Waxman, Davis want more docs for Tillman probe

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is asking the White House for more information in connection with the panel’s investigation into the handling of the friendly-fire death of former NFL star Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan.

{mosads}In a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), the panel’s ranking Republican, are asking for documents beyond the more than 400 pages that the administration has already provided. Included in the latest request are internal e-mail communications and drafts of the president’s remarks about Tillman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Waxman and Davis write that they expect the internal e-mails to “demonstrate that White House staff was acutely sensitive about responding appropriately to Corporal Tillman’s death.” The president’s speech drafts are of particular interest because Army Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the Joint Task Force for Afghanistan, may have been responding to an inquiry from one of the president’s speechwriters when he sent a warning to high-ranking generals at the Department of Defense (DoD).

In an April 2004 e-mail, McChrystal cautioned that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire and he wanted “to preclude any unknowing statements by our country’s leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public.”

Tillman had walked away from a multimillion-dollar football deal to join the military and his death shook the nation. It was not revealed until weeks after his death that he was killed by friendly fire.

The panel also announced its intent to interview former administration officials including Dan Bartlett, Scott McClellan and Michael Gerson about when and how the White House and the Pentagon learned of Tillman’s death.

Waxman and Davis requested that Fielding provide the documents by Wednesday.