McChrystal & Pelosi

May 14, 2009

a ramble

Yesterday, I was loading salvaged warehouse shelf uprights onto a truck at Cary Towne Center, a mall in Cary, North Carolina. Across the road in the parking lot, I scanned the bumper stickers on a silver Toyota RAV4 L, license plate XZF-7063 (North Carolina). A Ranger Tab. A Combat Infantryman's Badge (CIB). Military parachutist wings.

This told me that the owner of the car was a male in the Army infantry, that he was in a theater of combat as an infantryman, that he had successfully completed the Airborne Course in Fort Benning, Georgia, and another sticker I later discovered on the front window indicated that he had served with the 82nd Airborne Division, an airborne infantry division based in Fort Bragg, NC.

Below the 201-file, I see a smaller, white sticker with a whole phrase. I walk over to the car to read it.

"You never forget your first KILL."

Like that, with the word "kill" in all-cap.

Finally, down near the Toyota icon on the hatchback, I see a fish with JESUS printed inside it.

That same morning, my project manager asked me if I had ever heard of General Stanley McChrystal. I had, I told him -- in conjunction with the investigation into the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman in 2004... why did he ask? Because, Joel (my boss) told me, he's being nominated to be the overall commander for Afghanistan.

So I had been mulling over this thing, and then I had talked on the phone with "Dannie" Tillman, Pat Tillman's mom, who was incensed that this guy had been caught red-handed in the cover-up of thee circumstances of her son's death, and then on top of it all I see this array of macho military-cultural bumper stickers alongside the name of Jesus (a gender-subversive pacifist), and about a million alarm bells went off at once.

One can't be sure where to start in unpacking what people need to know about this guy -- Stanley McChrystal, the military-culture that is refracted in his personhood, and the peculiar institutional ecology of that military.

I don't know Stanley McChrystal. I came in the Army a couple of years before him. We are both named Stanley. We were both in Special Operations. He was an officer; I was enlisted. We both served in A Company 2nd Ranger Battalion, in 75th Ranger Regiment, in 7th Special Forces, and he commanded the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) of which was in a constituent unit once. Nonetheless, neither of us ever served in these units at the same time. A Company 2nd Ranger Battalion was also Pat Tillman's company when he was killed in April 2004. So I don't know Stanley McChrystal, and all I can say about him specifically is based on stuff that I've read. But I can say some things that don't require detailed knowledge of McChrystal's whereabouts and activities at any given time. Because I am familiar with the ways that military culture is reflected in the individuals who are part of that culture.

We'll get to McChrystal in a moment. The Killer's Toyota, the call from Dannie, the whole McChrystal thing... these all made me feel restless. The real kicker is that Obama will probably support this guy; and this at the same time that Obama just placed himself between the ACLU and a bunch of torture photographs from places just like the ones that McChrystal developed and commanded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This evening, as I'm driving home from work, I hear on the radio that Nancy Pelosi has been forced to respond to questions about what she knew subsequent to briefings in 2002 about "enhanced interrogations." From today's story by Paul Kane in the Washington Post:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today accused the CIA of "misleading" her on the use of harsh interrogation techniques in the fall of 2002, acknowledging for the first time publicly she knew alleged terrorist detainees were subjected to waterboarding more than six years ago.

Pelosi called for the CIA to release detailed portions of her own September 2002 briefing about interrogation techniques, saying that at that time she was told the CIA was not waterboarding detainees. After weeks of sticking to prior statements that she then was never "briefed" about waterboarding's use, Pelosi today said her top security adviser was part of a briefing in February 2003 in which he learned interrogators were waterboarding terrorists.

