There comes a time when the lies become so blatant, so obvious that shock overcomes incredulousness and the deteriorating moral bearings of our once proud Republic are laid bare for all to see: Allen L Roland
The Pat Tillman case could bring down the Cheney/Bush Administration for every key top level official, both Pentagon and white House, is involved and they are all apparently lying. Let me lay it out for you. Here is the narrative that Rumsfeld and Myers offered last week ( under oath ) and let's look at this obvious deception in detail ~ together with the known facts ( courtesy of RJ Eskow, Huffington Post )
Then you decide ~ Was a deliberate execution ordered by higher ups of Tillman because he was about to go public with his anti-war views and support kerry in 2004 during a Presidential election campaign or were honest mistakes made by honest men ~ like Donald Rumsfeld ??
The Cheney/Bush administration stonewalled the 9/11 commission before reluctantly allowing it to go ahead but with their own people in charge and Cheney and Bush not having to testify under oath . What were they hiding ??
Pat Tillman's questionable death was stonewalled by top Pentagon Generals until the freedom of Information Act brought it to light . What were they hiding ??
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/28/state/n181202D33.DTL
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/08/04.html
Truth About Tillman ... Murder's Not 'Friendly Fire'
RJ Eskow / Huffington Post / Excerpt /1. Pat Tillman dies. Medical examiners request a fratricide investigation sometime thereafter. Their request is denied.
2. Gen. McChrystal sends a cable to Gen. Abizaid and another general on April 22 urging them to notify the President of this probable fratricide "in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death becomes public."
3. Gen.Abizaid claims he didn't receive it for 10 or 12 days, because he was in Iraq. (They don't have email, or even secure pouches for urgent memos?) Defense Department records later show that Gen. Abizaid was not in Iraq, but was actually in Qatar and Afghanistan - where the killing occurred - during that 10 to 12 days.
4. Gen. Myers learns the true nature of Cpl. Tillman's death in late April, yet - according to his testimony - did not feel the need to inform either the Secretary of Defense or the President.
5. Military records show that dozens of officers knew of the true nature of the Lieutenant's death within days, yet senior officers and Pentagon officials still maintain they didn't know for weeks. (Surprisingly, they did not undertake a massive review of military procedures in order to determine how such a massive series of communications failures could occur - one that eerily affected e very single senior officer with responsibility for this case simultaneously.)
6. The military continues to press the story that Tillman was killed while courageously leading a counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass. (Nice poetic touch, that "mountain pass" - good for recruitment.)
7. A national memorial service is held for Cpl Tillman several days later. The President and others talk about Cpl. Tillman's heroism in that mythical mountain pass - yet Gen. Myers, per his own testimony, still felt no need to inform either the SecDef or the President .
8. Rumsfeld says he was not told the truth until "some time after May 20," or approximately a month after Gen. Myers learned of the incident. Yet he seems strangely undisturbed to learn that the truth was known six weeks earlier and he wasn't informed.
9. Neither Rumsfeld nor the President felt the need to correct the record publicly upon learning the truth.
10. It wasn't until reporters filed a Freedom of Information Act that the following information became public on July 27: ""Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime."
Let's say it again, to be very clear: The White House and Pentagon withheld the facts about this killing until they were legally forced to reveal them months later by Freedom of Information laws. And they never ordered a criminal investigation.
As for the testimony by Myers and Rumsfeld: What they have described is a command structure that was brutally indifferent to the situation on the ground and uninterested in pursuing a murder. Gen. Myers, if he is to be believed, allowed the President and Secretary of Defense to pay tribute to a man as if he had died in combat, knowing full well their words were untrue.
Is that plausible, with everything we know about Rumsfeld? Remember, this is the micromanager who hectored generals on little details, arrogantly told them he knew more than they did about the military, and issued regular memos to a wide range of Pentagon personnel on a variety of topics, great and small.
We are also supposed to believe that Rumsfeld was so uninvolved in the human issues his troops faced that he wasn't informed of the facts on this case - and that once he found out, he was unconcerned about the delay in telling him the facts. And that the President wasn't disturbed enough to order an investigation into the killing. Nor did he or Rumsfeld inform the family, or the nation, that they had been misled - at a hero's funeral.
As the conservatives used to say in the 90's: Character matters. And that's if they're telling the truth ... Can you imagine what we could learn about their character if, as is very possible, they're still lying?
And make no mistake, the beat goes on:
