Did Abizaid Lie After Tillman Died?:
Then:
General John Abizaid in a Centcom Defense Briefing to reporters in Doha, Qatar on April 30, 2004:
"I'd also like to say that while I was in Afghanistan yesterday, I had theopportunity to talk to 1st Lieutenant Dave Utman of the 1st Ranger Battalion -- of the Ranger Battalion. Maybe I've got the wrong Ranger battalion that he was with. He was the platoon leader of Pat Tillman.

"I asked him yesterday how operations were going. I asked him about Pat Tillman. He said, 'Pat Tillman was a great Ranger and a great soldier. And what more can I say about him?' And I'd say that about every one of those young men and women that are fighting not only in Afghanistan, but in Iraq.

"I will also probably bear some understanding that that lieutenant I was talking to happened to be a former first captain of Corps of Cadets at West Point. And when he was talking to me, he was still nursing a large number of wounds that he sustained in that firefight where Pat Tillman lost his life.

"These soldiers are fighting hard, they're fighting well, they're fighting courageously. And the only thing that the lieutenant could say to me is that he needed to get back in the field to his troops."

Now:
From today's Washington Post article, "Army Withheld Details On Tillman's Death":
"A new Army report on the death shows that top Army officials, including the theater commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, were told that Tillman's death was fratricide days before the service . . . An initial investigation found fratricide just days later [after the April 22, 2004 FUBAR mission that killed Tillman]. Top commanders within the U.S. Central Command, including Abizaid, were notified by April 29 -- four days before Tillman's memorial service in San Jose."

So, on April 29, Abizaid is told it was a friendly fire incident. On April 30, the general can look at the world with a straight face and talk about the "firefight" as if it was a great and mighty battle against the enemy. How freeing it must be to walk through this world heeding neither conscience nor soul.

More later.