Rumsfeld and generals deny cover-up after Tillman death

WASHINGTON - Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other onetime Pentagon brass denied a cover-up and rejected personal blame yesterday in the public deceptions that followed Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.

During four hours of questioning by a House committee, Rumsfeld and former generals expressed regret at the Pentagon's five-week delay in telling the truth about how Tillman died in 2004. He was cut down by bullets fired by his fellow soldiers, not in a firefight with the enemy, as the military initially claimed.

Yet none of the witnesses, among the very highest-ranking military officers at the time, said they could or should have done anything differently to prevent the mistakes that kept the truth from Tillman's family and the public.

Several of the officials could barely recall how they themselves came to learn the circumstances of Tillman's death, which attracted worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"I don't recall when I was told and I don't recall who told me," said Rumsfeld, who was making his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert M. Gates late last year. He was greeted by protesters denouncing him as a "war criminal," but he ignored them.

"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 said, asserting he did not recall discussing the Tillman matter with the White House until the fratricide became public knowledge.

Retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he had learned of the likelihood of friendly fire toward the end of April 2004 - not long after Tillman's death on April 22 - but that it was not his responsibility to inform the White House or the Tillman family. Doing so would have been a breach of protocol, Myers said. He blamed the Army.

"This is the responsibility of the United States Army, not of the office of the chairman, so I regret that the Army did not do their duty here and follow their own policy," said Myers, a retired Air Force general.

"I think it would have been absolutely irresponsible of me to interfere with Army procedures, frankly," he said.

It was not until May 29, 2004, that the Pentagon disclosed the conclusion that Tillman's death was by friendly fire. Officials have called it a well-meaning but misguided plan of waiting until the end of their investigation to release the results.

Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, his brother Kevin and other family members watched silently from the back row of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing room. They have long maintained that Rumsfeld and others must have known more, sooner than they have acknowledged, and have alleged a cover-up leading to the White House.

Mary Tillman occasionally shook her head at Rumsfeld's testimony, but after the hearing the family left without commenting.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Tony Snow said the Bush administration stood by Rumsfeld's statement that there was no cover-up.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) aired his frustration at the repeated denials of responsibility from Rumsfeld, Myers and others.

"You've all admitted that the system failed. The public should have known, the family should have known earlier," Waxman said.

" 'The system didn't work, errors were made' - that's too passive. Somebody should be responsible," Waxman said.

See video of Donald Rumsfeld's House testimony via http://go.philly.com/tillman2 EndText