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thedrifter
04-10-07, 03:41 PM
House to look at Tillman, Lynch inaccuracies
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 15:20:15 EDT

An upcoming congressional hearing will focus on the initial and inaccurate reports of the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman and the capture and rescue of former Pvt. Jessica Lynch.

“Misleading Information from the Battlefield” will be held April 24 by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at 10 a.m. in Room 2157 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The committee will examine why inaccurate accounts of those two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate officials have been held accountable, according to an announcement on the committee’s Web site.

Lynch, members of Tillman’s family and Defense Department officials are scheduled to testify.

Tillman was killed by friendly fire April 22, 2004, near Manah, Afghanistan. His family initially was told that he was killed by enemy fire, and it wasn’t until after his nationally televised memorial service did military officials reveal that Tillman had been killed by his comrades.

Findings from a Defense Department review released in late March cited four generals and five other officers in Tillman’s chain of command for mistakes made in reporting his death. The officers have been referred to a four-star Army general for further review and possible punishment for providing misleading or inaccurate information regarding the way Tillman was killed.

Seven soldiers, officers and enlisted men, have already received nonjudicial punishment for what happened the day Tillman was killed.

Tillman, 27, turned down a $3.6 million professional football contract to join the Army. His family has rejected the DoD findings, and they called for congressional investigations into what they see as broad malfeasance and a cover-up.

Lynch was badly wounded and captured on March 23, 2003, when 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq. She was later rescued and hailed by Defense Department officials as a hero who fired her weapon during the ambush on her convoy until she ran out of ammunition and was captured.

That information was later found to be inaccurate when Lynch spoke out and said she never fired her weapon and that her memory of that day’s events was unclear.

Ellie