Tillman investigation re-opened

I'm counting this as one of my "lessons of the Afghan War" posts.  In this case, the lesson for the public and for Congress would be, don't forget that the Pentagon lies about stuff:  Army to Launch Criminal Probe of Tillman's Death: The inquiry could determine whether the ex-NFL player's fellow soldiers should face negligence charges by Mark Mazzetti 03/05/06.  The San Francisco Chronicle offers a somewhat different take on this news: Criminal investigation into Tillman's death by Matthew Stannard 03/05/06.  See also Army to probe Tillman death: Negligent-Homicide Charges Considered in S.J. Soldier's Slaying by Drew Brown San Jose Mercury News/Knight Ridder 03/05/06.

Tillman earned widespread respect and praise when he left his career as a professional football player and volunteered for the Army in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.  The Army was gald to hold him up as a model to be emulated, for perfectly understandable reasons.  At a time when President Bush was asking the American people to fight terrorism by taking vacations, paying less taxes and going shopping a lot, Tillman left his career where he could have expected to be seen as a football (pseudo-)hero to put his life on the line for his country.

When he was killed in Afghanistan in a "friendly fire" incident, i.e., shot by American soldiers, the Army decided to make up a pretty story that sounded better.  The even bald-faced lied to Tillman's family about the circumstances of his death.  The Times' Mazetti describes it this way:

The Army's announcement [of a new investigation] is the latest episode in a saga that began when Tillman was killed during a combat operation in the remote mountains near the Pakistan border. Shortly after Tillman's death, the Army said he was killed by enemy fire while leading troops in battle, scaling a hill to ensure the safety of other soldiers in his unit.

The Army awarded him a Silver Star for combat bravery, and during a televised memorial service Tillman was praised for his heroism under fire.

Weeks later, the Army acknowledged that Tillman had been a victim of friendly fire during the firefight and admitted that soldiers destroyed evidence — Tillman's uniform and flak vest — after the shooting.

Jones' report found that Army officers told soldiers to remain quiet about the circumstances of Tillman's death for fear of negative news coverage.

The Army has also acknowledged that top commanders in the field, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid of U.S. Central Command, had been told at the time of the Silver Star award that Tillman had died at the hands of U.S. troops. (my emphasis)

The Chronicle's Stannard makes it clear that the investigation is looking not only at the cover-up but whether criminal negligence or even homicide might have been involved in Tillman's death:

The Department of Defense inspector general has asked the Army to open a criminal investigation into the death of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman, the football star turned soldier who was killed in Afghanistan by his fellow Rangers nearly two years ago.

The request, which came out of the inspector general's review of four previous investigations of the April 22, 2004, shooting, will likely lead investigators from the Army Criminal Investigation Command to return to Afghanistan and conduct a monthslong investigation into whether Tillman's death may have been a homicide, the result of criminal negligence or an accident, said an Army official who asked to remain anonymous.

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, told The Chronicle on Saturday that while he was gratified by the inspector general's recommendation, he was concerned about the Army "investigating itself" and said he may recommend a congressional inquiry into Tillman's death and a possible cover-up by the military.

One of the lessons that was widely accepted in the officer corps from the Vietnam War is that the military needed to be much more aware of public opinion on the home front.  Unfortunately, one of the main ways they applied that lesson was to undertake even greater efforts to restrict news coverage, and even make up nice-soundingstories.  The Pentagon has just said they intend to continue paying Iraqi journalists to run "positive" stories about the situation there, stories which will be picked up in some cases by American media.  This is one of the ways that the Pentagon is engaging in domestic propaganda, certainly pushing the envelope as far as the law goes.

The Tillman case shows just how ugly that approach can be.  Stannard writes:

"The whole family has been trying to say there is something wrong here -- it's been there from the beginning, and we've had to go through this horrible process for almost two years. The Army used him. They knew right away he was killed by fratricide and used him for their own purposes to promote the war, to get sympathy for the war, for five weeks."

Military officials originally said Tillman was killed when his unit came under enemy fire in Afghanistan, a statement repeated a week after his death in a Special Operations Command press release announcing his posthumous Silver Star medal.

"Through the firing, Tillman's voice was heard issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy forces emplaced on the dominating high ground," the release said. "Leading his Rangers without regard for his own safety, Tillman was shot and killed while focusing his efforts on the elimination of the enemy forces and the protection of his team members."

It wasn't until the end of May, weeks after a May 5 memorial service in San Jose, that the U.S. Central Command announced Tillman died "as a probable result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces."

In fact, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle, the first investigator had delivered a report on May 4, 2004, concluding that soldiers involved in the incident had committed "gross negligence" and should be appropriately disciplined.

This kind of thing just shouldn't be happening.  It's wrong and almost certainly illegal.  And, ironically, when something like this comes out, it undermines the Pentagon's credibility with the public more than revealing the "friendly fire" incident would ever have done.  Many Pentagon officials will no doubt conclude that the lesson of this is that they should be more effective in covering up fabrications like this.  It would be a much better lesson if they stuck to doing it right in the first place.

For the families of soldiers, it's also a lesson that if something goes wrong and a family member is getting seriously jacked around in the service or if the families are the victims of cruel misconduct like this in the case of Tillman's death, that if you want the Army to do the right thing, it may take a lot more than asking politely.  Knight-Ridder's Drew Brown writes:

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 shooting or to fully explain its circumstances. His mother, 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 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 nationally televised memorial service in San Jose, 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 told the Washington Post on Saturday that she believes that 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 would 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 Army's initial investigation found that fellow soldiers knew at the time of the shooting that Tillman had died as a result of friendly fire. ...

Despite the Army's findings, the officer who prepared the special-operations command report, Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones, concluded that there was no official reluctance to report the truth.

It's hard for me to imagine how anyone could believe that the Army's dishonest handling of this incident has enhanced their credibility with the public.  In practice, they were just covering up for their own mistakes, or worse.