What ever became of Pat Tillman’s helmet? How could he be shot three times in the forehead if he was wearing his helmet? Why was Army Specialist Bryan O’Neal report of the friendly fire incident changed and a whole heroic story concocted around this tragic ‘accident’. Who changed O’Neal’s after action report?
Bryan O'Neal, told lawmakers that he was warned by superiors not to divulge -- especially to the Tillman family -- that a fellow soldier killed Tillman. The Tillman family deserves to know the truth about what happened to their son, he’s a hero in spite of the propaganda that this Administration wants to spread. O'Neal particularly wanted to tell fellow soldier Kevin Tillman, who was in the convoy traveling behind his brother at the time of the 2004 incident in Afghanistan.
"I wanted right off the bat to let the family know what had happened, especially Kevin, because I worked with him in a platoon and I knew that he and the family all needed to know what had happened," O'Neal testified. "I was quite appalled that when I was actually able to speak with Kevin, I was ordered not to tell him."
Asked who gave him the order, O'Neal replied that it came from his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.
"He basically just said ... 'Do not let Kevin know, that he's probably in a bad place knowing his brother's dead,' " O'Neal told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. "And he made it known I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it being fratricide."
The CNN story goes on to reveal that the version of the "canyon attack" story involving Serial 1 and Serial 2, which I quoted earlier in this essay, was a complete fabrication –
The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee.
"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster during a month already swollen with disasters," Kevin Tillman said. "The facts needed to be suppressed. An alternative narrative had to be constructed, crucial evidence destroyed."
Rating: User: cortmeister 2007-08-05T08:07:52.647Z
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