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Tillman's Mother Says General Lied Again About His Death
WASHINGTON - The latest explanation for why Pat Tillman's Silver Star citation failed to mention that friendly fire killed the former NFL star in Afghanistan is another lie by the U.S. military, Tillman's mother said Tuesday.
Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan in 2004 after giving up a lucrative NFL career to serve in the Army.
Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan in 2004 after giving up a lucrative NFL career to serve in the Army. Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan in 2004 after giving up a lucrative NFL career to serve in the Army.
Mary Tillman was responding to remarks made Tuesday by the general nominated to lead Allied forces in Afghanistan, who apologized before a Senate committee for his role in the matter.
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he helped expedite the Silver Star award for Tillman before confirming that the Army corporal was killed by friendly fire in 2004.
Tillman's family has long complained that the memorial service, which included the Silver Star presentation, deliberately avoided mention of fratricide.
McChrystal acknowledged the problem Tuesday, calling it a mistake. He said the Silver Star citation was "not well-written" but denied any intent to mislead.
"I didn't see any activity by anyone to deceive," he said.
Mary Tillman said McChrystal knew at the memorial service that her son died from friendly fire.
"McChrystal was lying," she said of his comments Tuesday. "He said he didn't know for certain Pat was killed by fratricide. That isn't true in and of itself, but the fact is, it doesn't matter whether he knew it for certain."
Army protocol at the time required families to be told of possible fratricide, whether or not it had been confirmed, she said.
She also criticized Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the committee, who questioned McChrystal on Tuesday, for "playing dumb" by not following up on McChrystal's explanation.
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"If the Army chain of command didn't know what happened to Pat, why did it present us with a false story" at the memorial service? Tillman asked. "That is not an error; that is not a misstep; that is deliberate deception. McCain was at Pat's service. He was read a false narrative like the rest of us. Where is his outrage? Did he know all along?"
Investigations by the Army's Criminal Investigations Division and the Defense Department's inspector general concluded that officers in Tillman's chain of command knew almost immediately that he had been killed by fire from his own platoon. That information, however, was withheld from his family for more than a month, in violation of Army regulations.
McChrystal, one of four generals identified in the report, was later cleared in the investigation but was faulted for not immediately notifying Tillman's family of suspicions that it was a friendly fire incident.
On Tuesday, McChrystal said the mistake in the Tillman situation involved attempts to simultaneously support the awarding of a Silver Star while investigating the reports that he died from friendly fire.
A policy to have awards approved in time to present them to families at memorial ceremonies should be changed to prevent competing pressures, McChrystal said.
"I would do this differently if I had the chance again," he said.
Asked whether he believed that Tillman earned the Silver Star before his death, McChrystal said: "I did then; I do now. ... I don't believe that the circumstance of death detracts from the courage and commitment of his contribution."
Later, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, pressed McChrystal harder on the issue, prompting the general to agree that the Army had failed the Tillman family.
"I was a part of that, and I apologize for it," McChrystal said.
CNN's Scott Bronstein contributed to this story.
22 Comments so far
Show Allms. tillman, your loss is a tragedy.
having our military and political leaders sell the lie and then play dumb is not.
Nothing in his record will stop the confirmation of the lying sociopath McChrystal. It's another show hearing. Obama has bequeathed it so it's a done deal. Besides, the critters must get back to the most important mission they have, fundraising.
The negligence and dereliction of Congress for the last twenty years is insulting to every American who remembers what they used to be, warts and all. Imagine Watergate hearings taking place today? Never. It's not politically expedient.
The law is now an option for the president. He don't need no stinking laws.
Congress should quit wasting time and get on with it.
McCryptkeeper needs to hurry back to the killing fields.
Do you think anybody ever made the rank of major, let alone general, without telling lies ??? Lots of lies.
I remember it being a banner case of courage! Tillman, charging into fire, or some false story.
That story was no accident!
McChrystal murdered Tillman in cold blood because he was going to go to Chomsky and spill the beans about what he had witnessed in his short time in the country. The McChrystal strike team of murderers and torturers intercepted the email to his parents detailing his plans and sought him out in his unit and shot him between the eyes and destroyed the body to prevent any of the atrocity to be revealed in any subsequent autopsy. Pure and simple McAhrystal and his entire JOSC assassination/torture team should be fried immediately.
He is just a goddamned redneck baby killer, who works for Cheney---still.
This is the second time I have heard about this story.
Curious. Where did you get this information? How do you know it is the truth?
If this is the truth then this is a story that needs to get out, but I won't help spread the info unless I see where the information came from.
Please don't take offense, but so much stuff is spewed on this website without any links for people to verify it.
Links are a problem. The site needs renewed technology which allows for smart links, just like HuffPo. It suffers greatly. Links need to be cleverly disguised and concatenated to work and that is not necessary with newer 2.0/3.0 technology.
