Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 1, 2007 13:22:53 GMT -6
Rumsfeld denies cover-up in Tillman case
By ERICA WERNER,
"Ex-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.
"I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me. I know that the gentlemen sitting next to me are men of enormous integrity and would not participate in something like that," Rumsfeld told a House committee.
It was Rumsfeld's first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year. He reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down on April 22, 2004, by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed.
The truth was kept from the public and Tillman's own family until five weeks later — May 29, 2004....
Retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he learned of the likelihood of friendly fire toward the end of April but that it wasn't his responsibility to inform the White House or the Tillman family....
Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after 9/11.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., aired his frustration at the repeated denials of responsibility from the four witnesses: Rumsfeld, Myers, retired Gen. John P. Abizaid, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command, and retired Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command.
"You've all admitted that the system failed. The public should have known, the family should have known earlier, whoever was responsible," Waxman said as the hearing ended. "None of you feel you personally were responsible but the system itself didn't work."...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, demanded to know whether there was a White House and Defense Department strategy to manage press portrayals of the war and other events.
"Well, if there was, it wasn't very good," Rumsfeld remarked.
"Well, you know, maybe it was very good," Kucinich objected loudly. "Because you actually covered up the Tillman case for a while, you covered up the Jessica Lynch case, you covered up Abu Ghraib, so something was working for you.
"Was there a strategy to do it, Mr. Rumsfeld?"
"Congressman, the implication that 'you covered up' — that's just false, you have nothing to base that on, you have not a scrap of evidence or a piece of paper or a witness that would attest to that," Rumsfeld replied hotly. "I have not been involved in any cover-up whatsoever."..."
The full article can be found at
Rumsfeld denies cover-up in Tillman case
By ERICA WERNER,
"Ex-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.
"I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me. I know that the gentlemen sitting next to me are men of enormous integrity and would not participate in something like that," Rumsfeld told a House committee.
It was Rumsfeld's first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year. He reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down on April 22, 2004, by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed.
The truth was kept from the public and Tillman's own family until five weeks later — May 29, 2004....
Retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he learned of the likelihood of friendly fire toward the end of April but that it wasn't his responsibility to inform the White House or the Tillman family....
Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after 9/11.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., aired his frustration at the repeated denials of responsibility from the four witnesses: Rumsfeld, Myers, retired Gen. John P. Abizaid, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command, and retired Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command.
"You've all admitted that the system failed. The public should have known, the family should have known earlier, whoever was responsible," Waxman said as the hearing ended. "None of you feel you personally were responsible but the system itself didn't work."...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, demanded to know whether there was a White House and Defense Department strategy to manage press portrayals of the war and other events.
"Well, if there was, it wasn't very good," Rumsfeld remarked.
"Well, you know, maybe it was very good," Kucinich objected loudly. "Because you actually covered up the Tillman case for a while, you covered up the Jessica Lynch case, you covered up Abu Ghraib, so something was working for you.
"Was there a strategy to do it, Mr. Rumsfeld?"
"Congressman, the implication that 'you covered up' — that's just false, you have nothing to base that on, you have not a scrap of evidence or a piece of paper or a witness that would attest to that," Rumsfeld replied hotly. "I have not been involved in any cover-up whatsoever."..."
The full article can be found at
Rumsfeld denies cover-up in Tillman case