Un-Freaking-Believable! Now Bush is hiding behind Tillman's corpse?

White House Denies Request for Documents in Ex-NFL Player's Death

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 14, 2007; A03

The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding saying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting "implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests."

Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), the leading members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, objected to the refusal yesterday in letters to the White House and the Defense Department.

White House and Pentagon officials have turned over about 10,000 pages of material, but Waxman and Davis said those papers do not include critical documents that would show communications between senior administration officials and top military officers shortly after Tillman was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.

Tillman's celebrity, as one who gave up a professional football contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, made his death major news. The military at first concocted a heroic story about how Tillman, a specialist posthumously promoted to corporal, had been killed in a fierce firefight with the enemy, despite obvious evidence that he had been shot by his own men at close range. More than a month later, a military investigation reported publicly that the death was not linked to enemy fire.

"The main focus of the committee's investigation is to examine what the White House and the leadership of the Department of Defense knew about Corporal Tillman's death and when they knew it," Waxman and Davis said in a letter to Fielding. "Unfortunately, the document production from the White House sheds virtually no light on these matters."

After an oversight hearing in April -- in which Tillman's family members testified -- - -the committee sought the documents to learn about the alleged cover-up and the high-level discussions about how to spin the case.

Waxman and Davis plan to hold another hearing on Aug. 1.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Soldiers Used For Propaganda; Shameless!

Pawns of propaganda
April 25, 2007 - 08:10.

Doug Thompson


Jessica Lynch walks with a limp from the extensive wounds she received in the early days of the invasion of Iraq. Pat Tillman lies in a grave - gunned down by his own comrades in Afghanistan.
Both represent the sacrifices that soldiers make in service to their country. Sadly, both also became pawns of a propaganda machine created tosell an illegal and immoral war to a gullible American public.

The Pentagon's propaganda machine fabricated Lynch as a petite female Rambo, holding off the enemy after her vehicle was hit by a rocket. In fact, the attack left her unconscious and unable to fight.

"Tales of great heroism were being told," Lynch told a Congressional hearing Tuesday. "My parent's home in Wirt county [West Virginia] was under siege of the media all repeating the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting. It was not true."
Neither was the story of her "rescue," videotaped by the Army at the height of the invasion. The Army told a harrowing tale of invading an Iraqi compound and liberating her. She was, in fact, in an abandoned medical facility and Iraqi medical staff led soldiers to her. No gunfire. No hostiles. Just a pickup of a prisoner left behind by fleeing forces.

"I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary," Lynch said. "The American people did not need to be told elaborate tales. The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it always more heroic than the hype."

When it came to hype, the Army had a ready-made opportunity with Pat Tillman, the NFL player who gave up a multi-million dollar career to join the military during the patriotic pathos of post-9/11 America.

Tillman, along with his brother, became an Army Ranger and went to Afghanistan where he died in combat. The Army said he died heroically fighting the enemy and awarded the slain soldier a Silver Star.

In fact, he died from "friendly fire" in a screw up of communications that brought his location under attack from other American soldiers.

The Army tried to cover it up.

The Army, brother Kevin Tillman, also in Afghanistan that day, concocted "intentional falsehoods" along with "deliberate and careful misrepresentations in portraying his death as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy."

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Tillman said. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide (friendly fire). Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed."

Reports The Associated Press:
An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former football star was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan said Tuesday a commanding officer had ordered him to keep quiet about what happened.

The military at first portrayed Tillman's death as the result of heroic combat with the enemy. Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal told a congressional hearing that when he got the chance to talk to Tillman's brother, who had been in a nearby convoy on the fateful day, "I was ordered not to tell him what happened."

"You were ordered not to tell him?" repeated Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Roger that, sir," replied O'Neal, dressed in his Army uniform.

Ideally, both Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman should be recognized as heroes who served their country in time of war.

Instead, they became pawns in a far-bigger war: a conflict of lies used to sell an invasion launched for fabricated reasons and fought - to this day - for political reasons that have nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 or any actual threat to the peace and security of the United States.

Like all soldiers who have died, come home maimed or face a future of haunting nightmares from an insane war, they deserved far better.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Pat Tillman's Brother, Kevin, and his Mother, Mary, testified before Henry Waxman's committee in congress today.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported,

Pat Tillman's brother accused the military Tuesday of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in portraying the football star's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," he said.

"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed," said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn't see it.
He said the Tillman family has sought for years to get at the truth about Pat Tillman's death.
"We have now concluded that our efforts are being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served," he said.

The doctor who treated Jessica lynch reported that he was required to sign a statement agreeing not to talk about her. This was not something he'd been asked to do for other patients.
Waxman said, "The government violated its most basic responsibility."

The reports by the Tillman family brought me to tears, and then to feelings of such disgust and anger-- and these were military people who made these decisions. You have to blame the generals at the top and Bush. Tillman's mother says, "In every way they're dodging us."
When do the criminals get their comeuppance? When does Nancy Pelosi reach the point when she decides that rampant criminality initiated, supported and encouraged by the Bush Administration has been enough exposed?

If the mainstream media don't play the statements of Pat Tillman's brother Kevin and his Mother, again and again and again, just a tenth of the frequency they showed the VA Tech killer and the campus scene-- that would still be hundreds or thousands of times-- there will be something very wrong. If you haven't seen it live, make sure you see it on youtube. We'll do what we can here at opednews to find it for you (If someone contributed a computer that could capture TV footage, it would be abit help.)

Click here to read what Mary Tillman said. It brought tears to my eyes.

Kucinich Cancels Again

The first time was understandable. The second time, standing alone, with Cheney going in the hospital, for what could be an emergency, would be understandable, if it wasn't the second cancellation. It is the civil thing to do... except for one thing... if Cheney deserves to be impeached, it should be done immediately. No more waiting, no delays out of politeness. There are too many lives at stake. The impeachment of Cheney is just the first step in getting the train rolling-- the train that removes both Bush and Cheney. Kucinich needs to act this week, or his credibility will be hurt. I really like Dennis Kucinich, but he's treading in dangerous waters, trying to be polite and civil, while dealing with such serious charges that warrant impeachment. Do it already congressman Kucinich. Don't lose the moment. Don't LET Cheney resign to avoid it. Cheney's a criminal. If impeachment makes him more ill, attribute it to God.

We have to disagree with Rob on this: I want our politicians to be tough and firm, but I also want them to conduct themselves as gentlemen and ladies, not frothing at the mouth, sociopaths and deeply psychopathological people, who show no repesct for anyone, no decency, no ccompassion, no emapthy, like we have had to endure from the Rethugs for the last several decades.

We cannot defeat them by becoming like them!

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free