[Sosfbay-discuss] Tillman was apparently fragged! Murdered by M-16 at close range

[JamBoi]

I suspected this all along so I'm not in the least
surprised.  Saddened but not surprised.


Green is Truth!

Drew Johnson

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_re_us/tillman_friendly_fire

AP: New details on Tillman's death

By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer Thu Jul 26, 7:59
PM ET

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 NFL
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 that
the bullet holes 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.

Ultimately, the Pentagon 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
non-criminal, 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 couldn't 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.

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.

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 and looks
forward to the congressional hearings next week.

"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 autopsied
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 the 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 that 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 ..."

___

Associated Press reporters Scott Lindlaw in Las Vegas
and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this
story.


___________________

JamBoi: Jammy, The Sacred Cow Slayer
The Green Parties' #1 Blogger
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

"To the brave belong all things"
Celt's invading Etrusca reply to nervous Romans around 400BC

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)


       
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