Tillman/Lynch Report: WH Created New Facts

The House Oversight Committee has released a Report into the misinformation around the death of Pat Tillman and the rescue of Jessica Lynch and it, as suspected, leads to the White House and Rove.

The report details all kinds of changing stories and faulty memories in the 'higher ups' but still comes to the conclusion that:

Neither case involved an act of omission. The misinformation was not caused by overlooking or misunderstanding relevant facts. Instead, in both cases affirmative acts created new facts that were significantly different than what the soldiers in the field knew to be true. And in both cases the fictional accounts proved to be compelling public narratives at difficult times in the war.

I don't have much time to write anymore but Rawstory has a couple of good stories up on the front page right now about the issue including this one you should not miss:

Commentators and reporters contacted the White House to offer advice. For example, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan e-mailed the White House’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Peter Wehner, recommending that he "find out what faith Tillman practiced and have the president go by that church and light a candle or say a prayer." Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier’s e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

•  Tips

  for the truth.

  And for Ted Stevensgetting busted soon.

  by LieparDestin on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 12:52:03 PM PDT

•  The New Yorkers next covers

  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove carrying Lynch out on a stretcher - under enemy fire, of course. In the corner are the Hollywood camera people.

  Tillman's casket is front and center for photographers with the other 4,000+ hidden behind a screen of armed guards.

  by SocioSam on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 12:55:13 PM PDT

  •  HRC ducking under the blades of the chopper

    that will take her back home....

    by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:12:17 PM PDT

•  Gee whiz.

  Gosh, I hope no one lies or "forgets" during the investigations by the Inspectors General into the Bush "administration's" domestic spying schemes. Seeing as how they're going to preserve accountability and all.

  by Kagro X on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:04:03 PM PDT

  •  Remember - Bush said he was going to bring honor

    and integrity back to the White House. He said nothing about the Justice Department, FEMA, the NSA, FBI, CIA, Military, Congress....

    But there have been no chubby intern sightings at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue and certainly no observations of anyone being discernibly turgid

    Those are the kinds of evil we have absolutely conqured. War is just diplomacy by different means.

    Was that Von Klauswitz?

    by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:11:36 PM PDT

    •  See, that's not fair!

      Just because Monica was carrying a few extra pounds, her WH affair is criticized and charges are brought against her partner.  Do we see this happening to Jeff Gannon?  No!  And I say it's because he had very little body fat.  ;)

      by TracieLynn on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 02:07:10 PM PDT

      •  I don't dare tell anyone that I found Monica

        quite easy on the eyes. I hate scrawny women who think that looking like they just got off the boat from Ethiopia makes them attractive.

        But even if she was worth looking at, I had to close my eyes and swear her off when I realized what horrific judgement she had in men...

        I shouldn't go there.

        On a totally different front - can you imagine the next poor bastard that is going to have his personal life shared with Linda Tripp?

        **shivver**

        by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 09:40:05 PM PDT

        •  Monica isn't

          the least bit unattractive.  I think that was mainly just the usual right-wing nastiness.

          by TracieLynn on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 09:47:31 PM PDT

          •  ...or jealousy. How many of the right could even

            get what Monica was offering...

            That's one of George Carlins' most searing jokes of all time -

            "Have you ever noticed that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?"

            Sorry, Couldn't help it.

            I salute you, George, you left big footprints in my brain.

            by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 10:03:16 PM PDT

            •  Re: George

              Me, too.

              by TracieLynn on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 10:22:12 PM PDT

•  A Rovian Flourish... or Turd Blossum Flush?

  "Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Effort, Concentration, and Wisdom"

  by Dood Abides on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:04:46 PM PDT

  •  ...the difference being...? n/t

    by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:12:50 PM PDT

•  Perhaps we can ask Fournier why the Lord

  sought to send us a messianic president who started the wrong war after not finishing the right war (Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, as I recall) and continues to avoid giving anything resembling a straight answer about anything.

  "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

  Tony Snow just died, and after promising us that his cancer was gone and he was moving away from Washington DC for financial reasons (they don't pay him enough to keep afloat in DC) he was killed by...

  ...wait for it...

  A)...poverty in Appalachia, where he returned to a standard of living he could afford, or...

  B)...colon cancer that he was cured of when he left the office of press secretary.

  We have people in the White House and the administration that is defending the President who cannot be honest about their last days on Earth.

  If these clowns think they are the ones who are in God's good graces, then what God has planned for the "real" sinners must make Hell look like utopia.

  I'm so sick of people who would be the reason God would need to invent Hell still being lauded by the deluded fools on this planet who thinks God really likes them (and only them).

  Arrrrggggghhhhh.

  I have said since the day that Lynch was rescued that she should be sending flowers to Lynndie England for the rest of her life - because if Lynndie England had become infamous for her dog-leash, thumbs-up, Marlboro pose before Jessica Lynch got lost, they never would have found Lynch at all. And if they had we would not have been able to stomach in what condition.

  I'm grateful Lynch is OK, but she - like Lynndie England and Grainer - were but pawns in a larger game, and that game is far from over.

  McCain - are you listening to yourself? Ya think the next convoy that gets lost in Iraq is going to be treated more like Jessia Lynch or more like teh way you were back in the Hanoi Hilton?

  We'll get back to you on that one, Mr. McCain.

  by snafubar on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:05:20 PM PDT

•  But nothing will be done...AGAIN.

  This is so frustrating.  Lie after Lie after lie and absolutely no consequences.  No wonder our country is flushing itself down the drain...NO ONE wants to take any action or hold anyone accountable, therefore it will just keep happening.

  The quiet knocks haven't worked and are never going to work...

  by NoCryingInPoltics on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:23:14 PM PDT

•  It doesn't surprise me

  at all that Fournier is in Bush's back pocket

  by Mike S on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 01:30:35 PM PDT

•  From AP Story:

  by TomFromNJ on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 08:13:16 PM PDT

•  Oops......From The AP Story re Spc Jesse Buryl

  The committee also looked into the case of Army Spc. Jesse Buryj of Canton, Ohio. It took nine months for his family to learn that his death in Iraq in May 2004 was not the result of an accidental vehicle crash as they were first told. He was killed by fire from U.S. or Polish soldiers in Karbala after a dump truck hurtled through a checkpoint and crashed into the armored vehicle in which he was riding.

  Buryj's parents accepted an invitation to meet Bush at a July 2004 campaign rally. They told investigators they had pressed Bush to help them find answers about their son's death, and said Bush agreed to help.

  "A few months later, a Bush-Cheney campaign official contacted the family," the congressional investigators found. "Rather than offer assistance, the official asked Specialist Buryj's mother to appear in a campaign commercial for the president. Mrs. Buryj refused."

  Terrible, Terrible People.......

  by TomFromNJ on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 08:15:02 PM PDT