Pat Tillman doc suspicious

Just_A_Mom

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Report: Tillman doc was suspicious of wounds




By Martha Mendoza - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 27, 2007 7:31:19 EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — 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 professional football player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been criticized in recent months for lying about the circumstances of Tillman’s death. The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. Only weeks later did the Pentagon acknowledge he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.

Related reading:
3-star my be demoted over Tillman death

Ultimately, the Defense Department did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman’s comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
The medical examiners’ suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among other information contained in the documents:
• In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”
• Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or noncriminal, punishments.
• The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and could not recall details of his actions.
• No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene — no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.
With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another hearing next week.
The Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments, including a stinging demotion of retired Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., 60, according to military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the punishments under consideration have not been made public.
In more than four hours of questioning by the Pentagon inspector general’s office in December 2006, Kensinger repeatedly contradicted other officers’ testimony, and sometimes his own. He said on some 70 occasions that he did not recall something.
At one point, he said: “You’ve got me really scared about my brain right now. I’m really having a problem.”
Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking for answers.
“Nothing is going to bring Pat back. It’s about justice for Pat and justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived,” she said.
The documents show that a doctor who performed an autopsy on Tillman’s body was suspicious of the three gunshot wounds to the forehead. The doctor said he took the unusual step of calling the Army’s Human Resources Command and was rebuffed. He then asked an official at the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division if the CID would consider opening a criminal case.
“He said he talked to his higher headquarters and they had said no,” the doctor testified.
Also according to the documents, investigators pressed officers and soldiers on a question Mrs. Tillman has been asking all along.
“Have you, at any time since this incident occurred back on April 22, 2004, have you ever received any information even rumor that Cpl. Tillman was killed by anybody within his own unit intentionally?” an investigator asked then-Capt. Richard Scott.
Scott, and others who were asked, said they were certain the shooting was accidental.
Investigators also asked soldiers and commanders whether Tillman was disliked, whether anyone was jealous of his celebrity, or if he was considered arrogant. They said Tillman was respected, admired and well-liked.
The documents also shed new light on Tillman’s last moments.
It has been widely reported by AP and others that Spc. Bryan O’Neal, who was at Tillman’s side as he was killed, told investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting “Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!” again and again.
But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.
The chaplain said O’Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman’s side, “crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, ‘Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God’s not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ...”
 
Why was Spc. O'Neal "hugging the ground"? Weren't they under attack when Cpl. Pat Tillman died?
 
Apparently they were being shot at by "their own" - there was no enemy fire.
3 bullet holes to the forehead? Geez - how did anyone think this would be covered up?
I am thinking there is a lot more to this story - the coverup goes to a 3 star General. Stay tuned..............................
 
If O'Neal was afraid of being hit also, doesn't that imply that Tilman was not a "deliberate" target?

It's difficult to make the leap that Tilman was "assassinated" just because of the three wounds to his forehead - the only thing that can be concluded is that the people shooting at him were very very accurate.

It has been established that this is a case of "friendly fire", and while tragic to the extreme, if I were a juror in this case, I'd have to see a lot more evidence to support the "assassination" claim before I could find anyone guilty of a crime such as murder.

Of course this opinion is based solely on what was in the posted article. I'll be interested to see what else comes forward in the ensuing investigation. Very interesting J_A_M, thanks for posting.
 
And the saga continues:

