Pentagon lied about NFL player's death, alleges kin

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Pentagon lied about NFL player's death, alleges kin
By DPA, Apr 25, 2007 - 10:39:39 AM

Washington, April 25 - The Pentagon conspired to cover up American football star Pat Tillman's friendly fire death in Afghanistan to portray him as a hero in the war on terrorism, the soldier's brother alleged.

Kevin Tillman, who served in the same platoon in Afghanistan as Pat, Tuesday said the Pentagon purposefully withheld the true circumstances of his death from the family and sought to distract the public from the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq.

'These are deliberate and calculated lies,' Tillman said during his frequently emotional testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

'To our family and friends, it was a devastating loss. To the nation, it was a moment of disorientation. To the military, it was a nightmare. But to others within the government, it appears to have been an opportunity,' Tillman said.

Corporal Pat Tillman died on April 22, 2004 in eastern Afghanistan after his platoon was ambushed. Tillman's death made international headlines because he gave up a $3.6 million contract to play in the National Football League for the Arizona Cardinals and instead enlisted in the Army.

The Pentagon initially told the family he was shot in the head by enemy fire, but weeks later it emerged it was a case of fratricide. An internal report released by the Pentagon in March found that serious errors were committed in the several investigations of his death but that it remained an accident.

Kevin Tillman disputed those findings, saying the American soldiers knew 'friendlies' were in the area receiving fire but continued shooting in a 'series of careless actions by several individuals in our own platoon after a small harassing ambush'.

'The content of the multiple investigations reveal a series of contradictions that strongly suggest deliberate and careful misrepresentations,' Tillman said.

Another soldier who arrived on the scene before the slain soldier's brother told the committee he was instructed by his commanding officer not to reveal that it was a friendly fire incident.

'I was ordered not to tell him what happened, sir,' Specialist Bryan O'Neal told the panel's chairman, Representative Henry Waxman. 'And he made it known that I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it being fratricide.'

Tillman's death occurred days before photos emerged showing US soldiers abusing and humiliating prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility in a scandal that sparked domestic and international outrage and badly damaged American credibility.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened hearings Tuesday to examine alleged Pentagon deceptions in the war on terrorism, including the portrayal of Private First Class Jessica Lynch's capture by Iraqi forces and subsequent rescue during the early days of the March 2003 invasion.

Lynch's convoy was ambushed by Iraqi soldiers near Nasiriyah in an assault that killed 11 US troops. Lynch was taken by the Iraqis to a hospital in the city and US soldiers, acting on a tip, snuck into the facility and rescued her in a mission videotaped and distributed to the media.

The US media began publishing reports citing Pentagon officials that Lynch bravely fought off her Iraqi assailants by firing her handgun until she ran out of ammunition and was taken as a prisoner of war. Lynch said she was later overwhelmed with repeated stories of 'the little girl Rambo from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting'.

'It was not true,' she said.

'I'm still confused as to why they choose to lie and try to make me a legend, when the real heroes of my fellow soldiers that day were legendary,' she added.

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