Think Progress

“Information-lockdown mode.”

By Nico Pitney on Apr 20th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

“Information-lockdown mode.”

TalkLeft asks, “Why did it take five weeks for Pat Tillman’s family to learn that his death was caused by friendly fire?” Now we know: “Within hours of Pat Tillman’s death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman’s uniform.”



49 Responses to ““Information-lockdown mode.””


  1. michael says:

    Standard Operating Procedure.


  2. Zooey says:

    This administration and the military used Tillman shamelessly, and they should be made to apologize publicly to the Tillman family.


  3. Devil's Advocate says:

    Why did the Army need to lie about Pat’s death? Why this elaborate cover-up?


  4. burro says:

    Chickenshit bastards.


  5. Shane says:

    Did you order the code red?


  6. Spudge_Boy says:

    They burnt his uniform? OMFG, can you say cover-up of the highest degree.


  7. GSD says:

    Wagging the dog with the corpse of a US soldier. They wanted to create another Jessica Lynch moment to rally the sedated masses in the US.

    Submission Accomplished.

    -GSD


  8. Zooey says:

    Why did the Army need to lie about Pat’s death? Why this elaborate cover-up?
    Comment by Devil’s Advocate

    They used Tillman’s death as a propaganda tool. Just like the Jessica Lynch fiasco.

    Just look at Tillman — he was a fabulous looking and famous football player, who gave up everything to fight for a cause he believed in. Then he gets killed in that cause — what more could this admin hope for!?


  9. Willy says:

    War is a dirty business. Those who direct it soon learn to live without morals.


  10. TripMaster Monkey says:

    They burned his uniform???

    Is there no depth to which these parasites will not sink?


  11. Bob Loblaw says:

    Friendly fire deaths happen. There was no need to cover this up … except politically, the one impulse that gets full follow through with this bunch.

    The one good thing that could come out of this administration is if a couple of generations of voters turn against the GOP for good. Some lessons come hard.


  12. Namtillaku says:

    D.A. – recruitment for the forever war.


  13. SKdeA says:

    Why? Because they can. These idiots think that there are no repercussions.


  14. Republicans are the Fear and Smear Party says:

    The Army didn’t want to let the truth get out because they wanted to use Pat Tillman as their poster boy. Tillman gave up a lucrative career to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country and so you should, too. Tillman looked very handsome in a uniform and the Army is all about image. The poster would have looked great. But then the truth came out and ruined everything.

    “You made them strong. We’ll make them dead.”


  15. Gerald Gibson Jr says:

    This is how the Army treats the people that give their lives for this country? Is this the American Army or the Bush Army?


  16. s says:

    Pat Tillman was a liberal. He may have also been turning against the war. Who knows? One thing I do know. This administration will do anything to hide anything they want to hide. They are obscuring the facts of his death because something was very wrong-something didn’t make them look good ..so they hid it. Common sense. I’ll tell you what I think. I think Pat may have alienated some people. Wonder what that might have led to. Have you read his brother’s writing? That family is a very evolved and humane family. Not like BushCo.

    As I said, I would put NOTHING past the criminals running our country ( into the ground.)


  17. Sharon says:

    This administration make’s me sick at heart…Every day it’s one more dirty deed, what the hell is wrong with telling the truth,bush , cheney, rice, wolfowits, liebermen and one.?……Blessings


  18. Tap Duncan says:

    I’m glad it wasn’t me, I’m a nobody and a former Marine. They could’ve told my family any ole fairy tale, and my folks would’ve accepted it. Sound familiar?


  19. Spudge_Boy says:

    Comment by s — April 20, 2007 @ 7:51 pm

    You are correct. Just read some of the comments by Jake Plummer and Pat Tillman’s brother.

    Pat joined the military because, just like a lot of people in the US, he believed the lies trumped up by Bush and friends. But, when he got there, he realized that it was all a lie.

    Now, what would you rather do, have a famous patriot come out at the beginning of the war and start telling everybody what was really going on or have a hero die for your cause?

    Bush and friends went with option two.


  20. buzzbomb says:

    Is communication lock down after a soldiers death standard operating procedure, michael?


  21. Wayne says:

    Standard Operating Procedure.
    Comment by michael

    Lies = Standard Operating Procedure for michael as well as Bushco.


  22. big papa says:

    They burned his uniform???

    Comment by TripMaster Monkey #11

    …and from what I understand…

    …HIS JOURNAL…


  23. TripMaster Monkey says:

    Comment by big papa — April 20, 2007 @ 8:13 pm

    That’s just plain monstrous.

    Every day I grow more ashamed of my country.


  24. Arne Langsetmo says:

    Wow. Deep doo-doo for someone.


  25. Mr. Bush Goes To Hell says:

    #25. Unfortunately, that SOMEONE will never be found.

    Standard Operating Procedure for the BushCrime (TM) family.

    “mistakes were made”, and all the rest of the bullzhit…


  26. david says:

    What is alarming is NOT that the brass tried to coverup Tillman’s death in an broad and elaborate charade. What’s alarming is that we are expected to believe the Pentagon brass when they explain all those atrocities they say are being ‘thoroughly’ investigated. Do you recall the Iraqi wedding massacre? The ‘accidental’ killing of nine children and an old man in Afghanistan? And there have been an endless string of conflicting claims: Innocent civilians or Armed insurgents? The Tillman case makes it impossible to believe these people will not go to any length to coverup a horrific and embarrassing mistake.


  27. tigerman says:

    See http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1329, which lays out the case that Pat Tillman had to be silenced by BushCo before he could return home and speak out against the Iraq mess. All the circumstantial evidence supports this article’s premise. “Tillman’s own brother Kevin, who was with him every day, says Pat despised and rejected the war in Iraq as unnecessary and brutal. … Pat Tillman was perhaps the most dangerous man to the war propaganda effort on April 22, 2004 when he died.” Assassinated by his own government.