Let's combine that quote with another one:

0 292234Z APRIL 04 FM TASK FORCE

TO RUCAACC/USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CDR//INFO RUCQAS/USSOCOM PP MACDILL AFB//FL//CDR// RUEPVBT/TASK FORCE

BT [REDACTION] PERSONAL FOR CDR USCENTCOM CDR USSOCOM CDR USASOC

DELIVER DURING NORMAL DUTY HOURS [REDACTION] DO NOT TRANSMIT VIA OPINTEL BROADCAST OPER/OEF// MSGID/GENAMIN/TASK FORCE

//

SUBJ/P-4 COCERNING INFORMATION ON CORPORAL TILLMAN'S DEATH//

RMKS/SIR, IN THE AFTERMATH OF CORPORAL TILLMAN'S UNTIMELY YET HEROIC DEATH IN AFGHANISTAN ON 22 APRIL 04, IT IS ANTICIPATED HIGHLY POSSIBLE THAT CORPORAL TILLMAN WAS KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE. THIS POTENTIAL FINDING IS EXACERBATED BY THE UNCONFIRMED REPORTS THAT POTUS AND THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY MIGHTIN CLUDE COMMENTS ABOUT CORPORAL TILLMAN'S HEROISM AND HIS APPROVED SILVER STAR MEDAL IN SPEECHES CURRENTLY BEING PREPARED, NOT INFORMING THE SPECIFICS SURROUNDING HIS DEATH. THE POTENTIAL THAT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE IN NO WAY DETRACTS FROM HISD WINTESSED HEROISM OR THE RECOMMENDED PEROSNAL DECORATION FOR VALOR IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY. CORPORAL TILLMAN WAS KILLED IN A COMPLICATED BATTLESPACE GEOMETRY INVOLVING TWO SEPARATE RANGER VEHICLE SERIALS TRAVERSING THROUGH SEVERE TERRAIN ALONG A WINDING 500-600 FOOT DEFILE IN WHICH FRIENDLY FORCES WERE FIRED UPON BY MULTIPLE ENEMY POSITIONS. CORPORAL TILLMAN DISEMBARKED FROM HIS VEHICLE, AND IN SUPPORT OF HIS FELLOW RANGERS AND DEMONSTRATING GREAT CONCERN FOR THEIR WELFARE OVER CARE FOR HIS OWN PERSONAL SAFETY ENTERED THE ENEMY KILL ZONE INTO WHICH BOTH IMPACTED. I FELT THAT IT WAS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU RECEIVED THIS INFORMAITON AS SOON AS WE DETECTED IT IN ORDER TO PRECLUDE ANY UNKNOWING STATEMENTS BY OUR COUNTRY'S LEADERS WHICH MIGHT CAUSE PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT IF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF CORPORAL TILLMAN'S DEATH BECOME PUBLIC.//

DECL/DERI:DRV FROM [REDACTION] /INST-[REDACTION]-//BT

CLASSIFIED BY: [REDACTION]

REASON [REDACTION] DECLASSIFY ON: [REDACTION]

CLASSIFICATION: [REDACTINO]

CAVEATS: [REDACTION] TERMS: [REDACTION]

That was a P-4 ("personal for") Memo from General McChrystal passing along to POTUS (President of the United States) that the phony-baloney story about the circumstances of Pat Tillman's death [1] [2] [3] could not hold up. The memo was sent less than a week after Pat was killed; and when you read it carefully -- if you can understand this bastardized legal-military-publcity-speak -- it says not only that the author had been involved in the concealment of the circumstances, that he had himself participated in the fraud as one of the approving-signatories for a Silver Star award with demonstrably false statements about the incident.

McChrystal surely knew Rumsfeld personally; and according to one Rumsfeld biographer, Rummy's greatest talent was getting away with shit. Not getting caught was an art form for Rumsfeld. Working for a guy like that, you have to stay on your toes, because someone will get sacrificed when someone who gets away with shit all the time suddenly doesn't.

The Tillman case came into public consciousness alongside the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib. Rummy was busy those days, so the guys on the scene had to handle a few things themselves.

If I had been McChrystal, I'd have known by April 29th 2004 (the day of this memo) that an entire battalion of Rangers were due to rotate back to the States in four weeks. I'd have also known -- as a matter of some urgency -- that virtually every member of 2nd Ranger Battalion knew that Pat Tillman was killed by fratricide. Hundreds of Rangers were about to return to Tacoma, Washington, where they would talk to each other, to their families and friends, and to people in the bars where Rangers drink to "blow off steam."

