Pat Tillman

On Aug. 6, 2001, our vacationing president was warned by the CIA for the 36th time in eight months that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States and that recent intelligence had suggested an attack might be imminent. There were at that moment, George W. Bush was told, 70 bin-Laden-related field investigations being conducted in the country. “All right,’’ our president told the CIA officer, “you’ve covered your ass.’’ On one level, Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory’’ represents a detailed look at the tragic tale of Pat Tillman, the football star who quit the NFL to...

Their faces hidden, many hockey goalies distinguish themselves with the elaborate designs painted on their masks. During his 10 NHL seasons, Jason LaBarbera used his mask to illustrate his love of wrestling and hard-rock music, adorning his lids with images of Metallica, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, wrestlers like Undertaker and Brett "The Hitman" Hart. This season, the Phoenix Coyotes backup goalie is using his mask to pay tribute to someone he never met yet holds a great deal of respect for: NFL star turned war hero Pat Tillman.

For a while, anyway. The thing This Blog was really, really dreading about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities was the inevitable, militaristic, tribal hoorah that it knew was coming from the National Football League, which occasionally is treated as though it is the fifth branch of the US military by its acolytes, its courtier press, and itself. Things ran pretty much as This Blog feared on Sunday, except for one thing. Where was Pat Tillman? This Blog is open to anyone who saw a tribute to him, or even heard his name mentioned, in the flood of tinny banalities coming from the various...

For a while, anyway. The thing This Blog was really, really dreading about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities was the inevitable, militaristic, tribal hoorah that it knew was coming from the National Football League, which occasionally is treated as though it is the fifth branch of the US military by its acolytes, its courtier press, and itself. Things ran pretty much as This Blog feared on Sunday, except for one thing. Where was Pat Tillman? This Blog is open to anyone who saw a tribute to him, or even heard his name mentioned, in the flood of tinny banalities coming from the various...

WASHINGTON -- Army officials knew within days of Pat Tillman's death that the former NFL player had been killed by fellow Rangers during a patrol in Afghanistan but did not inform his family and the public for weeks, The Washington Post reported. A new Army report shows that General John P. Abizaid, the theater commander in Afghanistan, and other top Army officials were aware an investigation had determined the death was caused by an act of "gross negligence. " They knew this four days before a nationally televised memorial service, the Post reported after reviewing nearly 2,000 pages of...

Their faces hidden, many hockey goalies distinguish themselves with the elaborate designs painted on their masks. During his 10 NHL seasons, Jason LaBarbera used his mask to illustrate his love of wrestling and hard-rock music, adorning his lids with images of Metallica, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, wrestlers like Undertaker and Brett "The Hitman" Hart. This season, the Phoenix Coyotes backup goalie is using his mask to pay tribute to someone he never met yet holds a great deal of respect for: NFL star turned war hero Pat Tillman.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform. New investigative documents reviewed by the Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A US House committee announced yesterday that it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing, titled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield," would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public. The plan comes two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its...

WASHINGTON -- The Army yesterday issued a fresh denial that it attempted to cover up the friendly-fire death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. The Army said procedural mistakes were to blame for its slow acknowledgment of the circumstances of Tillman's death. Tillman's parents have criticized the Army for waiting weeks to tell them his death was accidental and did not result from enemy fire. They have accused the government of lying to cover up. A statement from the Army's public affairs office said Tillman's Ranger unit did not...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- As head of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers usually doesn't have to take a back seat to anyone -- except when US troops make up the audience and comedian Robin Williams is on stage. American forces serving at the Bagram air base got a little early Christmas cheer yesterday as Myers and Williams -- along with former NFL quarterback John Elway, model/sports commentator Leann Tweeden, and comedian Blake Clark -- stopped by on a tour. The activities got off to a somber start with a groundbreaking ceremony for a coffee shop to be named...

The title of Amir Bar-Lev’s new documentary is “The Tillman Story,’’ but which Pat Tillman are we talking about? The Department of Defense and the Bush administration’s? The NFL’s? His mom’s? The larger drama of the film — and “The Tillman Story’’ is as taut and suspenseful as any fictional mystery — is the way it slowly burrows through layers of public Pat Tillmans, peeling them back like onion skin, to arrive at a riddle: a charismatic young man who turned his back on celebrity to engage the world.

On Aug. 6, 2001, our vacationing president was warned by the CIA for the 36th time in eight months that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States and that recent intelligence had suggested an attack might be imminent. There were at that moment, George W. Bush was told, 70 bin-Laden-related field investigations being conducted in the country. “All right,’’ our president told the CIA officer, “you’ve covered your ass.’’ On one level, Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory’’ represents a detailed look at the tragic tale of Pat Tillman, the football star who...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform. New investigative documents reviewed by the Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman's family for...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A US House committee announced yesterday that it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing, titled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield," would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public. The plan comes two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its...

WASHINGTON -- The Army yesterday issued a fresh denial that it attempted to cover up the friendly-fire death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. The Army said procedural mistakes were to blame for its slow acknowledgment of the circumstances of Tillman's death. Tillman's parents have criticized the Army for waiting weeks to tell them his death was accidental and did not result from enemy fire. They have accused the government of lying to cover up. A statement from the Army's public affairs office said Tillman's Ranger unit did not...

WASHINGTON -- Army officials knew within days of Pat Tillman's death that the former NFL player had been killed by fellow Rangers during a patrol in Afghanistan but did not inform his family and the public for weeks, The Washington Post reported. A new Army report shows that General John P. Abizaid, the theater commander in Afghanistan, and other top Army officials were aware an investigation had determined the death was caused by an act of "gross negligence. " They knew this four days before a nationally televised memorial service, the Post reported after reviewing nearly...

Former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for leading his Army Rangers unit to the rescue of comrades caught in an ambush. Tillman was shot and killed in Afghanistan while fighting "without regard for his personal safety," the Army said yesterday in announcing the award. The Silver Star, awarded for gallantry on the battlefield, is one of the most distinguished military honors. Tillman, 27, walked away from a three-year, $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals to join the Army in 2002.

The last minutes of Pat Tillman's life were a horror of misdirected machine-gun fire and signals to firing colleagues that were misunderstood as hostile acts, according to an account published Sunday of the death of the NFL player-turned-soldier. It took the Army a month to change the record to show that Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals defensive back who gave up a $3.6 million contract to become an Army Ranger, was killed last April not by Afghan guerrillas but by his Ranger colleagues.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- As head of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers usually doesn't have to take a back seat to anyone -- except when US troops make up the audience and comedian Robin Williams is on stage. American forces serving at the Bagram air base got a little early Christmas cheer yesterday as Myers and Williams -- along with former NFL quarterback John Elway, model/sports commentator Leann Tweeden, and comedian Blake Clark -- stopped by on a tour. The activities got off to a somber start with a groundbreaking ceremony for a coffee shop to be named after Pat Tillman,...

The last minutes of Pat Tillman's life were a horror of misdirected machine-gun fire and signals to firing colleagues that were misunderstood as hostile acts, according to an account published Sunday of the death of the NFL player-turned-soldier. It took the Army a month to change the record to show that Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals defensive back who gave up a $3.6 million contract to become an Army Ranger, was killed last April not by Afghan guerrillas but by his Ranger colleagues.