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Soldier: Army ordered me not to tell truth about Tillman
Published: 4/24/07, 8:00 PM EDT

The last soldier to see Army Ranger Pat Tillman alive, Spc. Bryan
O'Neal, told lawmakers that he was warned by superiors not to divulge --
especially to the Tillman family -- that a fellow soldier killed
Tillman.
O'Neal particularly wanted to tell fellow soldier Kevin Tillman, who was
in the convoy traveling behind his brother at the time of the 2004
incident in Afghanistan.

"I wanted right off the bat to let the family know what had happened,
especially Kevin, because I worked with him in a platoon and I knew that
he and the family all needed to know what had happened," O'Neal
testified. "I was quite appalled that when I was actually able to speak
with Kevin, I was ordered not to tell him."

Asked who gave him the order, O'Neal replied that it came from his
battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.

"He basically just said ... 'Do not let Kevin know, that he's probably
in a bad place knowing his brother's dead,' " O'Neal told House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. "And he
made it known I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it
being fratricide."

The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how
Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan
mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee.

Also Tuesday, former Pfc. Jessica Lynch told the House panel that the
military lied about her capture.

Lynch testified that after her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March
2003, she suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot,
shattered femur and even a sexual assault.

But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her
parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all
repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West
Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said.

"It was not true," she said before gently chiding the military. "The
truth is always more heroic than the hype."

Waxman, D-California, said the military "invented" tales about Tillman
and Lynch.

"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth,"
Waxman said. "That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."

Brother calls tale 'calculated lies'

As the tide was turning in the U.S. battle against Afghan insurgents --
and as media outlets prepared to release reports on detainee abuse at
Abu Ghraib in Iraq -- the military saw Pat Tillman's death as an
"opportunity," Kevin Tillman told the panel.

Even after it became clear the report was bogus, the military clung to
the "utter fiction" that Pat Tillman was killed by a member of his
platoon who was following the rules of engagement, the brother said.

"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another
political disaster during a month already swollen with disasters," Kevin
Tillman said. "The facts needed to be suppressed. An alternative
narrative had to be constructed, crucial evidence destroyed."

Tillman bristled at the military claim that the initial report was
merely misleading.

Clearly resentful, he told the panel that writing a field report stating
that his brother had been "transferred to an intensive care unit for
continued CPR after most of his head had been taken off by multiple .556
rounds is not misleading."

"These are deliberate and calculated lies," he said.

Pat Tillman, who became a national hero after he gave up a lucrative
contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to join the Army's elite
Rangers force, was awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest
combat decoration, after the Army said he was killed leading a
counterattack.

O'Neal testified that his superiors had him write a statement about the
incident for Tillman's Silver Star commendation. He said the final
version contained false statements about enemy fire that had been
inserted by someone else.

Thomas F. Gimble, the Defense Department's acting inspector general,
said that investigators could not determine who altered O'Neal's
statement and that no attempt was made to examine the document's
electronic history.

The Army later acknowledged that not only that Tillman was killed by his
fellow soldiers, but that officers in Tillman's chain of command knew
the counterattack story was bogus.

Still, Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White told the official
heroism-under-fire story at a May 3, 2004, memorial service for Tillman.

"It's a horrible thing that happened with Pat," White, a Navy SEAL who
was Tillman's friend, told the committee. "I'm the guy that told America
how he died, basically, at that memorial. It was incorrect. That does
not sit well with me."

Though the military blamed the erroneous report on an inadequate initial
investigation, Mary Tillman told ESPN Radio last month that everyone
involved in the shooting knew immediately that her son had been shot
three times in the head by a member of his platoon.

"The Tillman family was kept in the dark for more than a month," Waxman
said. "Evidence was destroyed. Witness statements were doctored. The
Tillman family wants to know how all of this could've happened."

Lynch: Truth 'not always easy'

Lynch's testimony began with a recollection of the March 23, 2003,
attack and her purported rescue nine days later.

As she and her fellow 11 soldiers drove through Nassiriya, Iraq, they
noticed armed men standing in the streets and on rooftops. Three
soldiers were quickly killed when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed
into their vehicle, Lynch said.

The other eight died in the ensuing fighting or from injuries suffered
during the fighting, she said. Lynch later woke up at Saddam Hussein
General Hospital.

"When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not
call for help. I could not fight," she said, explaining she had a
six-inch gash in her head and numerous broken bones. "The nurses at the
hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one
point to return me to Americans."

On April 1, U.S. troops came for her.