If I had been Stanley McChrystal then, I'd have seen some hand writing on the wall; and I'd have constructed the most carefully worded memo I could to cover my own ass.

That's what you can read above, in that memo. And hey, Rumsfeld is gone; and McChrystal is on the rise.

Canny dude.

This is not the story I have to tell right now, but it's an important preface. Dannie herself has written a fine book on her own dogged investigations of the Department of Defense, and of her direct encounter with executive power. Boots on the Ground by Dusk, by Mary Tillman (with Narda Zacchino). Time to get that one out and read up before the Senate meets to give their blessing to Stanley McChrystal as the new dominant Militia Chief of Afghanistan.

I said "executive power," not Bush. Be clear.

Obama is cautious and fearful of being torpedoed by the military-paramilitary-clandestine services network. That's tactical. And that caution will cost him dearly.

But he's also Chief Executive.

Executives are loathe to surrender even a scrap of accumulated executive power.

Bush took the country into a debacle Iraq.

Obama has his sights on Pakistan -- nuclear Cambodia, for Vietnam-analogy fans -- and the nomination of McChrystal means that Special Operations will run the show (as they did in the early phases of Vietnam).

A simple truth that "leaders" never seem to get. Our actions have tremendous influences; and most of those influences are beyond our control. Instead they just keep on with their insane, grandiose, and lethal meddling.

New Rule: Strive to limit your influence to your actual capacity to control.

We all have a notion of the geostrategic influences. But this public discussion of torture has become so surreal (en-fucking-hanced! interrogation techniques! Sheesh!), and here is this man McChrystal who ran torture camps in Iraq (Did I forget to mention that earlier?) who is about to prepare the military infiltration from Afghanistan into Pakistan... nuclear South Asia. (Bad idea, O! Bad bad bad idea.)

That's what Stanley McChrystal is being hired for if the Senate confirms. It will; and the cowardice inhering in the institution of Congress will be on full display... just as it was when Nanci Pelosi et al were banging the war drums out of abject fear for their careers.

And this man -- McChrystal -- represents a culture. The gunfighter culture of Special Operations.

There's a great deal more than gunfighting to that culture -- the culture of Special Operations embedded within the larger culture of the Army. Gunfighting is the practical skill that "operators" learn in direct actions Special Ops units. There were times during my stint with Delta when each one of us in my unit were -- on average -- firing a thousand rounds of ammunition in a day, and not on full automatic spraying down a range, but reaching for precision and speed at close range and from afar. Fighting with guns is a skill constellation, a form of practical mastery.

Cultures also include language, non-lingusitic signs, interpersonal norms, music, ideas, and so on. Practical training is just one aspect of culture; but it's an important one.

If I had trained as intensely to be a carpenter, and if I had become good at it, I would think about carpentering all the time, I would see carpenter's solutions to a lot of things, and I would carry that skill confidently around with me into my own future. In tough times, even if I had a nice cushy desk job for a few years, I could fall back on being a carpenter.

Same thing is true for a gunfighter. There are thousands of these men out there now, who received a very expensive and well-drilled education in gunfighting. When times get tough, they will fall back on what they know.

Now along with gunfighting, these special operators can also acquire other skills. I was a Special Forces medic for a while. I knew how to suture lacerations, pull teeth, deliver babies, count blood cells under a microscope, splint fractured femurs, get rid of belly-worms, and so on. If the stars had aligned at the right time, I might have become a nurse; and the gunfighting would no longer be needed. Other guys learn to operate radios and build antennae, handle explosives, do construction, or identify, operate, and repair small arms.

But we never quit rehearsing -- even when we want to -- how to kill with guns.

Gunfighting requires training the mind to compartmentalize, to focus on everyone as potential adversaries, to quickly check the hands of potential adversaries for lethal weapons, and to refelxively respond to the presence of weapons by rapidly shooting two rounds into the chest of the identified adversary, followed by one shot to the head if necessary... then immediately return to observing one's sector.

