Well, not yet, but the victims of Madoff would feel much the same as the mother of likely murdered U.S. soldier Pat Tillman feels about the appointment of disgraced General Stanley McChrystal to head the commission on military families.
“I was actually pretty shocked to hear it; I don't think it’s the appropriate choice,” Tillman told ABC News. “Considering that we have plenty of evidence indicating that McChrystal was involved in the cover-up of Pat’s death...he's not the right person for that kind of a job.”
Tillman says the president's appointment of McChrystal "makes him look foolish, frankly."
She tells ABC News that "someone who has a heartfelt desire to help families would not have been involved in the cover-up of a soldier’s death, especially one that they used to promote a war.”
abc news
Or as Amir Bar-Lev, the director of the critically-acclaimed documentary "The Tillman Story" puts it
Putting Stanley McChrystal in charge of a commission on military families is a little like putting Bernie Madoff in charge of a commission on pensions.
The minority of Americans who ever knew that McChrystal was point man on the cover-up of Tillman's fratricide in Afghanistan in 2004 have probably since forgotten. But his mother remembers what he put her through. Memos and phone calls show that McChrystal was aware of the circumstances of Tillman's death. His response was to oversee the creation of a phony Silver Star commendation, the better with which to use Tillman's funeral to glorify U.S. military action. On May 3, 2004, the country was treated to the fantasy of a heroic action by the former NFL star, a man who "put himself in the line of devastating enemy fire". The truth would never have come to light were it not for the persistent seeking of the Tillman family.
Navy SEAL Steve White, the only active-duty member of the military to speak at Tillman’s memorial, told ESPN.com’s Mike Fish that about an hour before he ascended the stage, someone from the Army phoned him, asked that he announce the Silver Star award and “spoon fed” a story to him. He could not remember the name of the person who called, but he said, “They wanted me to let everyone know he was being awarded the Silver Star, posthumously, and all that. … I wanted to have an idea of what happened. So they told me their version at the time of what happened, which is the heroic tale that they initially came out with. I repeated it back. I summarized it and read it back. I said, ‘Does that sound accurate?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ ” White later was upset to learn that the story was phony.
Announcing the award at Tillman’s memorial service, an action that led the 3,000 mourners present, plus the national television audience, to conclude he had been killed by the enemy, “was ill-advised and contributed to the continuing mistrust at Army representations to family members,” the IG report said, especially since top-ranking officers knew at the time that the likely cause of death was friendly fire.
truthdig
The award was based on two cooked up eye-witness accounts which were stamped by the army as "originally signed". The eye-witnesses have said they did not write those accounts.
The day after McChrystal signed off on the award he warned President George W. Bush not to double down on the bullshit in order to “preclude any...public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public."
Mary Tillman is not confused by this common ploy of creating a false reality for public consumption while holding secret internal knowledge. (This is precisely the practice that wikileaks seeks to disrupt.) She says McChrystal let her family agonize on a national stage for years, all the time knowing that they were searching for answers about the death of their beloved son and sibling. She observed that McChrystal wrote
"if" this becomes public this could be an embarrasment to the administration. He didnt say "when" this becomes public, "when" we tell the family. So there was going to be an effort to cover this up.
snip
He deliberately helped cover up Pat's death and he has never adequately apologized to us for doing that. General McChrystal knew we were actively looking for answers. No one contacted us to try to square with us what had happened.
I’ve come to learn through this journey that there are many other families that have been lied to by the military about their sons and daughters, and so we feel that what happen to Pat is pertains to other people, not just us. I think it’s a slap in the face to all soldiers to appoint this man, to be on this committee.
Repeating an all-too-familiar story, General McChrystal was cleared of all charges despite the recommendation of the Pentagon Inspector General that he face disciplinary action. McChrystal last made the headlines when Rolling Stone quoted him and his aides trash-talking the Commander-in-Chief.
The passion-free response of the White House?
The president feels strongly that General McChrystal is the right person to help lead this advisory committee on this vital issue.
But don't assume the White House to be unconcerned about all forms of wrong-doing. While the trash-talking General was welcome at a White House event honoring military families, gay and lesbian military members were not. According to Kristina Schake, communications director for Mrs. Obama,
The president has been crystal clear that the Administration is moving forward with the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ quickly and efficiently. However, it still remains the law.
I believe anger is appropriately directed at the Obama's over this behavior. I believe it is naive to place the focus solely there. The Republican Party and our corporate media would like nothing more than to get an assist from progressives in trashing Obama, while they clearly have no intention of assisting in uncovering root causes. One wonders what sort of play this incident would be receiving were John McCain in the White House. I'm not arguing for giving the administration a pass on this, just that we do more than follow the bouncing ball of the latest news story.
For a decade now, under a Democratic and Republican President, the military has actively covered up war crimes. The military has shielded officers from accountability while scapegoating enlisted personnel when publicity forced them to create the appearance of respect for the law. My hope is that discussion of these problems can take a broader, more responsible approach than simply blaming the most recent front man for a government which seems to have forgotten its obligation to obey the law. I hope we can see this, not as an isolated incident, but as the most recent example of a pattern of behavior.
What are treated as isolate incidents seem increasingly to be typical. Were it not for the fame of Pat Tillman and the empowered persistence of his family, it is likely we would not have learned of this attempted cover-up. Such unusual circumstances attend many of the cases which have come to light. Stjepan G. Mestrovic has done a sociological study of the general military atmosphere prevalent during the Iron Triangle war crimes, in which soldiers were ordered to kill every Iraqi they encountered who was of military age. I will be reviewing this book soon. Here is Michael Flynn, Associate Director, Center on Terrorism, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY, as quoted on an Amazon review of The Good Soldier on Trial
The message in this book is so alarming. It documents the betrayal of codes of honor and conduct and exposes campaigns of distortion and outright lying that are common in today s military. The ordinary 'grunt' is hung out to dry and sadistic commanding officers are celebrated and permitted to carry out further campaigns of murder and destruction. It also tells the tale of a few courageous lawyers, academics, and ordinary citizens, modern-day Quijotes perhaps, who are willing to resist our military s freefall into hell.