Army Ranger Pat Tillman A Pentagon watchdog on Monday found fault with
nine officers for investigations and incorrect accounts of the death of
Tillman in Afghanistan.


"I'm no hero, the people who served with me who died are the real
heroes" said Jessica Lynch to CNN. Lynch was the young veteran who was
savaged by Iraqi soldiers and who nearly lost her life in service to her
country.


Pat Tillman's brother Kevin spoke to the congress and accused the
military Tuesday of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful
misrepresentations" in portraying his brother's death in Afghanistan as
the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of a friendly
fire mistake.

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more
importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a House Government
Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. "Pat's death was clearly the
result of fratricide," he said.

"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another
political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth
needed to be suppressed," said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his
brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn't see it.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accused the government of inventing
"sensational details and stories" about Tillman's death and the dramatic
rescue and fictionalized post incident details of Jessica Lynch, whose
capture riveted many Americans.

Lynch, then an Army private, was terribly injured when her convoy was
ambushed in Iraq. Rescued after being sexually assaulted and treated
with sub-standard Iraqi medical care, Lynch's true story became a
fabricated history portraying her as a fighting hero, when she admitted
on CNN in an interview she never even got a chance to use her weapon.
She praised her fallen peers in battle. Her frustration at the truth
being manipulated was evident in the hearing.

Still dealing with her life-altering injuries, Lynch slowly came to the
witness table and took a seat alongside Tillman's family.

"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their
own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales,"
Lynch said.

Kevin Tillman said his family has only wanted the truth about Pat
Tillman's death, and have now concluded that they were "being actively
thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative
than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served."