Soldier next to Tillman disputes new info



Ranger recalls final moments of former NFL player differently than reported in newly-released documents
By Martha Mendoza - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 29, 2007 10:12:25 EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — As bullets flew above their heads, the young soldier at Pat Tillman’s side started praying.
“I thought I was praying to myself, but I guess he heard me,” Sgt. Bryan O’Neal recalled in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. “He said something like, ‘Hey, O’Neal, why are you praying? God can’t help us now.”’
Tillman’s intent, O’Neal said, was to “more or less put my mind straight about what was going on at the moment.”
“He said, ‘I’ve got an idea to help get us out of this,”’ said O’Neal, who was an 18-year-old Army Ranger in Tillman’s unit when the former NFL professional football player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.
O’Neal said Tillman, a corporal, threw a smoke grenade to identify themselves to fellow soldiers who were firing at them. Tillman was waving his arms shouting “Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!” again and again when he was killed, O’Neal said.
A chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman’s death later described this exchange to investigators conducting a criminal probe of the incident. But O’Neal strongly disputes portions of the chaplain’s testimony, outlined in some 2,300 pages of transcripts released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The chaplain told investigators that O’Neal said Tillman was harsh in his last moments, snapping, ‘Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God’s not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ...”
“He never would have called me ‘sniveling,”’ O’Neal said. “I don’t remember ever speaking to this chaplain, and I find this characterization of Pat really upsetting. He never once degraded me. He’s the only person I ever worked for who didn’t degrade anyone. He wasn’t that sort of person.”
The chaplain’s name is blacked out in the documents.
Tillman gave up a multimillion-dollar football contract to enlist with his brother in the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. It was only weeks later, when the truth was about to be published, did the Pentagon acknowledge that he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.
The Pentagon conducted a criminal investigation and ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
Congress is preparing for another hearing this week, while the Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments.
Soldiers and commanders who worked with Tillman have repeatedly testified that he was respected, admired and well-liked.
In the same testimony, medical examiners said the bullet holes in Tillman’s head were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
O’Neal said the shooters were “close, close enough for me to recognize them, but they sure weren’t 10 yards away. They were further than that. I’ve thought about this plenty of times. They wouldn’t have been more than 50 yards away.”
Another key issue raised in the transcripts involved never-before-mentioned snipers who were apparently there when the firing broke out, got out of their vehicle and walked alongside the convoy, cutting up the canyon firing.
O’Neal said Saturday that he knew there were snipers in the convoy that fired at them, but that he can’t remember their names. Were they fired at by the snipers? “Not that I know of,” O’Neal told the AP.
His recollections of the snipers reflected testimony in the transcripts.
One exchange, for example, with Capt. Richard Scott, who conducted the first, immediate investigation, went only so far:
Q: Are you aware whether or not any U.S. forces snipers were at the scene?
A: Scott: They were in serial two.
Q: And, and do you know whose GMV (ground mobility vehicle) they were traveling in?
A: Scott: I don’t think they were in a GMV. I think they were in a cargo Humvee.
Q: Okay. Do you know if the snipers fired any rounds during this incident involving CPL Tillman?
A: Scott: I do not, no.
 
3-star censured for actions in Tillman case

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/07/army_tillman_070731w/

Retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger could lose one of his stars for allegedly lying to investigators looking into the handling of Cpl. Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death in Afghanistan, Army leaders announced Tuesday.

Kensinger, who at the time was commanding general of Army Special Operations Command, was singled out as the primary reason the Tillman family and many Americans believe the Army tried to cover up the circumstances of the former professional football player’s death....
 
Rumsfeld testifying at Tillman hearing today

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/07/army_rumsfeldtillman_070731/

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday morning about what Defense Department leaders knew about the friendly fire death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the committee confirmed late Tuesday.

The hearing, “The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew,” will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building....
 
They've gone too easy on retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger. To quote from the censure letter:

"To quote Gen. Wallace, ``When you chose to lie about what you knew in order to avoid personal responsibility for your actions, you crossed a line that demands serious rebuke.'' "

He should be demoted to private and stripped of his retirement for his actions.
 
It would not surprise me terribly if he were not simply following orders.
 
What????????????
Are you saying that Gen Kensiger was "simply following orders"?
 
Following orders, following procedures, doing what was expected of him, of course. The White House will most certainly claim executive priviledge, or whatever, not to testify. The White House and Washington politics jumped on his death as if it were a gold mine, using it for all it was worth. Don't pretend that the control freak, SecDef Rumsfield was not all over this whole episode, totally in charge. The coverup did not start with SpecOps. Just my humble opinion.

And the assassination type killing is even more intriguing.
 
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"It would not surprise me terribly if he were not simply following orders."

Me neither, but it's the weakest defense possible.

"And the assassination type killing is even more intriguing."

The plot definately thickens!
 
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