meeting of the committee will come to order in april two thousand and seven our committee began an investigation into misleading accounts from the battlefield involving two of the most famous soldiers in iraq and afghanistan corporal patrick tillman who was killed in afghanistan on april twenty two two thousand and four and private jessica lynch who was captured and rescued in iraq in march and april two thousand and three at our first hearing last april we heard testimony from kevin tillman a former army ranger who was serving in afghanistan and his brother patrick tillman when he was killed more than a month the tillman family and the american public were told that pat tillman had been killed in a valiant firefight with the enemy president bush praised corporal tillman's military service and corporal tillman's patriotic memorial service was nationally televised kevin tillman told us that this account was utter fiction his brother was actually killed by friendly fire and defense department officials knew almost a midi atlee but they didn't tell us family and they didn't tell the american people kevin tillman testify that he believed the bush administration spread this false story to garner support for the war here's what he told us in the days leading up to pat memorial service media accounts based on information provided by the army and the white house were read in a patriotic glow and became more dramatic in tone a terrible tragedy that might have been undermined the terrible tragedy that might have further undermine support for the war in iraq was transformed into an inspirational message that served instead to support the nation's foreign policy wars in iraq and afghanistan we also heard from jessica lynch who was captured and rescued during the opening days of the iraq war in two thousand and three after administration officials spread a false story that she bravely fought off her captors she became a national phenomenon as a little girl rambo from the hills of west virginia who went down fighting but that story wasn't true either miss lynch testified quote i am still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend the bottom line is the american people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate lies and quote both kevin tillman and misled made the same allegation that the administration misled the nation about their conduct in battle in order to build support for the war the committee's investigation attempted to determine how this happened and who was responsible we did not focus down the chain of command as previous investigations had done but instead looked up the chain of command to determine what top officials at the white house  defense department knew about these events when they knew it and what they did with their knowledge the committee conducted its investigation in a bipartisan manner the committee reviewed tens of thousands of pages produced by the white house and the defense department and we conducted more than twenty interviews with top white house and pentagon officials the report before us today sets forth the results of our investigation and our conclusions the report begins with a premise that every member of this committee should agree with our nation has an inviolate obligation to share truthful information with the soldier's family and the american people should injury or death occur the report finds that the administration violated this obligation neither the tillman nor lynch cases involve acts of omission the misinformation was not caused by overlooking or mis understanding the facts in both cases affirmative acts created new facts that were false in the days following corporatism and death one army official stated quote the roger the ranger tillman story has been extremely positive in all media and quote another army official said that jessica lynch's capture and rescue was an quote awesome story and quote at the white house aides rushed to release a presidential statement before confirming whether corporal tillman's family had been notified the president's top communication official dan bartlett said the story of pat tillman made quote the american people feel good about our country and our military within days the chief white house speechwriter michael gerson was urging his staff to collect the quote most moving stuff and quote on corporal tillman for a speech by president bush the report we will vote on today leaves important questions unresolved it does not answer the fundamental question kevin tillman and this lengthy raised at our hearing who was responsible for spreading these false stories that is because we encountered a striking and near uniform lack of recollection what the new york times yesterday called a widespread and self induced case of amnesia in private lynch's case jim wilkinson the director for strategic communications for centcom told the committee he did not know where the false information originated or who disseminated and in corporal tillman's case even after seven defense department investigations no one has been able to identify the person who created the false information about enemy fire i report finds that the white house officials sent or received nearly two hundred e mails concerning corporal tillman in the days following his death but the white house could not produce a single e mail or document relating to any discussion about corporal tillman to death by friendly fire not a single written communication about personal reactions to the fratricide or the substantive political and public relations implications of the new information was provided to the committee when white house officials thought corporal tillman had been killed by the enemy the president celebrated his service but when it came to talking about how he really died the white house