Where (?) was the first time you heard of this story as I am willing to give it some major coverage and blast it over the internet. As the truth gets out more will pile on and maybe a breakthrough will occurr. It is necessary to work quickly and not hold on to information for personal puffery but to get it our there before the new CyberCops destroy it.
Or us...
I am pretty sure that I read it right here on another CD comment section... from a random post by somebody... could of been you... i dunno.
That's why I wanted to get some sort of proof of this story...
I entertain this but I have some reservations regarding how a lowly corporal would have access to such detail which you allude to. Please tell me more. I am an old man and have nothing to lose if they come and get me but I have spent 10 years fighting this and would like to go to my final resting place having been instrumental in putting an end to these murderers and bringing a small measure of justice and closure to this unfortunate and continuing chapter in human history.
Come up with more information because I am with you in exposing the horror. This makes perfect sense and is in keeping with Stanley McChrystal's role and his relationship with Cheney and the American oil cartel which would have extreme motivation to pursue such an adventuresome atrocity as this represents. This puts a lot of meat on the bird.
I believe that Yohocoma is mocking your statement about Tillman. He/she wrote extensively in another post as to why he/she believe that the 9/11 truthers were nutjobs.
Yeah. My subsequent post asks some questions which hw doesn't address. Just another troll who mocks us into madness.
Why would they bury them? Why not just drop them out of the plane in the middle of the Atlantic and let them feed the sharks? This burial nicety seems a little bit anal to me and I am not sure that they would risk discovery when all they had to do was feed the sharks.
The excellent progressive sports writer Dave Zirin wrote about Tillman several years ago. He was careful not to directly allege assassination but presented enough information that it seems possible if not likely. Look up the story on www.edgeofsports.com
Other information above regardng caves and such sounds very dubious and serves to discredit what is true.
Tillman learned of thermite in Afghanistan?
I doubt it!
All green Berets have training in such destructive technology. It is just rote knowledge given to all recruits. Part of "Basic".
And to think, had this happened for the same reason (fratricide) to some poor black kid from Mississippi, no one would have ever heard about it.
You are right and one only can guess how many who have met that exact fate.
i had a friend god bless him who committed suicide. he never recovered from being a navy seal. during grenada his best friend was killed by friendly fire. the military lied to the family and my friend went to the family and told them the truth. he then returned to base and broke the jaw of the officer who lied. the military then tossed him out and he never got over the treatment he had gotten from uncle sam. years later he could no longer stand the pain and put a .38 in his mouth. he was true god and country and this country is a sadder place because he is no longer among us! he never believed the truth about the military until it was too late. this is the reality of its lies and fake rules!
I am so very sorry for your loss. I wanted to be a UDT and take the training at Little Creek, Virginia when I was a little boy of 15 but I had the advantage of seeing first hand in Washington,DC what was happening to our country. I am so sorry that your friend had to lose his life for Ronald Reagan's publicity stunt. Reagan was given an honor yesterday by Obama..It just makes you sick to the heart.
I wanted to post on this by at least June 4th, but will post anyway, now that it's June 5th.
The Tillman family have an experience and story that should be made part of U.S. history books and one aspect that I believe should be added is the possibility, or probability, that Pat Tillman was [assassinated]; yes, deliberately murdered. That would have been to silence the trouble-maker, who was a superstar NFL player who had given up his NFL career of fame and wealth to put his life on the line for his country and then came to realise that the war in Afghanistan couldn't be justified, that it never was justifiable. This can lead to someone becoming quite a trouble maker for the real ruling "elites".
From what I've read about the killing of him, it was not just some clumsy U.S. soldier who killed him; it was a [sniper] who did. What's a sniper? A sharpshooter, marksman, ... someone who doesn't make a mistake when aiming. When they aim, they are accurate. It was a serious mistake to kill Pat Tillman, but the shooter had him well in sight, it was not night-time, dark, Pat was dressed in U.S. military gear, the shooter was an expert, and so on. Snipers are experts.
Fatricide? Irrefutably, yes. Deliberate fatricide? All too probably, and (I think) evidently.
The "logic" is that if Pat Tillman, who had already begun to make his oppositional views known and (I think to have also read) to log these in his personal diary while serving in Afghanistan, if he had returned to the USA as an opponent of the war, then then the warmongering U.S. ruling "elites" would've had some serious opposition; it would've certainly been much more threatening to them than it is for average "joes and janes" like us to speak out in oppositional terms. A superstar NFL player who gave up continuing his lucrative career to put his life on the line for his country when he (at first) thought that the President, etcetera, were telling the truth and that the U.S. had cause to war on the Taliban and Afghanistan, now this kind of public opponent back in the USA could have been serious trouble for the ruling "elites". So, the "logic" is that they would want to get rid of such trouble-makers, and would.
