistan.
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.
