Bush officials' 'lack of recall' thwarted Tillman, Lynch probes
Mark Seibel
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: July 15, 2008
WASHINGTON — "A near universal lack of recall" by Bush administration officials has thwarted a congressional investigation into whether the administration deliberately misrepresented the details of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture of Jessica Lynch in the first days of the Iraq invasion.
In a report released Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed skepticism about the widespread lack of memory of the two events, which were the subject of widespread media coverage and can be counted among the best known incidents of the wars.
About Tillman's death, "The committee interviewed several senior White House officials, including Communications Director Dan Bartlett, Press Secretary Scott McClellan and chief speech writer Michael Gerson," the committee said. "Not a single person could recall when he heard about the fratricide or what he did in response."
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also said he couldn't recall when he learned that Tillman had been killed mistakenly by fellow American soldiers and not by Taliban fighters, the committee said, even though Rumsfeld had written a memo after Tillman enlisted suggesting that his progress be followed closely.
(Continued here.)
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: July 15, 2008
WASHINGTON — "A near universal lack of recall" by Bush administration officials has thwarted a congressional investigation into whether the administration deliberately misrepresented the details of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture of Jessica Lynch in the first days of the Iraq invasion.
In a report released Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed skepticism about the widespread lack of memory of the two events, which were the subject of widespread media coverage and can be counted among the best known incidents of the wars.
About Tillman's death, "The committee interviewed several senior White House officials, including Communications Director Dan Bartlett, Press Secretary Scott McClellan and chief speech writer Michael Gerson," the committee said. "Not a single person could recall when he heard about the fratricide or what he did in response."
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also said he couldn't recall when he learned that Tillman had been killed mistakenly by fellow American soldiers and not by Taliban fighters, the committee said, even though Rumsfeld had written a memo after Tillman enlisted suggesting that his progress be followed closely.
(Continued here.)
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