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| House panel plans hearings on Tillman, Lynch cases | ||||||
| 2007-04-11 | ||||||
| SAN FRANCISCO – A House committee scheduled hearings Tuesday on the string of misleading statements by the military following the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the kidnapping and rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced it will hold the hearing April 24 as part of an investigation into whether the misinformation stemmed from a government strategy to mislead the public. The hearings come two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its own twin investigations into Tillman's shooting, three years after his death, and four years after Lynch's kidnapping. The panel has been quietly investigating the Tillman case since that release, and decided to add Lynch to the scope of its probe. It will “examine why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable,” the committee said Tuesday in a brief announcement on its Web site. The Tillman family and some lawmakers said the previous investigations were inadequate and did not sufficiently address the role of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in hiding the true circumstances of Tillman's death from his relatives for five weeks. The Army maintained publicly during that time that he had been killed by enemy fire, when in fact his fellow Rangers shot him after a chaotic ambush. The military concealed the truth although dozens of officers knew within hours or days that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire. One or more members of the Tillman family will probably testify, the committee said. Tillman's mother and father did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday. Lynch's spokeswoman, Aly Goodwin Gregg, said Lynch will also testify. “She was very interested in doing so. She's used every opportunity to tell what really happened and to talk about the real heroes of that day,” Gregg said. Lynch, a 21-year-old former Army supply clerk, became one of the most visible faces of the war when she was rescued from an Iraqi hospital on April 1, 2003. Her convoy was attacked after taking a wrong turn in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah. Eleven American soldiers were killed and six, including Lynch, were captured. Her videotaped rescue by special forces from a Nasiriyah hospital on April 1 branded Lynch a hero at a time the U.S. war effort seemed bogged down.
Details of the hearing entitled “Misleading Information from the Battlefield,” have not been completely ironed out. It was not yet clear whether the committee plans to call officials with knowledge of the cases to testify.
The committee, run by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a frequent Bush administration critic, has launched several investigations since Democrats took power in Congress in January. But it has not issued subpoenas in any of its probes, including one into the administration's claims that Iraq sought uranium from Niger and another into contacts between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 Give 'em the old flim flam flummox humm... seems to me that a certain RBee wrote the book.. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-04-11 16:52 |
| #6 I remember when they was bogged down, longest 36 hours of my TeeVee life. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-04-11 16:24 |
| #5 Though empowered to do so, the committee has no plans to subpoena witnesses, said one official involved in the investigation. Wouldn't wanna do that. Witnesses might get in the way of Waxman's grandstanding. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-04-11 13:21 |
| #4 "Her videotaped rescue by special forces from a Nasiriyah hospital on April 1 branded Lynch a hero at a time the U.S. war effort seemed bogged down." "Bogged down", my aching ass. We ripped the most powerful army in the Middle East to tattered shreds in barely three weeks. THIS is what ought to be investigated: the concerted effort by the Democrats, in collusion with their paid propagandists in the media, to undermine the war effort 24/7/365 FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-04-11 13:01 |
| #3 It's a pity the taxpayers can't cut off the funding for Congress. |
| Posted by: doc 2007-04-11 12:21 |
| #2 So now, the Democrats are going to declare that all information flowing from a war zone must be accurate, immediately, or someone's lying and must be punished. I have no problem with the military punishing the people who tried to cover up the facts in the Tillman case, but the Lynch case seems more of a search for a scandal. Even in the Tillman case, Congress did its job in establishing the regulations -- now they need to butt out. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-04-11 11:10 |
| #1 From the play/movie Chicago: BAILIFF(Spoken) Mr. Flynn, his honor is here BILLY(Spoken) Thank you. Just a moment. You ready? ROXIE(Spoken) Oh Billy, I'm scared. BILLY(Spoken) Roxie, you got nothing to worry about. It's all a circus, kid. A three ring circus. These trials- the wholeworld- all show business. But kid, you're working with a star, the biggest! (Singing) Give 'em the old razzle dazzle Razzle Dazzle 'em Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it And the reaction will be passionate Give 'em the old hocus pocus Bead and feather 'em How can they see with sequins in their eyes? What if your hinges all are rusting? What if, in fact, you're just disgusting? Razzle dazzle 'em And they;ll never catch wise! Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle BILLY AND COMPANY Razzle dazzle 'em Give 'em a show that's so splendiferous BILLY Row after row will crow vociferous BILLY AND COMPANY Give 'em the old flim flam flummox Fool and fracture 'em BILLY How can they hear the truth above the roar? BILLY AND COMPANY Throw 'em a fake and a finagle They'll never know you're just a bagel, BILLY Razzle dazzle 'em And they'll beg you for more! BILLY AND COMPANY Give 'em the old double whammy Daze and dizzy 'em Back since the days of old Methuselah Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler Give 'em the old three ring circus Stun and stagger 'em When you're in trouble, go into your dance Though you are stiffer than a girder They'll let you get away with murder Razzle dazzle 'em And you've got a romance COMPANY(The same time as BILLY's) Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle BILLY Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle Razzle dazzle 'em Show 'em the first rate sorceror you are Long as you keep 'em way off balance How can they spot you've got no talent Razzle Dazzle 'em BILLY AND COMPANY Razzle Dazzle 'em Razzle Dazzle 'em And they'll make you a star! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-04-11 08:53 |