Army Opens Criminal Probe Into Death of Pat Tillman

[Nbadan]

http://www.azfamily.com/images/news/index/top/20042304_tillman335.jpg
Here's your real hero

Army to open criminal probe of Tillman death
Friendly fire blamed in death of former NFL player in Afghanistan
From Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau
Saturday, March 4, 2006; Posted: 4:55 p.m. EST (21:55 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Defense Department inspector general has directed the Army to open a criminal investigation into the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, CNN learned on Saturday.

Initial reports said Tillman, 27, was shot and killed by Taliban forces during an ambush on April 22, 2004. An investigation later revealed that fellow soldiers shot Tillman, thinking he was part of an enemy force firing at them.

Tillman's family demanded to know why his uniform and armor were burned a day after he was killed and why they were not immediately told he might have been killed by fellow soldiers.

A 2005 report from Brig. Gen. Gary Jones contained sworn statements from soldiers involved in the incident who said they burned the items because they had taken pictures of the scene, walked around and knew how Tillman had been killed.

Initially, Tillman's blood-covered uniform and armor were said to have been destroyed because they were considered a biohazard.

more:CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/04/tillman)

Let's get the investigation going and make it STICK. I'd love to know who ordered up Tillmans B/S cover story when he was killed.

[Nbadan]

On a related note, the Armed Forces have blocked access to WonKette.com (which recently featured one of our threads our their site) and other sites that do not tow the 'company line'...


http://news.globalfreepress.com/images/bush/08_rights.jpg


KEY EXCERPTS:

Folks, our fighting boys need your help. Here's the email we received today from one of them:

Just to let you know, the US Marines have blocked access to “Wonkette” along with numerous other sites such as personal email (i.e. Yahoo, AT&T, Hotmail, etc), blogs that don't agree with the government point of view, personal websites, and some news organizatons. This has taken effect as of the beginning of February. I have no problem with them blocking porn sites (after all it is a government network), but cutting off access to our email and possibly-not-toeing-the-government-line websites is a bit much.

Initially all web blocking was done locally at the hub sites in Iraq. If you wanted a site “unblocked” you just had to email the local administrator with a reason (like, “I'd like to read my email, please.”), and if it wasn't porn or offensive, they'd allow it. Now, all blocking is done by desk-weenies at the USMC Network Operations Center in Quantico, VA, who really don't care if we get our email (or gossip) out here, as they get to go to happy hour after working 9 to 5 and go home to a nice clean, warm home with a real bed! (Sorry, I'm a little peeved.)

FULL TEXT: Wonkette (http://wonkette.com/politics/iraq/were-bringing-the-war-back-home-157660.php)

[boutons_]

Investigation Launched Into Tillman's Death

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 4, 2006; 6:03 PM

The Army is opening a criminal investigation into the friendly fire death of former NFL player Pat Tillman to probe whether negligent homicide charges should be brought against members of his Ranger unit who killed him in Afghanistan nearly two years ago, according to defense officials.

Pentagon officials notified Tillman's family on Friday that a Defense Department Inspector General's review of the case had determined there was enough evidence to warrant a fresh look, after initial investigations that were characterized by secrecy, mishandling of evidence, and delays in reporting crucial facts about what had happened.

The Inspector General's review was launched in August after bitter and public complaints by the Tillman family that the Pentagon had failed to hold anyone accountable for the April 22, 2004 shooting or to fully explain its circumstances. Mary Tillman has expressed deep frustration about what she calls a succession of "lies" she has been told about her son's death.

The Army originally reported that Tillman was killed in a fierce firefight with enemy forces in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, and officials heralded his heroism with a tale of how he was charging a hill against the enemy when he was shot. Weeks later, after a national televised memorial service, the Army revealed that he had been gunned down by members of his own unit who rounded a corner in a Humvee and mistook him and a coalition Afghan fighter for the enemy.

Mary Tillman said Saturday that she believes evidence of a crime has existed all along, and that the family's repeated calls for a criminal investigation were ignored until now. "It is completely obvious that this should have been done from the very beginning," she said. "The military has had every opportunity to do the right thing and they haven't. They knew all along that something was seriously wrong and they just wanted to cover it up."

Patrick Tillman Sr. expressed skepticism that the new investigation will yield additional answers. "I think it's another step," he said. "But if you send investigators to reinvestigate an investigation that was falsified in the first place, what do you think you're going to get?"

The loss of Tillman -- a popular Arizona Cardinals football player before joining the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- rattled the Army in part because of the controversy over the nature of his death and the interactions with his family. Another friendly fire incident just days after Tillman's death, in Iraq, also included delays in notifying family members and confusion about what happened. Army officials have been working to improve the information flow to families of soldiers who die in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Col. Joseph Curtin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said the Army would open an investigation to examine whether soldiers violated military law when they failed to identify their targets before opening fire on Tillman's position.

