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Reports that Afghan villagers have been offering one theory about what might have motivated
his rampage. I'm putting another video together about the latest Afghanistan massacre which
is part of an illegitimate war in Afghanistan. Because you don't use the military and war
against terrorism. I'll point out how this guy's acting like the Afghan witnesses just
suddenly started talking about American troops coming by and threatening them. Threatening
retaliation for a U.S. soldier getting hurt by an IED, an improvised explosive device.
Our Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski on duty from there tonight. Jim, good evening.
Good evening Brian. In another twist to the tragic story, villagers where the shootings
took place are now claiming that the 16 civilians were gunned down in retaliation for an IED
attack against American forces. That villagers claim that days before the massacre, American
combat troops entered that village and threatened to kill every man and their children for that
attack on the Americans, but Pentagon and military officials said today there is no
evidence of any IED attack around that time and no evidence the Americans threatened retaliation.
In fact, officials here at the Pentagon suspect this is nothing more than propaganda. This
guy's taking the word of the Pentagon and ignoring statements reported before this report.
He's so willing to push the Pentagon line that he's ignoring stories that have already
been reported about an IED attack. And that the suspect was upset about that. He ignores
what has already been reported, information that was coming from the suspect's own lawyer.
And meanwhile Jim accepts the Pentagon story and labels what the Afghan people are saying
as "propaganda." Do you think he would ever call what the U.S. says "propaganda?" Do you
think he would ever talk about U.S. government statements being criticized as "propaganda?"
Do you think ever in a million years this man would say, "by the way, the U.S. government
has a pattern of lying." Even though it's the truth, dramatically it's the truth: that
the U.S. government has a pattern of lying even about military affairs. The bare minimum
we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth. That didn’t happen for the two
most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, the
government violated its most basic responsibility. Sensational details and stories were invented
in both cases. In Jessica Lynch's case, the Washington Post published a front page story
10 days after her capture that discarded the facts and mislead the country. Pfc. Jessica
Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers
after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army’s 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon
until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday. Lynch, a 19-year-old supply
clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds
and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23,
one official said. Where did this false information come from? Jessica Lynch was captured on March
23. The Washington Post published a completely factual article on her rescue on April 2.
But then they went on, ten days after her capture, U.S. officials had become the source
for a report that riveted the nation, but twisted the truth beyond recognition. Everyone
on this Committee is also familiar with Pat Tillman’s case. Pat Tillman was killed by
members of his own platoon on April 22, 2004 — the family has been unable to learn why
the military told the world that Corporal Tillman had been killed by the enemy when
in fact they knew he had died from friendly fire. News of the fratricide flew up the chain
of command within days, but the Tillman family was kept in the dark for more than a month.
Many military officials sat in silence during a nationally televised memorial ceremony highlighting
Pat Tillman’s fight against the terrorists. Evidence was destroyed and witness statements
were doctored. The Tillman family wants to know how all of this could have happened.