literally had nothing to say celebrations turned into silence as we state in the report if what the committee received is accurate and complete then the intense interest that initially characterized the white house and defense department's reaction to corporal tillman's death was followed by a stunning lack of curiosity about emerging reports of  comprehensible carelessness and incompetence in handling the sensitive information i don't recall is an easy response to give when you are being interviewed by congressional investigators  thank you mr chairman the tragic loss of army corporal pat tillman in afghanistan in april two thousand and four painfully reminds all americans of the costs of war he was a true hero a role model who personal sense of duty drew him from the ranks of elite professional sports and perilous military service and hills of afghanistan nothing we say can improve or diminish his shining legacy of patriotism and self sacrifice what is sad about the death of a hero should be said thoughtfully carefully and reverently events surrounding the timeless ends of a heroic life should never be shaped or shaded by either side to fuel the political disputes of the day this bipartisan investigation asked where the pentagon or white house officials broke that rule by manipulating information to build public support for an unpopular war in the case of patrick tillman and jessica lynch all the many investigations of these incidents including this inquiry found substantial evidence of misjudgment ineptitude and even negligence the committee's report acknowledges the investigative record is incomplete and therefore inconclusive on the question of whether government officials purposely delayed or distorted information battlefield this is been a bipartisan investigation from the outset and we appreciate the majority sharing this incorporating our suggestions into the final report nevertheless we believe it's necessary in matters for the public record separately because we find the report not historical record the report concludes should have detailed recollection about fleeting conversations and transactions that stand out from the tort of daily activity only in magnified hindsight but in fact it's perfectly comprehensible even inedible later people might not recall the exact moment they obtained specific information about these events when you cannot reach conclusions about what government official should have known to summarize the factual findings of extensive investigation  said the first casualty of the truth we now know in the fog of war the truth comes under friendly fire as well whether exaggerated accounts of heroism delayed acknowledgement or widely published but only fictional blogs describing alleged cruelty by s troops misinformation from the battlefield corrodes the bond of trust that defines us as a nation of free men and women patrick tillman like thousands of other brave americans gave his life in service to this nation his death was made even more heartbreaking by the fact it was found to have been caused by fratricide the u s army's agree just mishandling of the process meant to ensure a complete in timely notification to families turn this friendly fire incident into a prolonged decidedly unfriendly spectacle that is our duty as well mr chairman i would ask requisite three days to file additional views on this report thank you very much mr davis let me officially call up the report and with you by unanimous consent consider it  read and open to any more than that point without objection that will be the order i want to recognize members who wish to speak on the report but before we do that we've been we have received information from the family  think that those reporters in the administration were looking for in the first place mr chairman i plan to vote for this report today because i think it does accurately reflect what the committee learned during this investigation the singular goal of everything report we still haven't figured out who spread the false stories and who crafted the gross exaggerations that were sold to the public look at the report shows that the committee reviewed tens of thousands of documents interviewed more than twenty government officials with personal knowledge of these cases but when we asked them what they remembered about how they learned of the fratricide or who they discussed it with their most common response was i don't recall seven top white house officials an across the board they could not remember where they learned about the fratricide presidential speechwriter michael gerson who worked on the president's speech at the correspondents dinner said he could not remember communications director dan bartlett said that he did not have a quote specific recollection of press secretary scott mcclellan also said that he could not remember the top military leaders even though he directed his staff to keep an eye on corporal tillman secretary rumsfeld said of the fratricide i don't recall when i was told and i don't recall phrase i do not recall at least eighty two times so well i am disappointed that we were unable to sign accountability i think anyone reading this report will be able to see where the real responsibility lies thank this being released or the business there's a name that i think needs to be mentioned again today since the same name that i mentioned during the original hearing her name is peg mullen and if there is a hero that needs to be mentioned today it the excuses given by our nation's defense department on how her son was killed and that resulted in a book called friendly fire and her own autobiography called unfriendly fire because she became so outraged that the term known for fratricide became something that left warm feelings among family members who had to