I don't know if that theory describes what really happened, or not, but it is a story that is too probable. And McChrystal could have been part of the deliberate cover-up, if this is what really happened. After all, Lt Gen. McChrystal has a track-record of being a fiend from and/or for hell. I haven't read what CNN links to for McChrystal's past, yet, but did a Web search to see what shows up at www.globalresearch.ca and www.uruknet.info and there are a few articles that, based on titles and authors anyway, seem definitely worth reading, or important, or both.
He's evidently psychopath and it's easy for such people to be guilty of cold-blooded violence, while publicly speaking as if they're innocent. After all, they are [cold]-blooded and McChrystal definitely is this; even if the above theory on the reason for Pat Tillman being killed isn't accurate.
I believe that the people who did the analysis that lead to the above theory on Pat Tillman being killed are validly based, and it was, including with reports from some msm news media, determined that the soldier who shot Pat Tillman was a sniper and that he was relatively nearby, not shooting from any serious distance, it was daylight, and ... so on.
Pat Tillman was [visible], in terms of dress or gear, it was daylight, Pat was with a unit of soldiers, instead of alone, the shooter was sniper in terms of calibre and (probably or surely) general role, snipers are highly accurate and definitely are not half blind, etcetera. Yes, I believe it's unfortunately too likely that Pat Tillman was deliberately silenced, assassinated.
Kevin Tillman has written some articles, although I haven't come across any for maybe two or three years, or so, now. He also enlisted like Pat did, for the same or very much same reasons. He also went to Afghanistan and (quickly enough) came to realise that it was not justifiable war. Etcetera.
Mr and Mrs Tillman, though Mrs Tillman seems to be the spokesperson for herself and her husband, who seems to mainly be honourable in terms of family and the U.S. Constitution, ... moral conscience, just that he chooses meditative silence, say, while she "does the talking", and "man" does she. Well, she's been an excellently outspoken, firm, conscientious, ... person; and given that I have not read once that Mr Tillman disagrees with what his wife and son, Kevin, have said, I assume Mr Tillman, the father of Pat and Kevin, agrees and simply chooses the meditative (say) silent way. Given what Mrs Tillman has said for years now, I think it's understandable that her husband just stays silent while she honourably speaks for both.
Kevin has also written important articles, for anyone who cares about what happened to this family and therefore the USA. I'm not sure if I'm recalling this accurately, but believe to recall that he wrote at least one article in which what he described very much seems to be assassination of Pat. Maybe I'm not recalling that correctly; I could be confusing what I vaguely recall of his good articles with what I've read from other people on the killing of Pat. Either way, however, Kevin's articles are to be read and should be easy to find with a Web search.
This family should be noted in U.S. history; for their loss for a corrupt, unjustifiable war that the two sons or the family were suckered into, like many other U.S. citizens. However, the details of the killing need to also be included in the history; daylight, uniformed, shot by a sniper (not some bozo with a gun), becoming opposed to the war and seriously so, and so on. All of the details should be included in the historicity.
Fatricide, by a [sniper], during daylight, killing a uniformed member of a directly associated military unit from the same country, a unit that was tracking down Usama Bin Ladin and other Al Qa'ida "chiefs", the U.S.A.'s FBI still doesn't have any charges against Usama Bin Ladin for the 9-11 attacks, the U.S.A., under GW Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, ... have [never] truly worked to capture Usama Bin Ladin, and so on, and, therefore, never really intended to do so. Rotten as hell is all of this!
The FBI still doesn't list UBL as guilty or charged for the 9-11 attacks! This means that the U.S. Dept of Justice has not charged UBL for these attacks.
"Funky" business is this hellbent imperialist, ... bs! It's rotten as hell. No charges yet against UBL and Al Qa'ida, only mere words of Presidents, VP's, ..., but nothing concrete in the legal system of the superpower USA? BS! Hellbent corrupt, lies, ...!
The "Hidden Hand" in the government of the USA works its ... ways. I recall having read about some U.S. government official having expressed his serious anxiety, concern about the "hidden hand", as he referred to it, the real ruling "elites", back around 1994, I believe. And I saw related symbolism five mornings before 9-11; nothing about the 9-11 attacks, but definitely what followed, since. It was symbolism of "I couldn't have imagined it" kind; it clearly warned of war of aggression, carpet bombing(s), conquest and domination (or efforts for that), and the imperial, ... "hidden hand", a big hand, and given the positioning, etcetera, it did seem to be a whole symbolism that represented that conquest and domination's achieved. That, however, is not an absolute certainty; it's just what the symbolism could be interpreted as meaning.