Pat Tillman and Bush secrecy

So somebody who's Bush defender give me a good reason why the White House would withhold information about Pat Tillman's death, aside from the obvious fact that it's embarassing that they covered up the true cause for five weeks?

What else is in there? This is the most secret (read devious) administration in history. Yes, I remember Nixon.

from espn news
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two influential lawmakers investigating how and when the Bush administration learned the circumstances of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death and how those details were disclosed accused the White House and Pentagon on Friday of withholding key documents and renewed their demand for the material.

The White House and Defense Department have turned over nearly 10,000 pages of papers -- mostly press clippings -- but the White House cited "executive branch confidentiality interests" in refusing to provide other documents.

At issue in the Tillman case is the staunch belief by his family, which has culled through thousands of pages of military documents, that the Army initially concealed the friendly fire and created a larger-than-life heroic tale to stir patriotism at a time when support for the Iraq war was waning.

The committee made public a letter last month in which Fielding said the White House was holding back certain papers "because they implicate executive branch confidentiality interests." He added the White House had blacked out portions of "purely internal e-mails between White House personnel."

 

Because Brownie wasn't the only one doing a great job, so to speak.

 

Jesus. These fucking people.
They're just running out the clock on everything that anyone screwed up on their watch.

 

Read this today. Holy fuck :

 

And more:

 

"executive branch confidentiality interests" ... when everything else fails.

 

Anything is possible with this administration.

From telling the news media which photos could come out of Iraq and which ones could not (remember the casket rule?), to creating propaganda news releases on the health care system that fooled many tv stations into thinking they were legitimate releases, the Bush admin showed their cards early. America was just too wrapped in the flag after 911 to notice what was going on.

Spinningthe media is nothing new. Remember the female soldier who "fought off" the Iraq soldiers? Only it was not her that did it. It was a kid from Iowa, but he was not the person they were looking for to put on TV. 60 Minutes did a piece on this a couple years ago.

Seriously, what happened to the Dixie Chicks smacked of McCarthyism and Red Scare so badly... I guess it goes along with the media not noticing steroids when 70 HRs a season were flying out of parks. Hindsight is 20/20.

 

This passel of cowards is beneath contempt.
However, I really don't want this latest Tillman stuff to be true.

 

What are the executive branch confidentiality interests which would be violated by releasing the information? Seriously. I really would like to know.

 

Legitimate ones? None.
Political ass-covering? Hundreds.

 

I'm just trying to figure out how the White House can claim executive silence when this is a DoD matter. Bush's status as commander in chief?

 

Bush — or more correctly, Rove — will probably hang the Pentagon out to dry and distance the White House from this as far as possible.