U.S. version of Tillman's death 'utter fiction,' says brother

The U.S. government and military created "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" of Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan, depicting it as a heroic battle with the enemy instead of a friendly fire incident, his brother and fellow platoon mate charged Tuesday.

Speaking for the first time publicly about his brother's death, Kevin Tillman told a U.S. House committee hearing of "intentional falsehoods that meet the legal definition for fraud" given to his family and the media over what happened.

Hours later, a U.S. Army ranger who was with Pat Tillman when he died told the committee his battalion commander ordered him to conceal the cause of death from the dead soldier's family, including his brother who was in the convoy but didn't witness the incident.

"I was ordered not to tell them," said Specialist Bryan O'Neal.
"He basically just said, 'Do not let Kevin know, he's probably in a bad place knowing that his brother's dead."' He added his commanding officer made it clear he would "get in trouble" if he told.

Kevin Tillman wasn't in the committee room when the army ranger spoke.
News of the U.S.

army ranger and former NFL player's death in April 2004 came on the brink of the release of a report detailing U.S. soldiers' torture of Iraqi civilians at Abu Ghraib prison and heavy U.

S. losses in Fallujah, when the government and military were desperate to avoid "a political disaster in a month full of political disasters," his brother said.
"To our family, it was a devastating loss," Kevin Tillman told the committee.

"But to others in the government, it appears to have been an opportunity."
The army publicly maintained at the time that Pat Tillman had been killed by enemy fire, when in fact his fellow rangers shot him after a chaotic ambush, and dozens of officers knew it.
The resulting story spun by the highest levels of the government and military, he testified, was "wreathed in a patriotic glow" to win Americans over.

 
"It was utter fiction," Kevin Tillman said.
He appeared before the committee along with Jessica Lynch, the young private whose dramatically portrayed rescue became a rallying point during the invasion of Iraq.
Lynch testified before the committee that she was far from the "little girl Rambo" that the media portrayed her as following her rescue from an Iraqi hospital in April 2003 after being captured by Iraqi forces.

"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 in her prepared remarks.
The Tillman family has said previous probes did not sufficiently address the role of then defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld in hiding from them for five weeks the true circumstances of the former NFL player's death.
"We have now concluded that our efforts are being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served," Kevin Tillman said.

Pat Tillman was killed April 22, 2004, after his army ranger comrades were ambushed in eastern Afghanistan. Rangers in a convoy trailing Tillman's group had just emerged from a canyon where they had been fired upon. They saw Tillman and mistakenly fired on him.

"Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," his brother said.
The emotional brother also gave other examples of families waiting up to 15 months before learning the true nature of their loved one's deaths.
"Those soldiers deserve better and their families deserve better," he said.

The Tillman death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Lynch, 21, a former army supply clerk, became one of the most visible faces of the war when she was rescued.

Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed when her convoy was attacked, and six, including a severely injured Lynch, were captured.

Her videotaped rescue by U.S. special forces branded Lynch a hero at a time the U.

S. war effort seemed bogged down. It also stirred complaints of government media manipulation.

Before Kevin Tillman and Lynch's testimony, committee chair and Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman contended the federal government invented "sensational details and stories" about Pat Tillman's death and Lynch's rescue.
"The bare minimum that we owe these soldiers and their families is the truth," Waxman said.

A series sweep against Boston on Tuesday could be in the cards if the Jays' bats can keep producing and Roy Halladay is his usual solid self on the mound.