Letter: Pat Tillman, family deserved better

Sunday, July 29, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

In a July 27 Associated Press article, we now learn that the death of Pat Tillman may have been a homicide. Let's talk about the Pat Tillman cover-up.

As we all know, Tillman was an NFL star who chose to forgo a multimillion - dollar contract to fight for this country. He was a hero in the truest sense of the word, and his family should therefore have been treated with the highest respect and dignity.

This July 27 article is a follow-up to an AP article of a few months ago that detailed how the Bush administration and its military complex for five weeks concealed from the public, including Tillman's parents, that Tillman had died by friendly fire in Afghanistan , and did so to prevent further adverse publicity about the war effort.

These actions included: (1) burning Tillman's uniform; (2) placing guards at the hospital room of a soldier who had been injured in the same friendly fire so that the media could not speak to him; and (3) issuing a memo warning the Bush administration that Tillman had died from friendly fire and to be prepared if the subject came up in the future.

In President Jimmy Carter 's inaugural address, he quoted his high school teacher as saying, "We must accommodate changing times but cling to unchanging principles." Principles of common decency, honesty and forthrightness have withstood the test of time.

Did Pat Tillman die for this country so that these revered principles could be shamelessly ignored? Did Pat Tillman die a heroic death so that his parents should be treated in such a shameless and despicable manner? I hardly think so.

Tom Harper, Henderson