New inquiry may expose events that led to Pat Tillman’s death

[kpete]

FAMILY DEMANDS THE TRUTH
New inquiry may expose events that led to Pat Tillman’s death
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, September 25, 2005

The battle between a grieving family and the U.S. military justice system is on display in thousands of pages of documents strewn across Mary Tillman’s dining room table in suburban San Jose.

As she pores through testimony from three previous Army investigations into the killing of her son, former football star Pat Tillman, by his fellow Army Rangers last year in Afghanistan, she hopes that a new inquiry launched in August by the Pentagon’s inspector general finally will answer the family’s questions:

Were witnesses allowed to change their testimony on key details, as alleged by one investigator? Why did internal documents on the case, such as the initial casualty report, include false information? When did top Pentagon officials know that Tillman’s death was caused by friendly fire, and why did they delay for five weeks before informing his family?

“There have been so many discrepancies so far that it’s hard to know what to believe,” Mary Tillman said. “There are too many murky details.” The files the family received from the Army in March are heavily censored, with nearly every page containing blacked-out sections; most names have been deleted. (Names for this story were provided by sources close to the investigation.) At least one volume was withheld altogether from the family, and even an Army press release given to the media has deletions. On her copies, Mary Tillman has added competing marks and scrawls — countless color-coded tabs and angry notes such as “Contradiction!” “Wrong!” and “????”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/25/MNGD7ETMNM1.DTL

[Ilsa]

1. The Freepers don't know what to think, but they are more

cpncerned with troop morale than discovering the truth.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1590069/posts

What is it with the military persecuting their own troops?

had a buddy who told me this may have been a "jealousy" situation, but I could scarcely believe such a thing...plus the guy who told me this is prone to conspiracy theories..FWIW

This is going to lead to places noone wants to go. Sad day for our country.

Where's that? The end of neo-conservative denial, innocence and naivete for one.


That's the ugly rumor. Someone is feeding this fire. Frankly, it's going to cause nothing but problems for all the guys in the unit. To suggest that this was anything more than an accident can only harm everyone involved.
In war, bad stuff happens

And we thought that with Hackworth consorting with the devil that this kind of nightmare was finished.

Casualties by "friendly fire" aren't at all unusual.

What is unusual is the unending persecution of those who made mistakes.

Who can say now what happened during a night of comabt, without having been there? We don't need more second-guessing because someone wants to find a villain in all this.

Were there any Muslims in his unit?

[othermeans]

2. Tillman was an outspoken critic of the Iraqi War having served

there prior to being sent to Afghanistan. In addition he was an avowed Kerry supporter and was planning on meeting with Noam Chomsky. Some of the details of his death include the burning of his uniform, the disappearance of his daily journal and the fact that he was the only friendly fire casualty in this incident despite other men being with him.

I'm generally not given to conspiracy theories but a football hero turned soldier who speaks out against the war and in favor of Kerry could have swung the election.

[Ilsa]

4. I knew he had spoken out against the war, but I

didn't know he was a Kerry supporter or was planning on meeting N.Chomsky. As much as the Pentagon used Tillman for their own propaganda, I think you are correct: his outspoken support of Kerry could have done in Bushco in the 2004 election.

[IsItJustMe]

3. Pat Tillman’s father is no man to be trifled with.

I saw his father in an interview (more than a year or so ago) and he was very pissed and very suspicious of what went down.

He said that he had received several different stories, from the important folks and from friends, and they were not jiving. I believe he has been contacting congress people ever since.

A determined man that just would not let go.