News & Politics - U.S. Military lied about Jessica Lynch rescue

**sunnykerr** · 04-24-2007, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Lynch, Tillman's brother: U.S. military lied
POSTED: 1802 GMT (0202 HKT), April 24, 2007

• NEW: "The truth is always more heroic than the hype," Jessica Lynch tells panel
• Pat Tillman's brother says military issued "manufactured narrative" on death
• House committee chair says Lynch, Tillman families weren't given the truth
• Rep. Henry Waxman says committee will find the source of "fabrications"
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the brother of Army Ranger Pat Tillman told a House panel Tuesday that the U.S. military lied about Tillman's death and Lynch's capture.

After her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March 2003, Lynch suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot, shattered femur and even a sexual assault.

But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said. (Watch Lynch set the record straight )

"It was not true," she said before gently chiding the military. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform invited the two to testify on how the Pentagon spread false stories about Tillman and Lynch. The committee chairman, Henry Waxman, D-California, went as far as to say that the military "invented" tales.

"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," Waxman said. "That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."

An equally blunt Kevin Tillman, Pat Tillman's brother, told the panel that the military tried to spin his brother's 2004 death to deflect attention from emerging failings in the Afghanistan war.

As the tide was turning in the U.S. battle against Afghan insurgents -- and as media outlets prepared to release reports on detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq -- the military saw Pat Tillman's death as an "opportunity," Kevin Tillman told the panel.

Brother calls tale 'calculated lies'

Though it was clearly a case of fratricide, the military released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman said. (Watch Kevin Tillman accuse the military of lying )

Even after it became clear the report was bogus, the military clung to the "utter fiction" that Pat Tillman was killed by a member of his platoon who was following the rules of engagement, the brother said.

"They never felt threatened and they still shot up the village unprovoked," Kevin Tillman said. "This was not some fog of war; they simply lost control."

Tillman bristled at the military claim that the initial report was merely misleading.

Clearly resentful, he told the panel that writing a field report stating his brother had been "transferred to an intensive care unit for continued CPR after most of his head had been taken off by multiple .556 rounds is not misleading."

"These are deliberate and calculated lies," he said.

Pat Tillman, who became a national hero after he gave up a lucrative contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to join the Army's elite Rangers force, was awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest combat decoration, after the Army said he was killed leading a counterattack.

The Army later acknowledged not only that Tillman was killed by his fellow soldiers, but that officers in Tillman's chain of command knew the counterattack story was bogus.

Though the military blamed the erroneous report on an inadequate initial investigation, Mary Tillman told ESPN Radio last month that everyone involved in the shooting knew immediately that her son had been shot three times in the head by a member of his platoon.

"That was not a misstep; that was not an error," she said. "This was an attempt to dupe the public and to promote this war and to get recruitments up, and that is immoral."

The Defense Department said last month that nine military officers, including four generals, would face "corrective action" in connection with Tillman's death.

The Tillman family released a statement calling the corrective action a slap on the wrist and saying, "Once again, we are being used as props in a Pentagon public relations exercise."

Waxman took the Tillman family's side even before the late Ranger's brother and mother testified.

"The Tillman family was kept in the dark for more than a month," Waxman said. "Evidence was destroyed. Witness statements were doctored. The Tillman family wants to know how all of this could've happened."

Lynch: Truth 'not always easy'

Lynch's testimony began with a recollection of the March 23, 2003, attack and her purported rescue nine days later.

As she and her fellow 11 soldiers drove through Nassiriya, Iraq, they noticed armed men standing in the streets and on rooftops. Three soldiers were quickly killed when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into their vehicle, Lynch said.

The other eight died in the ensuing fighting or from injuries incurred during the fighting, she said. Lynch later woke up at Saddam Hussein General Hospital.

"When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not call for help. I could not fight," she said, explaining she had a 6-inch gash in her head and numerous broken bones. "The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans."

On April 1, U.S. troops came for her.

"A soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his uniform, and he handed it to me in my hand and he told me, 'We're American soldiers, and we're here to take you home.' And I looked at him and I said, 'Yes, I'm an American soldier, too,' " she recalled.

She was distraught to come home and find herself billed as a hero when two of her fellow soldiers had fought bravely until the firefight's end and another had died after picking up soldiers and removing them from harm's way.

"The American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate lies," she said. "I had the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity.

"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype," she said.

Lynch became a celebrity after U.S. troops filmed what they said was a daring raid on the hospital. Lynch, the Army claimed, was shot and stabbed during a fierce gunbattle with Iraqi troops that left 11 of her comrades dead.

Hospital staffers, however, said there were no Iraqi troops at the hospital when the purported rescue took place.

It was later learned that Lynch never fired a shot during the firefight because her gun was jammed with sand.

Before hearing Lynch's testimony, Waxman promised her and her family that the committee would find "the source of the fabrications you had to endure."