This kind of extreme, detached instrumentality is part of the psycho-cultural commons in Special Operations; and that's how McChrystal can -- and must -- be read. He can and will objectify-to-kill individuals and groups of human beings... on command. His brain is compartmentalized.

As an officer in the Army, he is part of the cannibal-culture of commissioned upward mobility. He'll not only seek out opportunities for slaughter as rungs in the ladder to success, he'll write memos that are the professional equivalent of shark repellent while his peers are being eaten.

Lieutenant General Philip Kensinger -- former Special Operations Command (SOCOM) commander -- got the symbolic punishment for the Pat Tillman cover-up-- a threat to reduce his rank before he retired which was quietly allowed to fade into no action at all. Kensinger survived. He's a consultant for the government now. But there is a credible rumor that his lawyer will oppose the nomination of Stanley McChrystal to head the Afghanistan theater of the US energy war.

Gunfighter. Shark-swimmer. Torture camp commander.

What cover-ups, like the Tillman case, and running torture camps have in common is that they are both manifestations of a culture of impunity -- "exemption from punishment or loss."

McChrystal ran Task Force 6-26, which became temporarily famous after the killing of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, a boogyman figure cultivated by the US military and media complex. What made TF 6-26 infamous was their activity in Camp Nama, Iraq: torture. Massive, systematic, sustained torture, by special operators, under the supervision of Stanley McChrystal, this deceptively soft-spoken officer.

The camp in Baghdad was used almost exclusively for the torture of detainees. The torture went on before, during, and after the scandal at Abu Ghraib. Detainees were killed by their torturers, members of the most elite units in the US armed forces. Almost in celebration of the activity of the camp, placards were hung that said, "No Blood, No Foul," meaning if you don't make them bleed, you can't be charged with the crimes you are committing.

Impunity. McChrystal represents a culture of impunity.

Pelosi does, too. Be honest.

I keep coming back to that idea that culture, personhood, and nature are all reciprocally influenced. What kinds of persons will emerge from a culture of impunity, a culture of gunfighting, a culture of the most extreme kind of probative masculinity? (The big picture of Zarqawi, dead, that hung behind the Pentagon briefers after McChrystal's unit directed the airstrike that killed him, was a hunting trophy... male proof of conquest.)

Here's where I get to the evolution of Special Ops culture, and of military culture generally, and the bumper stickers on the car at a Cary mall suggesting a weaponized Jesus.

The reports of abuses inside Camp Nama were said to have outraged even seasoned CIA, FBI and DIA investigators accustomed to dealing with non-cooperative and hostile detainees, and to have provoked a culture clash between agencies and groups involved with the facility. By early 2004, one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's top aides, Under-Secretary for Defense Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone, ordered a subordinate, DIA head Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby to "get to the bottom" of any misconduct [an order for public consumption in the wake of serial scandals, since Cambone was himself am early torture advocate].

By June 25, 2004, Admiral Jacoby wrote a two-page memo to Cambone, in which he described a series of complaints, including a May 2004 incident in which a DIA interrogator said he witnessed task force soldiers punch a detainee hard enough to require medical help. The DIA officer took photos of the injuries, but a supervisor confiscated them, the memo said. The memo provoked an angry reaction from Mr. Cambone. "Get to the bottom of this immediately. This is not acceptable," Mr. Cambone said in a handwritten note on June 26, 2004, to his top deputy, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin. "In particular, I want to know if this is part of a pattern of behavior by TF 6-26."

According to the NYT article, General Boykin had earlier said (on March 17) through a spokesman that he told Mr. Cambone he had found no pattern of misconduct with the task force. The article does not provide further detail on Boykin's response to the investigation after Cambone's and Jacoby's intervention in June, 2004. [from Wikipedia]

Boykin. Readers may not remember this guy, but when he was Deputy Commander of Delta, I was assigned there, where we we occasionally hectored into attending one of "Jerry" Boykin's "prayer breakfasts." Boykin is a weaponized Jesus advocate, a dispensationalist zealot who considers himself one of God's martial instruments in advance of the Rapture.

