Daily Howler - May 23, 2005

OKRENT (PART 1)! Daniel Okrent finally leaves—taking a cheap shot at Krugman

MONDAY, MAY 23, 2005

WHY DO PAT TILLMAN’S PARENTS HATE AMERICA: Maybe we’ve finally found someone who will be allowed to complain about this Admin’s endemic dissembling. We refer to the parents of Pat Tillman, whose comments about their son’s death are reported in today’s Post. Josh White’s summary of the facts sets the stage for the Tillmans’ anger:
WHITE (5/23/05): The latest investigation, written about by The Washington Post earlier this month, showed that soldiers in Afghanistan knew almost immediately that they had killed Tillman by mistake in what they believed was a firefight with enemies on a tight canyon road. The investigation also revealed that soldiers later burned Tillman's uniform and body armor.

That information was slow to make it back to the United States, the report said, and Army officials here were unaware that his death on April 22, 2004, was fratricide when they notified the family that Tillman had been shot.

Over the next 10 days, however, top-ranking Army officials—including the theater commander, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid—were told of the reports that Tillman had been killed by his own men, the investigation said. But the Army waited until a formal investigation was finished before telling the family—which was weeks after a nationally televised memorial service that honored Tillman on May 3, 2004.