posted by anthony @ 20:19 BST
Associated Press
Thursday April 12, 2007
A U.S. House committee announced it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public.
“The truth, the truth, this is only a search for the truth,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday at a news conference in San Francisco. “It’s about holding this administration accountable for the message that it sends out. … It’s about reality.”
Word of the hearings comes two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its own investigations into Tillman’s death, and three years after he was killed.
The committee has been quietly investigating the case since then 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 panel said on its Web site.
I hope this guy is wrong Anthony!
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So do I, Suzie, but his contention has been published by a mainstream newspaper in the U.K. (The Guardian is a left of centre broadsheet in the same league as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent), and I doubt whether they would publish such stuff unless there were serious grounds for it.
If the US congress ever held hearing to totally expose the disinformation and distortions the pentagon sends into the MSM, it would have to stop about everything else they do. Each Battalion, Brigade, Division Military Post has it’s own Public affairs officer, and divisional and higher Headquarters also have a staff directly dedicated at getting the Military message out.
As a former military officer I saw quite a bit of “pro-military”spin put on stories, like soldiers deaths in combat theaters, and the Fact major commands have officers who check out the national media and some important local media sources for articles which could be construed as not giving the military a good light, and they also try to deflect criticism by putting out the pro-military story.
Basically our tax dollars are being spent for these high paid military officers to at best obfuscate the truth if the facts would look bad for the military. And that is NOT to even touch the Ronald McDumsfeld’s idiotic idea of having Taxpayer funded high paid military officers to “troll” the blogs trying to quash anti military articles and put forth a pro-military image.
No wonder the total military budget in this year will top $700,000,000,000, because the true story about what the pentagon and top brass who are doing Bush’s dirty work doesn’t look good when you look close at it. The waste Billions on trying to convince poor people to join up and become cannon fodder in the illegal war in Iraq, and waste Billions more spinning the truth about that illegal war.
BTW that is NOT to mention the tens of Billions of dollars they waste in a failed illegal war, based on Lies and disinformation, which Bush is refusing to even think about ending.
Anthony:
Yes, I know the sources are probably credible but I’m just hoping they’re wrong!
“Basically our tax dollars are being spent for these high paid military officers to at best obfuscate the truth if the facts would look bad for the military.”
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Clif:
Unfortunately, you’re correct about that!
Suzie-Q! Your blog looks great.
Great job.
There was definitely a cover up of Tillman’s death and the fact that his uniform and his personal diary were both burned indicates to me that Tillman was not happy with the direction of things. Was he murdered? Well, one of the soldiers who shot him did testify and said the he always wanted to be part of an ambush.
Tillman’s mother is not ruling out that her son was intentionally killed, but she does want this Congressional hearing to find out the truth. If that is not the truth, then she will find out what happened.
I feel for her….a lot.
S-Q I have first hand experience both from things i saw in Desert Storm, and the quote about major military commands watching the MSM and trying to spin unpleasant stories was a direct quote told me about watching what i did off post when I was called to respond to incidents there. I was told to NEVER say any thing to the MSM and to get the local authorities to remove them from ever filming what I did, both since a large part of what I did to make things safe considering unexploded bombs is classified, and to make sure nothing was on Film which could be used to bring discredit upon the military.
They were very concerned how the MSM portrays the military.
Hi Kay!
Thank you and I’ve had tons of help! Including you for answering a lot of my questions! Thank you!
Yes, it was acoverup and hopefully the Tillman family will have justice in his death.
Clif:
Yes, cover up the stuff that makes the masses angry! So, the MSM can report on the important news.. such as Britney’s tatoo and shaved head!
LOL