From the outset, the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military shamelessly ran with a fabricated account of Tillman’s death for their own purposes and benefit.
Within hours of his death, the military knew Tillman was killed by friendly fire, brought down by three bullets to the head let loose during spasms of wildly irresponsible but deliberate shooting.
Right away, the military lied to Tillman’s parents, initially telling the family that an enemy combatant killed their son as he stepped out of a vehicle.
The military kept the truth from them through Tillman’s memorial service, which was broadcast on national television.
And the military withheld key facts from the Tillman family even as it admitted the broad stokes of his death. It would take 4 years of digging, led chiefly by his mother; 7 official investigations; and 2 congressional hearings before some semblance of the truth surrounding Pat Tillman’s death was pried from the government in 2008.
Tillman’s mother laid much of the blame for the cover-up at the feet of Donald Rumsfeld, Bush’s secretary of defense at the time.
The full article is available here