"A soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his
uniform, and he handed it to me in my hand and he told me, 'We're
American soldiers, and we're here to take you home.' And I looked at him
and I said, 'Yes, I'm an American soldier, too,' " she recalled.

She was distraught to come home and find herself billed as a hero when
two of her fellow soldiers had fought bravely until the firefight's end
and another had died after picking up soldiers and removing them from
harm's way.

"The American people are capable of determining their own ideals for
heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate lies," she said. "I had
the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like
Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity.

"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic
than the hype," she said.

Lynch became a celebrity after U.S. troops filmed what they said was a
daring raid on the hospital. Hospital staffers, however, said there were
no Iraqi troops at the hospital when the purported rescue took place.

In the March 23, 2003, attack, Lynch, the Army claimed, was shot and
stabbed during a fierce gun battle with Iraqi troops that left 11 of her
comrades dead. It was later learned that Lynch never fired a shot during
the firefight because her gun was jammed with sand.


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this whole mess does point out that todays officers in the service
may be more politician than soldier...and therein lies the problem.

I noticed no comments from the pro-Bush squad....


Where are the sheep????????????

here's another angle they are currently investigating as well. This is
gonna be long but, it's the whole tillman story...

New panel to investigate all the lies, foul play, deaths and cover ups
surrounding the Tillman and Lynch cases may be another whitewash

A U.S. House committee has announced it will hold hearings to
investigate misleading military statements that followed the friendly
fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica
Lynch in Iraq.

As reported by the Associated Press , the House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing will be part of its
investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public.

It will “examine 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,”
the panel said on its Web site.

The House Armed Services Committee also is considering Tillman hearings,
a spokeswoman for that panel said Monday.

The Tillman and Lynch cases are two clear and blatant examples of how
the government has consistently lied to the public about events during
both the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, often spinning situations and
distorting reality in order to put the US military occupations in a
better light.

We have covered both cases extensively and exposed the propaganda and
the cover ups that have followed, now it seems, rather encouragingly,
that some within the House are taking an interest in uncovering the
truth and exposing the lies perpetrated by the Neocon White House war
machine.

The Lynch case is well documented. In 2003 facing flack and extreme
criticism the Bush administration orchestrated a clear piece of war
propaganda in an effort to rally the people behind the troops and the
Invasion of Iraq.

In April 2003 the US Army’s 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company took a
wrong turning near Nassiriya and was ambushed by Iraqi soldiers. Nine of
Lynch’s US comrades were killed. The Iraqis took Lynch to the local
hospital, where she was kept for eight days.

The Iraqi soldiers fled the hospital days before Lynch’s rescuers
stormed it. The doctors there, having already tried and failed to return
Lynch to the Americans after they fired upon an ambulance which she was
being transported in, described the “rescue” as a Hollywood show , as
special forces stormed in with cameras rolling.

“It was like a Hollywood film. They cried, ‘Go, go, go’, with guns and
blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show - an action movie
like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan, with jumping and shouting,
breaking down doors.” one doctor later recounted.

First, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq was ordered by CENTCOM to tell
journalists that soldiers exchanged fire during the Rambo like rescue,
without adding that Iraqi soldiers had already abandoned the hospital,
then the military released a green-tinted night-vision film of the
mission, adding to the drama.

Releasing its five-minute film to the networks, the Pentagon then
claimed that Lynch had stab and bullet wounds, and that she had been
slapped about on her hospital bed, interrogated and possibly even raped.

Then news organizations began repeating reports that Lynch had
heroically resisted capture, emptying her gun as she fired at her
attackers.

But subsequent disclosures have proved all those details to be complete
fabrications. Lynch was badly injured by the crash of her vehicle, her
weapon jammed before she could fire, the Iraqi doctors made friends with
her and treated her kindly, and the hospital was already in friendly
hands when her rescuers arrived.

Asked by the ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer after the event if the
military’s portrayal of the rescue bothered her, Lynch said: “Yeah, it
does. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff.
Yeah, it’s wrong,”.

Lynch went on the record quickly and has since gone on to denounce the
whole debacle as outright propaganda. This was perhaps wise given that
four of Lynch’s rescuers and colleagues have coincidentally died since.

Petty Officer First Class David M. Tapper died of wounds received in
Afghanistan. He took part in the rescue.

Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung was killed in a drive-by shooting. He was also
part of the rescue team.

Spc Josh Daniel Speer died when his car crashed into some trees for no
apparent reason. He was part of the rescue team.

Kyle Edward Williams, who worked in the same company as Lynch, died of
“suicide”.

