Pat Tillman's Mother pushing for Congressional Hearings

[LeVeL]

Pat Tillman's mother said Tuesday that the Tillman family is pursuing congressional hearings on her son's death.

"I want a congressional hearing because I want to find out what actually happened," Mary Tillman said in a telephone interview on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio. "I would like to have it all aired out in a congressional hearing."

Elected officials also are calling for congressional hearings in the 2004 friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose, Calif.), who represents the Tillmans' district, formally requested hearings from the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Mary Tillman said that "it was pretty obvious they were lying to us" when the military found no criminal wrongdoing in her son's death.

"They only presented the point of view of the soldiers in the vehicle … they never brought into play what the other witnesses said," she said.

The military concluded Monday that nine high-ranking Army officers, including four generals, made critical errors in reporting Tillman's death, but there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting of the former NFL player.

In releasing a pair of reports on Tillman's killing, however, defense officials did not rule out that criminal violations may have been committed by officers who provided misleading information as the military conducted its investigation. While saying they believed there was no orchestrated cover-up, they left the decision on whether crimes occurred to the Army.

Army and Defense Department investigators said officers looking into Tillman's death passed along misleading and inaccurate information and delayed reporting their belief that Tillman was killed by fellow Rangers.

The investigators recommended that the Army take action against the officers, but suggested no specific punishments and left it to the Army to decide what to do. Possible steps could include demotions, dishonorable discharges, jail or letters of reprimand.

Mary Tillman said she was most shocked when the military said that no rules of engagement were broken.

"The first investigative officer said there was evidence of homicidal negligence and criminal intent. He stands by that. Yet his report has been devalued because they don't want that out in the public eye," she said.

Mary Tillman said the facts of the incident support the argument that rules of engagement were broken.

"They fired in at soldiers who weren't firing at them. They fired in an area where hands waving and they fired at a building. All of those things are breaking rules of engagement," she said.

Mary Tillman said she became very upset when it was portrayed at her son's memorial service that Pat Tillman was killed by enemy fire, when the military knew that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. "This was an attempt to dupe the public and promote this war and get recruitments up," she said, "and that is immoral and it's a travesty."

Tillman also questioned the fact that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wasn't aware that Tillman was killed by friendly fire.

"It seems to me that Rumsfeld would have to be aware of it," she said.

Mary Tillman said she thinks her son would have been outraged at how he was used by the military after his death and that the military used her son's death as a public relations vehicle to deflect attention from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Irag.

"I definitely think Pat was used," she said. "When he was killed I think they saw this as an opportunity."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[LeVeL]

I have to say that its so sad that Pat Tillman was killed the way he was but was is worst is how his death has been such a mystery that has been covered up by the US Military.


Somebody is responsible for the way the matter was handled and they need to be put out there because no soldier who has given his life for this country deserves this.

[saintjohn]

Tillman's death is tragic, but a Congressional hearing isn't going to bring him back.

People seem to think that this is a case for CSI: Afghanistan or something. It's not a crime scene, it's a combat zone. Trying to figure out what exactly happened three years ago in the middle of a firefight is impossible. Everyone involved is going to remember things slightly differently, and investigators who don't understand the realities of combat will look at the differences between individual accounts and conclude that someone is lying.

If you've ever had to testify about a traffic accident, you know how much people's recollections of events can differ. Sure, sometimes people "forget" certain details or simply lie to avoid incriminating themselves or others, but the only crime in Tillman's case is the endless (and destructive) investigation of the incident.

[drlogic]

I think I know what happened...............call me crazy but HE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR!!!!!

[V. Barbarino]

His parents need to let it go, there is no cover up, he died at a hero by a tragic turn of events, it happens in every war sadly.

[Lola]

Originally Posted by Barbarino

His parents need to let it go, there is no cover up, he died at a hero by a tragic turn of events, it happens in every war sadly.

my thoughts exactly.. my uncle was killed in vietnam and my grandmother cries every christmas... that all but kills me.. :'(

[mr.miami]

It is wrong what happened but things happen at war. I really don't feel he should be getting special treatment cus he once played football. What about all the others that died in friendly fire situations? Why don't they get represented somehow?

[saintjohn]

Originally Posted by Sr.Miami

What about all the others that died in friendly fire situations? Why don't they get represented somehow?

They DO get represented - every "friendly fire" case is investigated.

[saintjohn]

Here's another article with a few more details about the incident:

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials say a Defense Department investigation will recommend that nine officers be held accountable for the aftermath of the friendly-fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, according to The Associated Press.

The Pentagon's inspector general will describe errors and inappropriate conduct during the military's investigation of the former football star's death in Afghanistan in 2004, one defense official told AP.

The official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the investigation, told AP that military leaders may have lacked adequate information or failed to pursue it.

The U.S. Army last year launched a criminal investigation into the death of Tillman, who gave up his career with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to fight terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

Initial reports after his death said Tillman, 27, was shot and killed by Taliban forces during an ambush on April 22, 2004. An investigation later found that fellow soldiers shot Tillman, thinking he was part of an enemy force firing at them.

Tillman's family demanded to know why his uniform and body armor were burned a day after he was killed and why they were not immediately told he might have been killed by fellow soldiers.

A 2005 report from Brig. Gen. Gary Jones contained sworn statements from soldiers involved in the incident who said they burned the items because they had taken pictures of the scene and knew how Tillman had been killed.

Initially, Tillman's blood-covered uniform and armor were said to have been destroyed because they were considered a biohazard.

Two years before his death, Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to serve in the military. He was posthumously awarded a Silver Star.

Tillman was a member of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment based at Fort Lewis, Washington. His brother, Kevin, trained with him and served in the same unit.

[saintjohn]

According to various open source reports, Tillman and the Afghan soldier with him (who was carrying an AK47) were engaged by an M-240 on a swing arm Humvee mount. That particular gunmount is designed for suppressive automatic fire, not to provide a stable platform for accurate, individual shots.

The vehicle was travelling on a dirt road at approximately 30 mph, Tillman was almost 100 yards away, and his postion was backlit. According to ALL of the reports, the incident lasted less than 15 seconds.

When a patrol leader shoots a machinegun at the enemy, it is common practice that subordinates mass their fires on the leader's tracers. In combat, people shoot at known, likely, and suspected enemy positions (based upon ROE). There was no requirement to personally identify a target (outside of urban areas) at that stage of the war in Afghanistan.

Those Rangers were well within their rights to shoot at whatever their leader was shooting at (by following his tracers) without actually seeing an enemy. They are trained to trust that a person marking a target does see the enemy from his vantage point.

After the shooting, the decision was made to burn Tillman's gear. Remember the movie Blackhawk Down when the Delta operator tells Strueker to wash out the blood out of the back of the Humvee? That was to prevent the effects of combat stress and shock.

Tillman's gear had his brains on it and was partially burned due to a smoke grenade being struck by a bullet and igniting in its pouch (so much for that family claim that he popped smoke to mark his position).

The term "biohazard" was a PC way to explain that it was messy without coming out and saying "Mrs. Tillman, we burned your son's armor because his brains were all over it and we were still in Indian country at the time. I needed all of my men's heads in the game and carrying around your son's bloody, burnt kit would have further upset the patrol, so we burned his gear on the spot."

Within 24 hours, the Rangers involved informed their superiors that Tillman's death was a case of fratricide, but the Pentagon waited until after the formal investigation was complete (and it took weeks for investigators to locate and interview all of the participants, who were scattered all over an active combat zone) to tell the parents the truth.