Now here is a strange and disturbing twist in the evolution of Special Ops culture. When I was there, some years back now, we were mostly reprobates -- hyper-profane macho drunks a lot of us -- with no time for religion. Over time, reports are indicating, the End Times Weaponized Jesus religion has gained a lot of ground in Special Operations and in the military generally. So now we are growing a culture wihtin the military that doesn't obey rules (impunity), that kills to prove masculinity, and that fuels bloodlust with a crackpot philosophy that tells them killing Arabs, et al, is a deliverance of God's justice.

If you believe that cultures mix, and sometimes badly, wait until we see the fruition of this hybrid of gunfighter practice with rapturite ideology.

Obama's support for McChrystal will be matched by Pelosi's support for McChrystal, and they will be mixed up in all this, seeking non-accountability as relentlessly as any Rumsfeld or McChrystal.

Stanley McChrystal is mixed up in all this, and not necessarily as a proselytizer. He's just mixed up in it, because this tendency in the military and his personal career happen to correspond in time and space. What both of them are is killers. They have made professional careers out of killing, and their units were not the little Special Forces A-Detachments with their peculiar linguists and trainers. These guys -- Boykin, McChrystal -- worked in "direct action" units. Rangers. Delta. JSOC. Direct action is another euphemism. It means destroying something, someone, someones.

Now it seems we are training a generation of people to torture; and I wonder if the crazy ideas are leading people to torture others, or if torturing others is the perverted origin of the penchant for male death-cult thinking.

The practice in question here, finally, is torture.

That's where Boykin and McChrystal collaborated in Iraq. A torture camp.

That's what has Pelosi on the spot now, too. Or the CIA. Or both.

Torture.

What does torture say about us; and what does what we say about torture say about us?

Comments

[GuyMontag451]

Note: This is a follow-up to Part 5: Letter to Mike Fish ESPN 7-26-09 Of "Did They Teach You How to Lie Yet?" Just providing a bit more data to support my critique of the Wallace Report

Part 1: Early Confirmation of Tillman Fratricide:

The Army leadership claimed they waited to inform the Tillman family of fratricide until they were sure of the facts. COL Nixon said it took a “considerable time to get the truth”.

Yet, the day after Tillman’s death, on the 23rd, CSM Birch was “70% sure” and LTC Bailey “was certain” it was fratricide. CPT Scott, the first 15-6 investigating officer, confirmed Tillman’s fratricide just two days after Tillman’s death (not five weeks), and immediately passed that information up the chain of command to LTC Bailey who told Col. Nixon:

“And certainly, by the next day [24th] when we did the investigations, I [Col. Bailey] confirmed it. Because I called him [Nixon] back within a day or two and said, “Sir, I want you to know now, after getting the first five interviews” in fact, that was, I guess, the next day.” … “So, after [Scott] did his first five interviews, he came back to me and said, “Sir, I’m certain. I’m sure.” And then I called [Nixon]. … I think it was the 24th. (p. 53)

[GuyMontag451]

Part 2: COL Nixon’s “Failure” to Report Fratricide to CENTCOM:

The IG report claims Nixon “failed” to notify CENTCOM (i.e. Abizaid) of fratricide. Yet, GEN Wallace found that Nixon “did keep his chain of command informed of the investigat­ion.” Even though Nixon “compartmented” information flow to prevent outside communication, he testified “the Joint Task Force [McChrystal] continued to be informed throughout­.”

According to the IG Report timeline, on the 23rd LTC Bailey told Nixon about possible fratricide and the 15-6 investigation, Nixon told McChrystal only about Tillman’s death, and McChrystal told Abizaid only about Tillman’s death (no mention of fratricide or 15-6 investigation). Supposedly later, on the 24th or 25th, Nixon told McChrystal about the possibility of friendly fire.

Yet, McChrystal told GEN Jones that Nixon called him about possible fratricide “about a day or two after the incident” [23rd or 24th] (McChrystal’s testimony to GEN Jones was taped, but “defective and unintelligible”. How curious this was the only Jone’s interview that was “lost.”). But the IG report says Nixon told McChrystal only of Tillman’s death on the 23rd. Which account is accurate?

