Tillman Investigation Hampered by 'Near Universal Lack of Recall'

July 14, 2008— -- White House officials interviewed as part of an investigation into the misleading information given to the public and the Tillman family in the weeks after the death of Corporal Pat Tillman have said they do not recall when they first learned that Tillman was killed as a result of friendly fire, according to a proposed report released today by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The committee set out to determine when top officials at the White House and Defense Department learned that Tillman had been killed in a friendly fire incident. Tillman, a former NFL star and perhaps the most famous soldier to die in Afghanistan, was killed on April 22, 2004. His death was widely covered by the media and Tillman was posthumously awarded a Silver Star just days after his death.

It was not until over a month later, on May 29, 2004, that the public and Tillman's family were officially informed that his death was very likely due to friendly fire.

The committee says that in their quest to find out when officials first knew about the possibility that Tillman's death was not due to enemy fire, they were "frustrated by a near universal lack of recall," according to the report.

The committee interviewed several senior White House officials including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, communications director Dan Bartlett, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and chief speech writer Michael Gerson.

"Not a single one could recall when he learned about the fratricide or what he did in response," says the report.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers told the committee that he learned by the end of April that Tillman's death was possibly due to friendly fire, but that he could not remember whether or not he passed that information to Rumsfeld.

Members of Tillman's platoon, however, knew "almost immediately" that Tillman had been killed accidentally by fellow Rangers, according to the report. Within days of his death, Colonel Craig Nixon, a top officer in Tillman's battalion, passed on that information to the commander of the joint task force in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChyrstal, who in turn sent a message to top generals, including General John Abizaid, commander of CENTCOM.