deal with it and peg mullen fought back as an iowa farm wife to bring attention to a growing problem th changed the course of history and mr chairman the tillman family has been concerned from the start of this dramatic episode that some officials who knew that corporal tillman was killed by friendly fire in gauged in a cover up and i asked today what have we learned in thirty eight years some of the suggested there is no evidence for their beliefs but in fact there is we had testify at this hearing room specialist bra ryan o'neal the army ranger who was standing next to pat tillman when he was killed and specialist o'neal testified before this committee that he was ordered by his battalion commander not to tell corporal tillman's brother kevin about the  and in response to questions from me in this panel specialist o'neill also told of his written account of corporal tillman's death that was altered by someone in his chain of command to make it appear as though  been killed by the enemy that was sworn testimony before this committee received as part of this investigation we have also learned that a second i was witness account was altered in the process and that both of these doctored statements were used as a basis to award corporal tillman the silver star that is evidence of a cover up we've also learned that physical evidence including corporal tillman's clothing which may have contained evidence to help investigators was destroyed in violation of army protocol and we've seen evidence that army lawyers purposely kept criminal investigators from examining how corporal tillman died so there was clearly evidence of a cover up what we don't know is who was behind it this is because the committee came to this issue three years after it occurred and after the defense department had bungled one investigation after another as the defense department is now admitted their investigations have been tainted by the failure to preserve evidence a lack of thoroughness and the failure to pursue investigative leads the commander of centcom general john abizaid was more blunt in his testimony before the committee he told us quote it's very difficult to come to grips with how we screwed this thing up but we screwed this thing up unfortunately the incompetence of the defense department investigation squandered the opportunity to assign any responsibility for the this committee needs to release this report to continue the legacy of peg mullen and others like her who have been trying to hold their government accountable now for nearly forty years now yield back my time  you mr chairman brenda vote in support of the report we are considering today the findings in this report are another example of the lengths this administration has been willing to go to to shape the public's perception about the wars in iraq and afghanistan a few months ago the new york times published a long article about a methodical highly organized campaign that the defense department  to ensure that surrogate prominent military analysts appearing on television were reading off the administration's talking points according to this report secretary rumsfeld and his top associates held regular personal meetings with a group of so called independent military analysts they carefully spoon fed information to these analysts who would then tell the american people we were winning the wars in iraq and afghanistan even when it was painfully obvious that that was not the goal of this campaign was not to disseminate truthful information instead the strategy was to establish what one pentagon official called quote dominance unquote mr chairman what i take away from our report today is that the honorable military service of corporal pat tillman in private jessica lynch got caught up in the administration's quest information dominance instead of giving us the truth the white house and the department of defense gave us the hyped up comic book versions of what happened to the soldiers on the battlefield these stories were intended to make us feel proud of our military and encourage our support for the war those are the right goals however the stories were false and they were a terrible disservice to the and their families what we now know from our investigation is that high level officials in the white house and the department of defense strategizing about how to use corporal tillman sacrifice to their best advantage but during that time no one seems to have thought about picking up the telephone and letting corporal tillman's family know that his death was being investigated in our hearing last year mr chairman we learned that military officials account of private lynch fighting back at her captors was quote an awesome story unquote but it was false and private lynch told us she will spend the rest of her life attempting to correct our soldiers and their families and the american people deserve better i urge my colleagues to support this report  report is agreed to the committee report today is a good summary of what the committee has learned but it's not the sum total of our work one of the purposes of this investigation has been to collect evidence about what really happened in these two cases and make it available to the public and that's what i ask unanimous consent to put into the record about into the record about this package of documents e mails and other correspondence related to the death of corporal pat tillman all of these without objection first of all except for the statements for the record by any member of this committee and and the terms of releasing any of these documents we will consult with and and what has been a busy day for our committee as i think this completes the business of the committee unless anyone else has something to bring up that that i don't know about if not