How could Nixon be told of possible fratricide on the 23rd and not pass that information to McChrystal the same day? And if Nixon waited a day or two to tell McChrystal, why didn’t he tell him about the fratricide confirmation? (On the 24th, Nixon was told that fratricide had been confirmed by CPT Scott, the 1st 15-6 investigating officer).

[GuyMontag451]

Part 3: McChrystal’s “Timely” Fratricide Report:

General Wallace concluded that McChrystal acted reasonably and quickly when he alerted his higher headquarters about the fratricide investigation. General Abizaid testified that “General McChrystal reported the incident in a forthright and timely fashion.”

Yet, there was nothing timely about McChrystal’s fratricide notification to his chain of command: On April 22nd, Tillman was killed. On April 23rd (or 24th), Nixon told McChrystal about probable fratricide and the 15-6 investigation.

Even if McChrystal was told on the 24th, how was waiting five days to send a P4 considered “timely”? How is it possible that McChrystal never told Abizaid about fratricide while they were both in Qatar or never picked up the phone to tell him later?


McChrystal’s P4 “Warning”:

Why did McChrystal send his P4 on the 29th? The recipients of the P4 already knew about fratricide and investigation. Kensinger and Brown (McChrystal called Brown a week earlier) and presumably Abizaid had already been notified of possible fratricide shortly after Tillman’s death. The only new information was that the Silver Star had just been approved by the Secretary of the Army.

I believe the purpose of the P4 was just to provide a paper trail for Nixon (the IG Report states that the P4 was drafted by Nixon) and McChrystal to document they knew about friendly fire when they approved Tillman’s Silver Star and still felt the award was deserved. If pressed, they could show they had informed their superiors.

[GuyMontag451]

Part 4: Kensinger’s Failure to Send Fratricide Casualty Notification:

Kensinger was blamed for not sending a supplemental casualty notification telling the Tillman family about the fratricide investigation. General Cody said that “… we do not encumber the JSOC commander [McChrystal] with all of that; that’s done by the regiment and done by the Army through USSOC [Kensinger­].”

However, if you take a look at the flowchart on p. 80 of the IG report, you’ll see that McChrystal’s Chief of Staff was responsible for sending a supplemental report to USSOC after learning of friendly fire. The flowchart notes that both McChrystal and his Chief of Staff knew about the fratricide by the 25th and yet did not send the required report as required.


Gen. Abizaid’s Inconsistent Testimony:

The official story is that Gen. Abizaid was informed by Gen. McChrystal only of Tillman’s death on the 23rd. Although McChrystal was probably informed on the 23rd of possible fratricide (no later than the 25th) he supposedly never bothered to pick up the phone to update Abizaid? Instead, McChrystal waited six days to send a “timely” P4 message that was “misplaced” by CENTCOM. Abizaid claims he first learned of suspected fratricide when he received the P4 on about May 6th:

1. The IG report claims that on April 23rd “COL Nixon … calls MG McChrystal … to inform him of CPL Tillman’s death.” Correspondingly, Abizaid told Congress McChrystal told him only of Tillman’s death on the 23rd during a meeting in Qatar.

[GuyMontag451]

Part 5: Gen. Abizaid’s Inconsistent Testimony (continued):

Yet, Nixon had already been informed of fratricide on the 23rd! Further, McChrystal testified Nixon told him of suspected fratricide while in Qatar on the 23rd or 24th. And Nixon testified that he had told Kensinger “almost immediately” and Yellen on the 23rd or 24th. Why would Nixon not inform McChrystal of possible fratricide on the 23rd as well?

2. Abizaid testified to the IG investigators that McChrystal told him only of Tillman’s death, that he received “no details” and “did not know friendly fire was suspected. Yet, Abizaid testified during the August 1, 2007 Waxman hearing that Tillman’s death was “heroic”. How did Abizaid go from knowing “no details” to “heroic” death and yet hear nothing about friendly fire?

