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No thread yet on the Jessica Lynch/Tillman family testimony? I'm not sure if this is the low point in Bush administration mendacity, but it is especially pathetic; the fact that the administration had to manufacture heroism points to just how debased their efforts are. The lion's share of the attention is going to Tillman's family, but I actually find Lynch's testimonty more moving; publicly repudiating her own "heroism" can't be easy, and her willingness to note that the Iraqis actually saved her life is more heroic than anything the chicken hawks attributed to her. There's also something particularly nasty about the fact that they were making this crap up about their war while getting ready to smear John Kerry's record in the war Bush, Cheney, and Rove all ducked.
Jessica Lynch
Kevin Tillman
Speaking truth to power
This whole f*cking administration
Panel Hears About Falsehoods in 2 Wartime Incidents
By MICHAEL LUO
WASHINGTON, April 24 — House Democrats burrowed into the histories of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch and Cpl. Pat Tillman in a hearing on Tuesday, holding up the episodes as egregious examples of officials’ twisting the truth for public relations in wartime.
They received help in making their case from witnesses who have mostly shied from the spotlight, Ms. Lynch and Corporal Tillman’s mother, Mary, and brother, Kevin, who enlisted in the Army along with him after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary,” said Ms. Lynch, speaking softly but firmly into the microphone as more than 12 photographers clicked away in front of her.
Accounts from officials of Ms. Lynch’s bravery held the nation in thrall in the early stages of the Iraq invasion in 2003 after her maintenance convoy went astray near Nasiriya and she was taken prisoner. After her rescue, which was made into a television movie, she disputed those who said she fought off Iraqi soldiers until she was captured. She never fired a shot, she restated on Tuesday.
The “story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting” was untrue, she said.
Kevin Tillman was scathing in his assessment of how his brother’s death in Afghanistan in 2004, which was later determined to be a result of American fire, was initially portrayed by the military as an act of heroism in the face of enemy fire.
“A terrible tragedy that might have further undermined support for the war in Iraq was transformed into an inspirational message that served instead to support the nation’s foreign policy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mr. Tillman said.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, promised to take his quest for answers in the case, which drew most of the questions from lawmakers, to the highest levels of the Bush administration.
“We don’t know what the secretary of defense knew,” said Mr. Waxman, who has made himself a thorn in the administration’s side since Democrats took over control of the House in January. “We don’t know what the White House knew. These are questions this committee seeks answers to.”
Mr. Tillman, who was posthumously promoted to corporal and awarded the Silver Star for valor, inspired legions after he quit his spot as a star defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals professional football team to be an Army Ranger.
The Army recently completed two inquiries into his death. The investigations found that even though soldiers and commanders suspected almost immediately after the death that it was accidental fratricide, Corporal Tillman’s family was not notified about the true circumstances until more than a month later, a violation of Army rules.
The report from the inspector general’s office in the Defense Department singled out four generals and five other officers for potential discipline but said that they had done nothing criminal and that there was no broader cover-up.
The report was especially critical, however, of Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., head of the Army Special Operations Command at the time of Corporal Tillman’s death. The document said General Kensinger most likely knew of the suspected fratricide before a nationally televised memorial service on May 3 that he and the Tillman family attended.
The oversight committee had requested that General Kensinger testify on Tuesday, but he declined through a lawyer, citing his constitutional right to avoid compelled self-incrimination.
Committee members heard from Specialist Bryan O’Neal, who was with Corporal Tillman when he died. Specialist O’Neal said he knew immediately that it was American troops that had killed his comrade and that he wanted to tell Kevin Tillman, who was a specialist in the same platoon, right away. But he was barred from doing so, he said, by his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.
“I was ordered not to tell him what happened,” he said, explaining that it was made clear that he “would get in trouble.”
Specialist O’Neal also said he did not write statements attributed to him in the recommendation for Corporal Tillman’s Silver Star about “engaging the enemy.”
Thomas F. Gimble, acting inspector general at the Pentagon, said his investigators were unable to determine who had altered the statement.
“Somewhere in the approval chain, it got edited,” Mr. Gimble said.
Democratic members of the committee devoted much time to an urgent memorandum sent by a top special operations commander, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to other high-ranking commanders a week after Corporal Tillman’s death. General McChrystal is now a lieutenant general.
The memorandum said a preliminary investigation was likely to find that American fire caused the death. The message urged them to pass on the information to President Bush, the secretary of the army and others.