Will the House committee be investigating these deaths as part of the
hearings?



We have previously reported on how Pat Tillman’s tragic death was also
seized upon and used as a cheap propaganda tool by the government for
the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. His death may have even been
a criminal plot manufactured to this end, a suspicion that both military
investigators and Tillman’s family have repeated.

After his death it was announced that Tillman, the All American poster
boy, the former sporting hero who had traded in his football boots for
army boots after witnessing the 9/11 attacks, had been tragically gunned
down by evil Taliban terrorists whilst he was charging up a hill side to
attack, bellowing orders to fellow Rangers.

A nationally televised memorial service and a Silver Star commendation
cemented Tillman’s place as the nation’s first war hero since the story
of Jessica Lynch’s capture and phony details of her rescue were foisted
on the public in 2003.

The truth was that Tillman’s death was being exploited for public
relations purposes by the U.S. military and the administration.

Weeks later, the Army acknowledged that Tillman had been a victim of
friendly fire whilst on a routine patrol.

Tillman’s platoon of the Second Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, began
the day that he died dealing with a minor annoyance in the southeastern
part of Afghanistan where the soldiers were conducting sweeps, the Army
records show, one of their vehicles would not start.

Against their own policy and after the overruling of some objections,
the platoon split into two parts so that half the team, including
Tillman, could go on to the next town for sweeps while the second half
could tow the disabled vehicle to a drop-off spot.

But both groups ended up in the same twisting canyon, along the same
road, without radio communication. And after the sounds of an enemy
ambush, three Rangers in the second group wound up firing at members of
the first group — at an Afghan soldier who was fighting alongside
Tillman, and then at Tillman himself.

The Afghan was killed. According to testimony, Tillman, who along with
others on the hill waved his arms and yelled “cease fire,” set off a
smoke grenade to identify his group as fellow soldiers. There was a
momentary lull in the firing, and he and the soldier next to him,
thinking themselves safe, relaxed, stood up and started talking. But the
shooting resumed. Tillman was hit in the wrist with shrapnel and in his
body armor with numerous bullets.

The soldier next to him testified: “I could hear the pain in his voice
as he called out, ‘Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat f—ing Tillman,
dammit.” He said this over and over until he stopped,” having been hit
by three bullets in the forehead, killing him.

It was also admitted that soldiers destroyed evidence — Tillman’s
uniform and flak vest — after the shooting, claiming that they were a
“biohazard”. However another soldier involved offered a contradictory
take, saying “the uniform and equipment had blood on them and it would
stir emotion” that needed to be suppressed until the Rangers finished
their work overseas.

An initial investigation by then-Capt. Richard Scott, interviewed all
four shooters, their driver, and many others who were there. He
concluded within a week that while some of the gunmen demonstrated
“gross negligence” others demonstrated “criminal intent” and recommended
further investigation to push for the harshest possible criminal
sentencing.

But Scott’s report disappeared after circulating briefly among a small
corps of high-ranking officers. Some of Tillman’s relatives think the
Army buried the report because its findings indicated foul play. Army
officials refused to provide a copy to the media, saying no materials
related to the investigation could be released. A second investigation
was then commenced by a higher ranking officer which called for less
severe punishment.

Richard Scott later gave testimony alleging that Army officials allowed
witnesses to change key details in their sworn statements so his
findings could be softened.

Scott stated “watching some of these guys getting off, what I thought …
was a lesser of a punishment than what they should’ve received. And I
will tell you, over a period of time … the stories have changed. They
have changed to, I think, help some individuals.”

The document containing Scott’s testimony was reviewed by the San
Francisco Chronicle . In a published story in September 2005 the
Chronicle highlighted the following passage from Scott:

“They had the entire chain of command (inaudible) that were involved,
the [deleted], all sticking up for [deleted] … And the reason the
[deleted] called me in … because the [deleted] … changed their story in
how things occurred and the timing and the distance in an attempt to
stick up for their counterpart, implied, insinuated that the report
wasn’t as accurate as I submitted it …”

In another section of his testimony, he said witnesses changed details
regarding “the distance, the time, the location, the lighting conditions
and the positioning” in Tillman’s killing.

There are many other examples of conflicting testimony in the Tillman
case including the fact that he may not have been killed immediately and
was certainly given CPR hours after being shot in the head three times.

At least one Army officer, the records show, changed his sworn
statements about which supervisor had actually ordered the split of the
platoon and what conversations had occurred before the order was given.

