By: letters@editorandpublisher.com On Tuesday, news emerged that Congress would finally take a close look at how the Pentagon handled the friendly fire killing of former NFL star Pat Tillman. Today, the San Francisco Chronicle added fuel to the fire, with a proble by Robert Collier into apparent misleading comments by Gen. John Abizaid.
"Two weeks after the release of a Pentagon report about the death of former football star Pat Tillman, questions are emerging about when the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan learned that Tillman had been killed by fellow American soldiers and not by Taliban fighters, as the military had claimed," Collier opens.
"Gen. John Abizaid, then chief of U.S. Central Command, told investigators that he did not promptly receive a cable warning that Tillman was probably killed by friendly fire and urging that President Bush, in an upcoming speech, avoid any reference to Tillman's being killed by the Taliban.
"A Chronicle review of the 18-month investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general suggests that Abizaid's statement is open to dispute.
Abizaid told investigators that he was in Iraq when the cable was sent and did not receive it for '10-20' days. In fact, he reportedly was at Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar at the time."
The full article is available at www.sfgate.com.
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