The Mysterious Death of Pat Tillman

Frank Rich illustrates the Bush Administration's pattern of deception by comparing the pattern behind the indictment of Scooty Libby to the pattern behind reporting the death of Pat Tillman.

It would be a compelling story, if only it were true. Five weeks after Tillman's death, the Army acknowledged abruptly, without providing details, that he had 'probably' died from friendly fire. Many months after that, investigative journalists at The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times reported that the Army's initial portrayal of his death had been not only bogus but also possibly a cover-up of something darker. 'The records show that Tillman fought bravely and honorably until his last breath,' Steve Coll wrote in The Post in December 2004. 'They also show that his superiors exaggerated his actions and invented details as they burnished his legend in public, at the same time suppressing details that might tarnish Tillman's commanders.'

This fall The San Francisco Chronicle uncovered still more details with the help of Tillman's divorced parents, who have each reluctantly gone public after receiving conflicting and heavily censored official reports on three Army investigations that only added to the mysteries surrounding their son's death. (Yet another inquiry is under way.) 'The administration clearly was using this case for its own political reasons,' said Patrick Tillman, Pat Tillman's father, who discovered that crucial evidence in the case, including his son's uniform and gear, had been destroyed almost immediately.