What happened to Pat Tillman?
A terrifying story about the consequences of crossing the US regime.
On the timely day of April 1, 2003, US soldier Jessica Lynch was rescued by special operations forces in Iraq.
The young actress & teacher had been captured during an Iraqi ambush on the 507th Maintenance Company unit a week earlier. An unparallelled myth making ensued. The American press concocted unbelievable stories about the heroic nature of her capture: Not only did she fight back, shooting several Iraqi soldiers, she only surrendered when she had emptied her weapon.
Of course then, the operation to save Lynch also had to be immersed in megalomania, glory and Hollywood like pomp. So the football super star turned Army Ranger, Pat Tillman, was asked by George Bush’s PR team to join the special forces. He was the most famous American soldier during the Iraq war.
His tall stature and movie star looks aside, his rejection of a $3,6 million contract offer from the Cardinals in order to fight made him the most important PR tool for Washington DC.
“He is world-class”, Ronald Rumsfeld told his top generals.
“We might want to keep our eye on him.”
When Tillman participated in the rescue mission, they were accompanied by a camera crew. How could such an honorable moment not be thoroughly documented? In retrospect, Lynch’s confused and bewildered face might not just have been from her harrowing POW experience. You see, she denied ever shooting at anyone before she was captured. Fearing for her life, she merely surrendered, she later explained. The Pentagon and the US press had concocted the story and then sent Tillman and a camera crew to finish the propaganda story line.
The entire Lynch story still doesn’t make sense. She and others captured during that raid were voluntarily released by the Iraqis, they were not freed through military means. Why special forces? In his journal, Tillman called the operation “a big Public Relations stunt.”
This might have been his first exposure to the empire of lies known as Washington DC. His belief in the idealized America was genuine and heartfelt: In pre-war interviews he spoke with sincerity about freedoms and rights he thought were unique to America. He walked away from money, fame and safety in order to fight for it.
Despite the lack of biographical detail, there is in fact no biography on Tillman’s life, it seems his worldview collapsed within a short span of time. He confided in his brother Russell Baer that he thought the invasion and occupation were “fucking illegal”. By early 2004, Tillman’s friend Jared Schrieber emailed Noam Chomsky, informing him that Tillman wanted to meet him after his deployment in July 2005.
The Bush administration were presented with a ticking time bomb. His White House were already drowning in crises. By 2004, Bin Laden’s trail had gone cold, the Iraq war was falling apart, a 60 Minutes exposé on Abu Graib was released. And now, Pat Tillman.
On April 22, 2004, a month after Tillman was transferred to Afghanistan, the Pentagon released a statement claiming that he was killed by enemy combatants during an ambush. That statement is a retracted lie, we know that today, but for the year or so it was allowed to circulate as official truthdom the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) put together a detailed investigative report confirming the initial statement. With hindsight, the effort and audacity it takes to just make shit up like this is breathtaking. This entire paragraph, which is only a tiny part of a larger report, is 100% made up:
“... during their movement through the canyon road, Serial 2 [Tillman's platoon had to split up because of a broken HMMWV; the parts were called Serial 1 and 2] was ambushed and became engaged in a running gun battle with enemy combatants. Serial 1 [Tillman's portion of the platoon] had just passed through the same canyon without incident and were approximately one kilometer ahead of Serial 2. Upon hearing explosions, gunfire, and sporadic radio communication from Serial 2, Serial 1 dismounted their vehicles and moved on foot, to a more advantageous position to provide overwatch and fire support for Serial 2's movement out of the ambush. Upon exiting the gorge, and despite attempts by Serial 1 to signal a "friendly position", occupants of the lead vehicle of Serial 2 opened fire on Tillman's position, where he was fatally shot.”
When DoD leaks from some obviously burdened souls began to crush this narrative, the Department of Defense conducted a lengthy investigation in which they concluded that not only did an ambush not occur. There weren’t even enemy fighters present at all. His injuries were consistent with an M16 rifle fired from 10 yards away.
A new official truthdom arose, namely friendly fire. Details kept pouring out of this case. After special forces had shot Tillman three times in the forehead, they burned his body armor and uniform. They also went on to burn his notebook in which he used to write about his thoughts on Bush, the war on terror and American militarism.
Author John Krakauer, who wrote a book after accessing a few remaining letters and testimonies from families and friends, called the notebook burning a “blatant violation of protocol”.
During the cover-up period, army attorneys sent each other congratulatory emails for keeping criminal investigations at bay.
Even as the cover-up blew up, the new official story was itself a cover-up of the cover-up. How could someone shoot a fellow soldier three times in the forehead from 10 yards, by accident? Consider this question while remembering the Pentagon’s conclusion that no enemy fighters were present. So there’s no immediate threat, no rush of adrenaline, no chaotic and disorienting scene usually associated with friendly fire.
But it’s here the Tillman story ends. No investigator dared look further into it, no established outlet raised those questions, although Tillman’s family did.
It has also lead to speculation about the content of the burned notebook. Some have reported that he was planning on blowing the whistle on Joint Special Operations Command’s drug running/human trafficking in Afghanistan. Some of those JSOC/CIA activities have since been confirmed.
Vice president Dick Cheney was issuing direct orders to JSOC out of the White House during Tillman’s employment. He was also running an illegal classified assassination program under the War on Terror framework.
Show me a copy of Tillman’s notebook, if JSOC kept any of it around and then declassify every single confidential JSOC order issued by Dick Cheney, and you’ll have a real understanding of not only what happened to Tillman, but what the ugly face of the American regime truly looks like.