  28. Zooey says:

  29. katy says:

    what does that mean that they burned his uniform?

    why? what is the purpose of that?

    i don’t mean to sound dumb… i just want to understand…


  30. mikeandjeffsmom says:

    This makes me sick, literally. Pat Tillman may have had an influence on my son Jeff’s decision to go to military school. He is a freshman Army cadet at Norwich. Anyone who knows me and my politics looks at me with their mouth open when I tell them what Jeff is doing. But he is so idealistic and believes, truly, that he can make the world better through being an officer in the Army. As I say, he is doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons. And he was very impressed that Pat Tillman would quit pro football to defend his country.

    If any of you are thinking “why did you let him do this”, there isn’t much you can do when they are offering your kid a full scholarship. I have tried almost everything, to the point that he was not talking to me for a while. He thought my sending him links to stuff about the generals being against the war or the lack of body armor was not “supportive”. He doesn’t know that, last year when he was a HS senior, I seriously considered finding the goriest pictures of Iraq that I could find on the internet and printing 8.5×11 color glossies to tape to his door. I didn’t do that because I knew that I would lose him, and then I would have no way at all to get to influence him.

    So when I see those Army commercials on TV I could just scream. Don’t get me wrong — I am so very proud of him. He really thinks that he will be making the world a better place. I love him completely. But I would be proud of him whatever he decided to do…


  31. Raven says:

    From what I remember at the time, the soldiers involved went into panic mode when they realized they had killed Tillman, and they were trying anything to coverup and /or change the circumstances of what actually happened.
    They burned his uniform and his journal, and tried to fabricate a different scenario.


  32. Zooey says:

    what does that mean that they burned his uniform?
    why? what is the purpose of that?
    i don’t mean to sound dumb… i just want to understand…
    Comment by katy

    Destroying evidence, katy. Whoever ordered that should be brought up on charges.


  33. michael says:

    It is SOP if the soldier is Tillman.

    Thank God that Mike or Jeff managed to find the right way despite your undue influence, mikeandjeffsmom.


  34. mikeandjeffsmom says:

    michael, you are a d!ckhead, but I kinda expected this type of response from you. go cheney yourself


  35. michael says:

    same to you, “mom”


  36. mikeandjeffsmom says:

    michael, why are you not in Iraq?


  37. mikeandjeffsmom says:

    never mind, michael. The Red Sox just came from behind to beat the Yankees 7-6, so all is right in the world again!



  38. CitizenX says:

    At the time the soldiers claimed they burned the uniform because it was a biological hazard. So they were ordered to lie. Has anyone asked them about that.


  39. Shane says:

    just came from behind to beat the Yankees 7-6, so all is right in the world again!

    Comment by mikeandjeffsmom — April 20, 2007 @ 10:27 pm

    Careful, michael gets all excited when you use phrases like “just came from behind.”


  40. JPark says:

    #39 Considering it was US ammo it probably contained DU so his uni and vest probably were contaminated.


  41. chingebush says:

    Michael Seung-Hui shares a lot of the same characteristics as his brother Cho. They are both loathsome and self-loathing, sick and twisted social rejects who can’t understand why they don’t fit in society. Whereas Cho killed 32 innocent students Michael kills hundreds more vicariously through his support of that other twisted f*ck, Bush.

    At least Cho had the decency to spoil the pelt in the end. Go ahead Michael, the absence of your evil will make the world that much better.

    In the shower please. As usual, some one has to clean up your shit.


  42. Kate Henry says:

    Cutting off communications is standard operating procedures in the death of any service person to prevent the family hearing about it from anything other than an official channel. Posting an armed guard on another victim of the incident to prevent them from talking to anyone, burning uniforms and protective gear and lying to the family and the public are not standard operating procedures.

    Hopefully this time the people who participated in the cover-up will be held accountable for their actions and will be punished. But, I’m not holding my breath.

    I weep for what we have become.


  43. Kate Henry says:

    They burned his uniform and his protective gear because they proved that he did not die at the hands of the insurgents (the holes in the uniform were in the wrong place and were the wrong size). So they burned the evidence. They also burned his journal which contained Tillman’s writings about how he felt that the War in Iraq was illegal and immoral. The US military realized that Pat Tillman could not be allowed to leave Afghanistan alive. If he had, they would have had a public relations nightmare on their hands. I am sure that there were a lot of young men who joined because of Tillman’s influence. Can you imagine what would have happened if Tillman had come home alive and then started talking about his experiences and his conviction that the war in Iraq was illegal and immoral.

    I’m one of the “tin foil hat” crowd. I believe our government assassinated Pat Tillman. May god have mercy on their souls.

    I weep for what we have become.


  44. Karim says:

    This is an outrage…first you wait five weeks to admit friendly fire, and only to CYA? Shameless.


  45. bs says:

    “3 forehead wounds within an approximate 2-inch diameter”

    That’s a comment from the fifth DOJ report.

    Just how many times was he shot?


  46. molly says:

    There was a video of Pat Tillman being shot on Democracy Now. Not only does it look like murder but where did the camera come from under fire. He was yelling “Don’t you know who I am?”


  47. Kilo says:

    And the reason TP cites TalkLeft as the source of this information instead of the Guardian article it was quoting ? Now we know:

    Several Army officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan said pulling the plug on base phones and e-mail was routine after a soldier died. The practice was meant to ensure the family was notified through official channels, said Army Maj. Todd Breasseale, chief spokesman for ground forces in Iraq until last August.



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