Although there have been several military investigations into the Tillman shooting, this will be the first criminal investigation. A defense official said that it will likely focus on the potential charge of negligent homicide, which means investigators will try to determine if soldiers fired recklessly without intending to kill their fellow soldier.

"We want to do the right thing for the family," Curtin said. "We owe it to the family. We owe them the truth."

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday that the Defense Department has not come to any conclusions about the case nor has it determined that there was evidence of wrongdoing. He said the Inspector General's findings indicate instead that there should have been a criminal investigation for possible negligent homicide opened at the time of the incident and that the proper procedures were not followed. He said the Army criminal investigation could yield the same conclusions as earlier probes.

Although it took weeks for the Army to reveal publicly that Tillman's death was fratricide, the first Army investigator to look into the shooting discovered within days of the incident that Tillman was killed by his fellow Rangers, in what he concluded was an act of "gross negligence," according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Soldiers admitted to emptying their high-powered weapons at an Afghan Militia Force soldier working with the Rangers and then on Tillman's position without knowing what exactly was in their sights. The Afghan soldier also was killed, and a U.S. soldier hiding near Tillman, behind a rock, survived.

The investigator later complained to Army officials that, in subsequent investigations, he felt the military chain of command allowed soldiers to change their stories to protect individuals, and that the punishments did not fit with his finding of gross negligence. Seven soldiers were given various administrative punishments for violations ranging from dereliction of duty to citation of a team leader for failing to effectively command and control the fire and movement of his Rangers.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

[boutons_]

March 5, 2006

Tillman Probe Will Be Fifth Into Shooting
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:41 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army criminal investigation that attempts to cut through the fog of war shrouding the friendly fire death of former football player Pat Tillman could end with a case before a military court or no action at all.

For the military and the Tillman family, the fifth formal probe into the shooting could put to rest unanswered questions about the Army Ranger's death along a canyon road near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in April 2004.

''The prior reviews had a certain sense of cover-ups than an honest full-fledged review,'' Dan Goure, a defense analyst at the research firm Lexington Institute, said Sunday. ''It's essentially to raise it a notch from a standard review to a now criminal review. When you have people taking testimony under oath, it makes it harder to cover things.''

The Army first reported that enemy fire killed Tillman. Later, military officials acknowledged that he had been shot during a confused confrontation between his unit and other U.S. troops. The military's handling of the case has angered the Tillman family.

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, promised Tillman's family on Sunday that investigators will examine all the facts in the criminal investigation. The Defense Department's inspector general determined it was an additional step that needed to be taken even though there is no evidence of criminal activity, Pace said.

A Pentagon official told The Associated Press on Saturday that a criminal investigation would focus on possible charges of negligent homicide. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the new investigation had not formally begun.

Investigators want to look into whether fire by the friendly forces was ''fire that should have been going on or was someone potentially firing a weapon when they should not have been,'' Pace said on NBC's ''Meet the Press.''

The Army Criminal Investigation Command likely will prepare a report based on any available evidence in the incident in which Tillman was shot by fellow soldiers in what previous military reviews had concluded was an accident, said an Army official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

A decision on a course of action, which may also include nonjudicial punishment such as a written reprimand, would be made by a unit commander. The commander also has the power to convene a court martial, in consultation with a staff judge advocate attorney, the official said.

Tillman, 27, played football for the Arizona Cardinals but left the NFL to join the Army after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He died on April 22, 2004, when struck by gunfire during a firefight along a canyon road near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Army said at the time that the barrage of bullets came from enemy fire.

A report by the Army later found that troops with Tillman knew at the time that friendly fire had killed the football star. Officers destroyed critical evidence and concealed the truth from Tillman's brother, also an Army Ranger, who was nearby, the report found.

More than three weeks after a memorial service in San Jose, Calif., the Army announced on May 29, 2004, that friendly fire rather than an enemy encounter had caused Tillman's death. However, even at the time of the memorial top Army officials were aware that the investigation showed the death had been caused by an act of ''gross negligence,'' the report said.

Tillman's parents have been highly critical of the Army for its handling of questions about their son's death. Reached Saturday night by The Washington Post, Patrick Tillman Sr. remained skeptical.

''I think it's another step,'' Tillman said. ''But if you send investigators to reinvestigate an investigation that was falsified in the first place, what do you think you're going to get?''

Finding out what happened and releasing all the facts is important for the Army as well as the Tillman family, said George Joulwan, a retired four-star Army general and former NATO commander.

''It think it's better late than never,'' Joulwan said.

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Associated Press writers Hope Yen and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

* Copyright 2006 The Associated Press

[scott]

Bush must have ordered Tillman's death because he's a Cowboys fan.