Rumsfeld Says No Tillman Cover-up

Donald Rumsfeld told a House committee there was no high-level cover-up in the death of Pat Tillman at the hands of fellow Army Rangers. This from a man whose lies started the whole Bush War of Oil in Iraq.

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON - Ex-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.

"I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me. I know that the gentlemen sitting next to me are men of enormous integrity and would not participate in something like that," Rumsfeld told a House committee.

It was Rumsfeld's first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year. He reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down on April 22, 2004, by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed.

The truth was kept from the public and Tillman's own family until five weeks later — May 29, 2004. Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, his brother, Kevin, and other family members watched silently from the back row at Wednesday's hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Afterward they left without commenting.