A further review of the case by the Pentagon’s inspector general,Gen.
Gary M. Jones found that Army officers told soldiers to remain quiet
about the circumstances of Tillman’s death for fear of negative news
coverage.

One or more members of the Tillman family will testify in the new
hearings, in addition to Jessica Lynch herself.

The Tillman family have been very reluctantly outspoken since the tragic
Death of Pat Tillman, “All I asked for is what happened to my son, and
it has been lie after lie after lie,” Tillman’s father told the New York
Times , explaining that he believed the matter should remain “between me
and the military” but that he had grown too troubled to keep silent.

Quoted elsewhere Mr Tillman has stated “The administration clearly was
using this case for its own political reasons… This cover-up started
within minutes of Pat’s death, and it started at high levels. This is
not something that (lower-ranking) people in the field do,” he said.

“After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of
their way to script this,” Mr Tillman has said. “They purposely
interfered with the investigation …. I think they thought they could
control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going
to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out.”

Mr Tillman is certain that a cover up has been perpetrated and believes
his son’s death may not even have been an accident.

“There is so much nonstandard conduct, both before and after Pat was
killed, that you have to start to wonder,” Mr. Tillman said. “How much
effort would you put into hiding an accident? Why do you need to hide an
accident?”

Kevin Tillman, Pat’s brother (pictured above) has also been very
outspoken and recently slammed the Bush administration and the war in
Iraq in a lengthy article . Kevin Tillman wrote:

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are
allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated. Somehow
profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated. Somehow the death of
tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated. Somehow
subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country
safe. Somehow torture is tolerated. Somehow lying is tolerated.Indeed,
it has been revealed since his death that Pat Tillman was himself highly
critical of the war in Iraq where he also served a tour of duty. Fellow
soldiers have described the well spoken, well educated Tillman as having
strong views, often openly stating “this war is so f— illegal.” and
describing Tillman as “totally against Bush.”

Moved in part by the 9/11 attacks, Tillman decided to give up his
career, saying he wanted to fight al Qaeda and help find Osama bin
Laden. He spurned an offer of a three year, $3.6 million NFL contract
extension with Arizona Cardinals and joined the Army in June 2002.

Instead of going to Afghanistan, as Tillman expected, their Ranger
battalion was sent to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in
March 2003.

Word of the new hearings comes three years after Tillman was killed and
two weeks after the Pentagon released the latest findings of its own
investigations into Pat Tillman’s death. The latest report once again
faults as many as nine officers as responsible for mistakes and
irregularities during the investigation into Tillman’s death, but also
dismisses the notion of a cover up, much the same as a previous report
did in 2005.

In all, the Army and Defense Department have conducted five
investigations into Tillman’s April 22, 2004 death, with the most recent
one pointing toward high-ranking military officers knowing the
circumstances of his death long before Tillman’s family.

As reported by the AP, a memo sent to a four-star general a week after
Tillman’s death revealed that then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned
that it was “highly possible” the Army Ranger was killed by friendly
fire. McChrystal made it clear his warning should be conveyed to the
president.

The memo was provided to the AP by a government official who requested
anonymity because the document was not released as part of the
Pentagon’s official report into the way the Army brass withheld the
truth. McChrystal was, and still is, commander of the Joint Special
Operations Command, head of “black ops” forces and was the
highest-ranking officer accused of wrongdoing in the report.

Tillman’s parents have since stated that they believe the memo backs the
cover up theory. “He knew it was friendly fire in the very beginning,
and he never intervened to help, and he essentially has covered up a
crime in order to promote the war,” Mary Tillman said in a telephone
interview. “All of this was done for PR purposes.”

As the AP commented, The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon
was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with
leveling with Tillman’s family.

Although it is encouraging that the high profile Tillman and Lynch cases
are being investigated, it seems there are countless others that should
be deserving of the same treatment. One such example is the case of Jess
Buryj , a soldier from Canton, Ohio, who (it turns out) died in a
friendly fire incident – shot in the back.

When his parents were told by the U.S. military that Polish soldiers
were responsible for his death, a soldier who served with Buryi could
not bear for the truth to be buried and so told Buryi’s parents that an
American G.I. was actually at fault. Buryj’s father was so shaken by the
alleged cover-up that he came to question whether the body they buried
was even their son’s.

Again and again, the press, the public, parents and spouses have been
lied to about how young Americans in the military have died. The lies
and the propaganda are endemic, just as the Bush government cannot
afford to allow Americans to see flag draped coffins coming home, nor
can they allow the truth of the war machine to be exposed and jeopardize
their international killing spree.