The Tillmans said they believed that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld must have known the truth early, a contention that Army investigators said they had failed to establish. “It’s a bit disingenuous to think that the administration did not know about what was going on, something so politically sensitive,” Kevin Tillman said. “So that’s, kind of, what we were hoping you guys could get involved with and take a look.”
By MICHAEL LUO
WASHINGTON, April 24 — House Democrats burrowed into the histories of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch and Cpl. Pat Tillman in a hearing on Tuesday, holding up the episodes as egregious examples of officials’ twisting the truth for public relations in wartime.
They received help in making their case from witnesses who have mostly shied from the spotlight, Ms. Lynch and Corporal Tillman’s mother, Mary, and brother, Kevin, who enlisted in the Army along with him after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary,” said Ms. Lynch, speaking softly but firmly into the microphone as more than 12 photographers clicked away in front of her.
Accounts from officials of Ms. Lynch’s bravery held the nation in thrall in the early stages of the Iraq invasion in 2003 after her maintenance convoy went astray near Nasiriya and she was taken prisoner. After her rescue, which was made into a television movie, she disputed those who said she fought off Iraqi soldiers until she was captured. She never fired a shot, she restated on Tuesday.
The “story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting” was untrue, she said.
Kevin Tillman was scathing in his assessment of how his brother’s death in Afghanistan in 2004, which was later determined to be a result of American fire, was initially portrayed by the military as an act of heroism in the face of enemy fire.
“A terrible tragedy that might have further undermined support for the war in Iraq was transformed into an inspirational message that served instead to support the nation’s foreign policy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mr. Tillman said.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, promised to take his quest for answers in the case, which drew most of the questions from lawmakers, to the highest levels of the Bush administration.
“We don’t know what the secretary of defense knew,” said Mr. Waxman, who has made himself a thorn in the administration’s side since Democrats took over control of the House in January. “We don’t know what the White House knew. These are questions this committee seeks answers to.”
Mr. Tillman, who was posthumously promoted to corporal and awarded the Silver Star for valor, inspired legions after he quit his spot as a star defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals professional football team to be an Army Ranger.
The Army recently completed two inquiries into his death. The investigations found that even though soldiers and commanders suspected almost immediately after the death that it was accidental fratricide, Corporal Tillman’s family was not notified about the true circumstances until more than a month later, a violation of Army rules.
The report from the inspector general’s office in the Defense Department singled out four generals and five other officers for potential discipline but said that they had done nothing criminal and that there was no broader cover-up.
The report was especially critical, however, of Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr., head of the Army Special Operations Command at the time of Corporal Tillman’s death. The document said General Kensinger most likely knew of the suspected fratricide before a nationally televised memorial service on May 3 that he and the Tillman family attended.
The oversight committee had requested that General Kensinger testify on Tuesday, but he declined through a lawyer, citing his constitutional right to avoid compelled self-incrimination.
Committee members heard from Specialist Bryan O’Neal, who was with Corporal Tillman when he died. Specialist O’Neal said he knew immediately that it was American troops that had killed his comrade and that he wanted to tell Kevin Tillman, who was a specialist in the same platoon, right away. But he was barred from doing so, he said, by his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.
“I was ordered not to tell him what happened,” he said, explaining that it was made clear that he “would get in trouble.”
Specialist O’Neal also said he did not write statements attributed to him in the recommendation for Corporal Tillman’s Silver Star about “engaging the enemy.”
Thomas F. Gimble, acting inspector general at the Pentagon, said his investigators were unable to determine who had altered the statement.
“Somewhere in the approval chain, it got edited,” Mr. Gimble said.
Democratic members of the committee devoted much time to an urgent memorandum sent by a top special operations commander, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to other high-ranking commanders a week after Corporal Tillman’s death. General McChrystal is now a lieutenant general.
The memorandum said a preliminary investigation was likely to find that American fire caused the death. The message urged them to pass on the information to President Bush, the secretary of the army and others.
The Tillmans said they believed that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld must have known the truth early, a contention that Army investigators said they had failed to establish. “It’s a bit disingenuous to think that the administration did not know about what was going on, something so politically sensitive,” Kevin Tillman said. “So that’s, kind of, what we were hoping you guys could get involved with and take a look.”
Jessica Lynch
Kevin Tillman
Speaking truth to power
This whole f*cking administration
Depends I guess. But sure, 
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