Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch Fall Down Bush Admin's Memory Hole

Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone at 7:39 AM on July 16, 2008.

It turns out that an outbreak of amnesia has beset current and former Bush Administration officials when they are asked about the propaganda they put into place concerning Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman. Call in the CDC to investigate. Or name the pandemic here. No, not “Bird Flu.” How about “Rumsfeld Syndrome?”

OMG! Can the amnesia spread to the whole population? Someone contact the CDC and get them on the case now! This amnesia could be the work of some insidious drug passed into the sewers there at the White House, or somesuch. And we’d never know, except for some clever work on the part of the Congressional Committee investigating the propaganda tales about Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. Here’s a bit from ABCNews:

The committee says that in their quest to find out when officials first knew about the possibility that Tillman’s death was not due to enemy fire, they were “frustrated by a near universal lack of recall,” according to the report.

The committee interviewed several senior White House officials including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, communications director Dan Bartlett, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and chief speech writer Michael Gerson.

“Not a single one could recall when he learned about the fratricide or what he did in response,” says the report.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers told the committee that he learned by the end of April that Tillman’s death was possibly due to friendly fire, but that he could not remember whether or not he passed that information to Rumsfeld.

Members of Tillman’s platoon, however, knew “almost immediately” that Tillman had been killed accidentally by fellow Rangers, according to the report. Within days of his death, Colonel Craig Nixon, a top officer in Tillman’s battalion, passed on that information to the commander of the joint task force in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChyrstal, who in turn sent a message to top generals, including General John Abizaid, commander of CENTCOM.

McChrystal wrote that “it is anticipated that a 15-6 investigation nearing completion will find that it is highly possible that Corporal Tillman was killed by friendly fire,” the report quoted. McChrystal also noted that officials, including the President, might be commenting on Tillman’s death “not knowing the specifics surrounding his death.”

“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 29th, 2004.

A deputy commander of SOCOM told the committee that as soon as McChrystal’s message was received, Tillman’s family should have been notified.

Yet on the same day that McChrystal sent his memo warning that officials may be making erroneous statements, Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for “gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States”.

Two days after the memo was sent, on May 1st, 2004, President Bush mentioned Tillman in his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner. While no White House official could confirm to the committee whether or not McChrystal’s message has reached the White House, the President did not discuss how Tillman died in his speech.

Hmm, all those folks that all of a sudden “couldn’t remember” are Republicans. I’m thinking that is something the CDC should track down pronto. Maybe this isn’t a rogue virus or something like that, but a mental disability passed through Republicans watching too much Fox News, or something like that.

I think we can come up with a good name for this evil condition that afflicted so many Republican members of the Bush Administration at the same time. Perhaps I’m not so clever, though. Surely some of you can help out in naming it.