No, George Bush did not put out a contract on Pat Tillman !!!

The debate about Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan years ago (yes, the wars have been ongoing that long!) got a boost this week when additional details were released by the military in response to (almost languishing) FOIA requests. The bullets that nearly ripped his head off were only millimeters apart and fired from a very close distance--possibly only ten yards, but one of the soldiers in his unit thinks it was as far away as fifty yards.

Yes, it was clearly friendly fire, but we also know now that the orders to keep that fact from his family or the American people was from ... high up! How high up we still don't know because the White House is hiding that information behind "executive privilege" and the 3-star general whose retirement has been smeared isn't talking ... yet.

It's truly interesting that this entire ugly mess only came to light because Pat Tillman's mother knew something was wrong ... woman's intuition, some say.

A couple excerpts from the 2300 pages of testimony that were released this week are particularly chilling. They are, "Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments" and "The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions."

George Bush needed a hero; Pat Tillman was available; and lies are always available, as needed, it seems.