3. Abizaid testified at the Waxman hearing that after reading the P4 on about May 6th, he called Meyers and told him “there is a possibility of fratricide” and “McChrystal has appointed the necessary people to investigat­e.” It’s curious that Abizaid’s testimony sounds just like Gen. Brown’s testimony that “McChrystal called shortly after [Tillman’s death]… to say there was a possibility that this was a friendly fire incident and that he was investigat­ing.” (And, if you carefully re-read the P4, it refers to a “15-6 investigation nearing completion”, not to an investigation just starting with people appointed to investigate!).

[laurenc]

stan, your posts are the most fascinating and thoughtful of anything on this site.
I can't thank you enough for your astute and stunning observations.
Yes to all of your comments and thanks for the way you weave an understanding of masculinity to political history.

[GuyMontag451]

Part 5 (Last): letter to Mike Fish ESPN 7-26-08

The Wallace Report singled out General Kensinger for blame. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said “General Kensinger failed in his duty to his soldiers, and the results were a calamity for the Army …” “He made false official statements”, “failed in his duty to inform the family about the friendly fire incident in a timely manner …”, and “failed to inform the acting Secretary of the Army of the fratricide investigat­ion.”

On the other hand, McChrystal was praised for his handling of the Tillman fratricide. General Wallace concluded that McChrystal acted reasonably and quickly when he alerted his higher headquarters about the fratricide investigation. Secretary Geren said “General McChrystal, when notified of the friendly fire incident, he alerted, through his P4, … his chain of command. … General Abizaid testified that “General McChrystal reported the incident in a forthright and timely fashion.” “…General McChrystal did exactly the right thing. He sent a timely message [P4] in a timely fashion through the most secure channels.”

However, Kensinger was merely the scapegoat for the sins of the Army.

Tillman was killed April 22nd. Probable fratricide (“70% sure”) was passed up the 23rd. Confirmation (“I’m certain, I’m sure”) was passed up the 24th . Yet, Abizaid testified McChrystal told him on the 23rd only of Tillman’s death. McChrystal was praised for sending his “timely” P4 message six days later! Nixon and McChrystal wrote the P4 to cover their butts

[GuyMontag451]

Part 4: “Did They Teach You How to Lie Yet? 4-03-08 letter to Senator James Webb:

Mary said, “… Congress is supposed to take care of their citizens. … Pat died for this country, and he believed it was a great country that had a system that worked. It is not perfect. No one has ever said that. But there is a system in place to allow for it to work, and your job is to find out what happened to Pat.”

In “A Country Such As This” Senator Judd Smith argued: “And no, the military isn’t just fine. The point is, it isn’t corrupt. It’s a system with human failures.”

But when “human failures” systematically extend up every single link in the chain-of-command to the White House, how is that not corrupt? Every institution in this country has failed the Tillman family, the Army, Congress, White House and the media.

Perhaps Senator Rowland, in “Something to Die For” hit the nail on the head:

“How lofty it must have been to have burnt with the purity of the Revolution! Before the days of multi-million dollar election campaigns that brought politicians to their knees before the monied temple of the contributors. Before the time of computerized politics that cause them to await the wisdom of those oracles known as pollsters before they spoke. Or maybe it had been trash from the get-go, myths to feed the public.”

[GuyMontag451]

Part 3: “Did They Teach You How to Lie Yet?

On August 1, 2007, Congressman Henry Waxman’s Oversight Committee held “The Tillman Fratricide” hearing.

Mary wrote, “General Brown, retired generals Meyers and Abizaid, and Rumsfeld have great difficulty remembering what they knew and when they knew it. Someone sitting next to me whispers, ‘They have collective amnesia.’ Rumsfeld was asked several times in various ways when he learned of Pat’s death, but he couldn’t recall.”

While reading Waxman’s report, I was surprised that they never interviewed General McChrystal! McChrystal was the key link in the chain of command between Col. Nixon (Ranger Regiment) and Abizaid (CENTCOM), he wrote the P4 memo, and he approved the false narrative of the Silver Star citation.

