SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Just seven days after the death of NFL star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, a top general warned that there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and that President Bush might embarrass himself if he said Tillman died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.
It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth, that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades.
The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman's family.
In a memo sent to a four-star general a week after Tillman's April 22, 2004, death, Major General Stanley McChrystal warned that it was highly possible that the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire. McChrystal made it clear that his warning should be conveyed to the president.
"I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public," McChrystal wrote on April 29, 2004, to General John Abizaid, head of Central Command.
White House spokesman Blain Rethmeier said yesterday that a review of records turned up no indication that the president had received McChrystal's warning. Bush made no reference to the way Tillman died in a speech delivered two days after the memo was written. But Rethmeier emphasized that the president often pays tribute to fallen soldiers without mentioning the exact circumstances of their deaths.
The family was not told what really happened until May 29, 2004. In the intervening weeks, the military continued to say Tillman died under enemy fire and awarded him the Silver Star, which is given for heroic battlefield action.
The Tillman family has alleged that the military and the Bush administration deliberately deceived his relatives and the nation to avoid turning public opinion against the war.
Tillman's mother, Mary, had no immediate comment yesterday on the newly disclosed memo.
The memo was provided to the AP by a government official who requested anonymity because the document was not released as part of the Pentagon's official report on the way the Army brass withheld the truth. McChrystal was the highest-ranking officer accused of wrongdoing in the report, issued earlier this week.
In the memo, McChrystal expressed concern that Bush and Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee may give speeches in which they misstated the facts about Tillman's death.
A former spokesman for Abizaid did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages.
