The Dead-End Inquiry on Tillman

By Mike Nizza
A House committee today announced that it had hit a dead end after months of investigating the mishandling of the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the N.F.L. player-turned soldier.
According to the draft report, the inquiry was “frustrated by a near universal lack of recall” from senior officials. “Not a single one could recall when he learned about the fratricide or what he did in response,” the report said just before noting Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s testimony: “I don’t recall when I was told and I don’t recall who told me.”
Indeed, Mr. Rumsfeld and other military officials used some variation of “I don’t recall” at least 82 times in three hours, according to one count from the committee’s hearing on the subject last year.
Corporal Tillman’s death was initially blamed on Afghan insurgents. However, a battlefield investigation concluded within days that he was likely killed by friendly fire. The Tillman family and the general public did not learn of the changed cause of death for more than a month.
Pentagon officials have acknowledged time and time again that the situation was handled poorly, and a three-star general was censured for his role in deceiving his superiors. The Army secretary called it “a perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership.”
Without any evidence of high-level collusion on the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death, the House report turned to a seemingly self-satisfied exchange by two lower-level staffers at the Pentagon. At the news conference revealing the embarrassing reversal, which was held on a Saturday, one public affairs aide told another, “No one will ever tell you, but nice job on this one.”
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