Initially, the Committee had wanted testimony from McChrystal, but he “declined” to appear at their hearing. Why didn’t the Committee follow up and interview McChrystal sometime during the following year until their report was issued? Were they (and the Army) protecting McChrystal? Was the Waxman report just the final layer upon the cover-up of the Tillman fratricide?

Mary wrote in her book, “… we were not happy with the hearing at all. We had spent weeks helping getting questions prepared and sending information. The Republicans on the committee were at best indifferent … Most of the Democrats disappointed us as well. They were not prepared and they didn’t think on their feet. We expected more from Congress.”

[UC41]

I survived a wicked aircraft disaster with McChrystal­.. He leads from the front and is a good man. Probably one of the greatest Military Commanders in the History of this Nation. The men under his "Wings" are in good hands.... and lastly,... "Don't hate the 'Players',­.. hate the 'Game' ."

[GuyMontag451]

Part 2: “Did They Teach You How to Lie Yet?

I share Senator Webb’s anger. But, I don’t understand why Webb was unable to determine “where responsibility … really lies.” General McChrystal was the central figure in the cover up of Tillman’s fratricide. McChrystal decided not to notify Tillman’s family, approved the fraudulent Silver Star award, and wrote the P4 memo sent to protect President Bush from making embarrassing comments about Tillman’s heroism IF his friendly fire death ever became public.

In her book “Boots on the Ground by Dusk”, Mary Tillman strongly criticized McChrystal’s handling of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death:

“Not only is he lying about the circumstances surrounding Pat’s death, … he is proposing false language for the Silver Star narrative. … His statement [P4 memo] indicates that no one had any intention of telling us, or the public, that Pat was killed by fratricide unless forced to do so.”
Mary Tillman said this past week in an e-mail to the AP, "It is imperative that Lt. General McChrystal be scrutinized carefully during the Senate hearings." Perhaps the Senate will do a better job vetting McChrystal the second time around.

Has Congress been protecting General McChrystal from close scrutiny into his handling of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death? Five years ago, Pat Tillman’s family were handed a tarnished Silver Star. It will be a travesty if McChrystal is confirmed by the Senate, handed his fourth star, and promoted to the Army’s highest rank.

[GuyMontag451]

Part 1: “Did they teach you how to lie yet?”
-- “A Country Such As This” (1983), James Webb [now Virginia Senator]
Yesterday I managed to call into the Diane Rhem radio show on NPR [5-15-09; 11:33:45] on her Friday News Round Up program. I asked if Congress has been trying to protect General McChrystal from close scrutiny of his central role in the Army’s cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death. Below, I’ve expanded on my remarks:
This past Monday, Defense Secretary Gates nominated Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the new commander of the War in Afghanistan. The Chairmen of the Armed Services Committee, Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, don’t foresee any problem with McChrystal’s promotion to four-star general.
Last year, McChrystal’s actions in the aftermath of Tillman’s fratricide were reviewed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in a closed hearing (5-15-08). On May 26, 2008, they approved McChrystal’s promotion to his current position as Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Shortly afterward, I happened to speak with Senator Jim Webb on The Diane Rhem Show (5-27-08, 40:56):
Webb said, “What we do know … is the Army knew that this was a friendly fire incident fairly quickly, they did not tell the family, … I’m not sure where responsibility for that decision really lies, in terms of the chain of command … You cannot help but still feel angry about how his death was used.”

[robertogt]

You spent a lot of words saying basically nothing. Tillman was "offed". He was going to blow the lid off the scam we call "the war on terror". Ask his brother unless they shut him down. Read his brother's letter. Pat Tillman was going to spill the beans. We can't have some one of his fame telling it like it is. Now think about Cheney's death squads. Loose lips sink ships.

[TheBurdicks]

Who, or what, have we become? Is there anything good left of the pre-WWII U.S.A. into which I was born? Will nothing stop our descent into darkness and evil?
I despair for my children, my grandchild, and the broken hollow shell of a once great country my generation will leave behind.

Rest in Peace.
1941-20??
Here lies Dwight Burdick
He shares responsibility
for the deplorable State
left behind for his descendents