Well, it's not like we didn't know that's what happened. But it's nice to see that it's finally being acknowledged.

Lexis · 04-25-2007, 02:36 AM

Jessica Lynch has a lot of class. She spoke so eloquently and passionately - I'm just sorry that she had to go through this whole ordeal.

ceilirose · 04-25-2007, 01:31 PM

I still can't believe the military lied about this. The Jessica Lynch story was done to spin the war effort in a positive way. But the lies about Pat Tillman are just outrageous. To lie to his family is just unforgiveable.

**sum1** · 04-25-2007, 11:21 PM

I really don't see what's so surprising about this. People have been building false myths about military figures since the beginning of time. This whole thing makes me feel "duh, zzzzzzzzzz". And I REALLY don't get the outrage.

pacifierrocks · 04-26-2007, 12:23 AM

To quote Serenity, "Half of writing history is hiding the truth." I'm not surprised by this at all. It's a shame, but anywhere at anytime that's the way it's been.

ceilirose · 04-26-2007, 01:34 PM

To tell a deliberate lie about how a soldier died to their parents is a disgrace. There's no excuse for it.

The Jessica Lynch story - that was pure propaganda from the Pentagon.

The Tillman story is beyond that. I also know that no one will be held accountable for it either.

jerkstore · 04-27-2007, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sum1 (View Post)

I really don't see what's so surprising about this. People have been building false myths about military figures since the beginning of time. This whole thing makes me feel "duh, zzzzzzzzzz". And I REALLY don't get the outrage.

The outrage is that the US government created lies about both Lynch and Tillman out of whole cloth, then spread these lies via the media in an Orwellian propaganda effort to drum up support for the war. This wasn't a case of a myth forming spontaneously, this wasn't done by 'people' it was planned deception by an elected government for a politcal purpose.

I recall the anchors on FOX news quivering with outrage over the evil Iraqi's who tortured Jessica Lynch, when the reality is that she was run over by her own truck and the Iraqi's saved her life and had tried to return her to the US.

Hell on Heels · 04-27-2007, 04:54 PM

Question? Did Jessica make money from that movie that was made about her story the US made up? Isn't there a book too? Because if she did, I don't see how she sat there all high and mighty, you know? I feel bad for whatever pain she suffered but if she's a hyprocrite...

The Tillman thing is just wrong on so many levels. I feel for his family.

And don't just say FOX news - all news covered Jessica Lynch.

Indian Summer · 04-27-2007, 06:14 PM

Miranda, I think regardless, she was in an awkward position since if she spoke out... she had the whole US military calling her a liar and pissed off, you know?

Anyway, I think the reason FOX was specified is because this is a Bush-led military, and FOX is the most supportive network to Bush... so it shows that even they were fooled.

ceilirose · 04-27-2007, 08:36 PM

I thought her book set the story straight. If I remember correctly her appearance this week in DC and the story she told in the book didn't differ.

In fact a few months after this whole thing was manufactured by The Pentagon, the WH and whoever else - the true story started to come out. My guess is that she was so adly injured in the beginning that the last thing on her mind was this fairy tale that the Goverment was spinning about her.

Lexis · 04-27-2007, 11:48 PM

Yeah, I was pretty sure her book was a "set the record straight" exercise.

Hell on Heels · 04-28-2007, 05:00 AM

Okay. I just knew there was a movie and a book and money was made but I haven't watched or read either of them. Maybe I will get the book from the library and have a look-see.

**sunnykerr** · 04-30-2007, 07:36 AM

We have to understand, too, that the rest of the world was... I don't know, I guess "presented" is the word I'm looking for. So the rest of the world was presented with different perspective on these two stories, though especially the Lynch case. I know that, early on, there was an effort on the BBC to seek out the Iraqi people who had been on the ground around that time and the whole "rescue" thing was debunked early on.

I don't live in the States and so maybe I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the whole story was never given much attention by the American media. So, yeah, I do believe they were complicit. It's one thing for the government and its institutions, such as the military, to say one thing; it is the media's job to investigate things further. I think, years from now, when people look back on this period in our shared history, a good part of what will be remembered (hopefully, anyway, otherwise it means nothing will change) is that the media really did a poor job of questioning things.

ceilirose · 07-26-2007, 09:24 PM

I'm not sure if this deserves it's own thread - updated information on the Pat Tillman case.

wcbstv.com - New Documents Shed Light On Tillman's Death

Some interesting excerpts:

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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.

Quote:

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.

I never understood why they were so late in telling everyone that he died from "friendly fire" but maybe it really wasn't that either.

Also I think the facts around this case are covered under Bush's executive privilege directive which is pretty bad for the family.

jerkstore · 07-27-2007, 06:20 AM

Quote:

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.

It sounds as if Tillman was fragged. Why, I don't know.


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