Monday, July 16, 2007

Bush White House Fine Tunes Nixon Rhetoric

You all should remember the 2004 death of Pat Tillman. Initial reports said that he died at the hands of Taliban fighters. Suspicion grew when it became known that the Pentagon took over 5 weeks to notify Tillman's family of their son's death. It was later reported that the delay was due to the Pentagon's extreme efforts to cut off access to information regarding the actual circumstances of the incident (i.e., cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform).

Initially, the Bush administration used Tillman's death (purportedly at the hands of the enemy) to drum up support for the war. But unfortunately for W, the circumstances of Tillman's death turned out to be much different, and the Pentagon apparently knew it.

Earlier this year, there was news of a memo sent by a top general to the White House which warned there were strong indications that Tillman died of friendly fire and that the President might embarrass himself if he said Tillman died in an ambush. To many, the memo reinforced suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman's family.

At an Oversight Committee hearing in April, U.S. Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal said that he was told by a higher-up to conceal information regarding Tillman's death. In response, the committee asked the White House to provide documentation describing how and when they learned the circumstances of Tillman's death-- but the White House refused, saying that release of the requested documentation would "implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests." Expect more more subpoenas and another showdown with Congress.

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