WASHINGTON - The brother of a US football star killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan three years ago accused the military Tuesday of lying about the circumstances of his death to avoid a public relations fiasco.
Kevin Tillman told a US congressional hearing that family members initially believed the US military's accounts that his brother, Pat Tillman, fought valiantly to the death during a firefight in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.
"Our family was told that he was shot in the head by the enemy in a fierce firefight outside a narrow canyon," Kevin Tillman told the House Government Reform Committee hearing on "Misleading Information from the Battlefield."
But he said they felt shock and betrayal upon learning several weeks later that the National Football League star was apparently killed by over-zealous members of his own platoon.
"This was not some fog of war. They simply lost control," said Kevin Tillman, as he described the shooting of his brother by fellow troops.
"Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide. It was due to a series of careless actions by several individuals in our own platoon after a small harassing ambush," said Kevin Tillman, who joined the US Army Rangers with his brother after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
He accused military brass of a cover-up at a time when they needed a public relations boost because of perceived military setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster during a month already swollen with political disasters, and a brutal truth that the American public would undoubtedly find unacceptable," Kevin Tillman told the panel.
"So the facts needed to be suppressed. An alternative narrative had to be constructed.
"A terrible tragedy that might have further undermined 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," he said.
Kevin Tillman said awarding his brother a Silver Star for valor posthumously had further embellished the deception.
"Media accounts, based on information provided by the Army and the White House were wreathed in a patriotic glow and became more dramatic in tone," he said.
"It was utter fiction," he said, accusing the military of "deliberate and careful misrepresentations."
In the hours immediately after his brother's death, "crucial evidence was destroyed -- including Pat's uniform, equipment and notebook," he said.
"The autopsy was not done according to regulation and the field hospital report was falsified."
The panel also heard testimony from Private Jessica Lynch, who became a symbol of valor after being rescued early in the Iraq war. US officials have been accused of embellishing stories of her heroism.
"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," Lynch told the panel.
04/24/2007 19:15 GMT