Mr. Rumsfeld Goes To Washington

After originally saying he would not testify to the House Oversight Government Reform Committee in the Pat Tillman case, Donald Rumsfeld had a change of heart. This should be a REALLY interesting morning.

In a late breaking development, Secretary Rumsfeld will appear before the Oversight Committee tomorrow, Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

The Committee is holding a hearing entitled "The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew." The hearing will examine what senior Defense Department officials knew about U.S. Army Corporal Patrick Tillman's death by fratricide.

The following witnesses will testify:

The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld
Former Secretary of Defense

Gen. Richard B. Myers (Retired)
Former Chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Gen. John P. Abizaid (Retired)
Former Commander, U.S. Central Command

Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown (Retired)
Former Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command

Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger, Jr. (Retired)*
(supboena issued/not confirmed)
Former Commander, U.S. Army Special Operations Command

I may experiment with liveblogging this one. Sure, Rummy will just go off on known knowns and unknown unknowns and "I don't recalls," but there's a lot of information he'll have to deny, and Henry Waxman is cagey as hell. He made mincemeat of Paul Bremer and I would expect nothing less here.

Just Add It Onto The Lie Pile

I'm watching this Pat Tillman/Jessica Lynch hearing and it's disgusting. The Gavel has some clips from Tillman's brother, Lynch, and Henry Waxman.

The military used both of these deaths as public relations opportunities, in Tillman's case hiding the evidence that the incident was friendly fire, and in Lynch's case holding up her rescue a day until video services could be arranged so they could tape the whole thing.

There was no need to lie about fratricide; nobody would have thought any less of Tillman. But the military wanted a clean hero story they could sell to the public and keep them on the side of war, so they lied, including to Tillman's own family (his brother was powerful today). A specialist and eyewitness to the fratricide is testifying right now that he was essentially threatened that there would be consequences if he ever told the family that it was a friendly fire death.

Hiding the evidence is the modus operandi of a military at war.

UPDATE: It's important to mention just what Kevin Tillman asserted:

Pat Tillman's brother accused the military Tuesday of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in initially portraying the football star's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee that was also looking at how the military portrayed the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

"Revealing that Pat's death was a (friendly fire) fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed," said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn't see it.