It is insulting to Pat
Posted in General on 26. Sep, 2010
“It is insulting to Pat.” Pat Tillman was born on 6 November, 1976, in San Jos?California, and started playing American Football for Arizona State University in 1994. Though he was relatively small at 5ft 11in, he excelled as a defensive linebacker and in his senior year he was voted the regional Defensive Player of the Year But Tillman was no locker-room “jock”. “The investigation is a lie,” Tillman’s father, also called Patrick, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this week. As with the distorted story of Jessica Lynch, the POW “rescued” by US Delta Force troops in Iraq, the difference between the truth and the truth as portrayed by the image makers is often considerable.Tillman’s family have accused the Pentagon of deceiving them and issuing a series of confusing and inconsistent statements. Indeed, it is very possible that there were never even any enemy fighters present the night he was killed.Errors and mistakes happen all the time in combat and Tillman was not the first soldier to be accidentally killed by his colleagues. But the way in which the Pentagon spun the death of America’s most famous volunteer in the “war on terror” tells a great deal about the disparity between what the Bush administration wants the US public to believe is happening and the reality on the ground.
Worse still, Tillman’s death was easily avoidable but for a series of basic errors made by his unit’s senior commanders. The truth is that on 22 April, in fading light on a stony ridge near the Afghan village of Sperah, Tillman was killed not by al-Qa’ida fighters but in a “friendly fire” incident by members of his own unit. The shouting referred to in the Army’s statement was Tillman’s desperate and failed effort to make clear to his comrades that he was a friend and not foe. The media magnate and his lawyer Cesare Previti had been accused of paying Roman judges to induce them to block the takeover of SME, a state food conglomerate, by Carlo de Benedetti, owner of La Repubblica newspaper and a business rival of Mr Berlusconi.
This week, in a shocking series of revelations, it emerged that the Pentagon had quietly launched a new investigation into Tillman’s death after pointed complaints from his family. Tillman was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for valour and the White House issued a statement saying the President himself was praying for his family.But the former NFL star was not killed by the enemy. Instead, horrified by the terror attacks of 11 September, Tillman and his brother, Kevin enlisted with the US Army and joined President George Bush’s so-called war on terror. He saw action in Iraq and was then deployed to Afghanistan where he and his fellow Rangers were tasked with tracking down the al-Qa’ida leader Osama bin Laden and his fighters in the wild border region with Pakistan.It was there, on 22 April 2004, that the 27-year-old was killed As he had lived, so Pat Tillman died a hero. A report issued by the Army’s Special Forces Command said that while on patrol, Tillman’s unit was ambushed and that he had selflessly led his men while firing at the enemy with his M-249 light machine gun.”Through the firing, Tillman’s voice was heard issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy,” said the statement. In 2000 he set a new defensive record for his team, the Arizona Cardinals, and was offered a $3.6m contract. In the way that images are formed and then fixed in stone, Pat Tillman was the all-American hero.
Rugged and handsome, the college sports star rapidly made a name for himself as a professional American Football player. “Despite rigorous checks, losses due to theft by customers and shop staff amount to ¤250m [£173m] a year,” the company said.Lidl is fighting a bitter battle for market supremacy with its larger rival, the Aldi cut-price chain. The company has taken on 45,000 staff across Europe over the past three years and 20,000 new jobs have been created in Germany.. It said it had dismissed 20 shop managers after complaints from shop staff, and denied it obliged its workers to do unpaid overtime.But Lidl defended its policy of staff searches. In a statement, Lidl said: “Given the rapid growth rate of the Lidl concern, it is unavoidable that in some exceptional cases, shop managers are employed who have weaknesses when it comes to dealing with staff.”The company accused Verdi of deliberately singling out Lidl because the chain store has trade union members at only a handful of its 2,500 German supermarkets. “After that I was ready to sign my own death warrant.”Other staff said going to the lavatory was regarded as a “luxury” by management. One former cashier said: “I did not even have time to go to the toilet.
Leaving the till meant being told off, so I sometimes went home with wet underwear.”Lidl responded bitterly yesterday and claimed Verdi had mounted a campaign against the chain that was supported by “anonymous defamations”. “Those affected were put under massive pressure to sign their own dismissal documents.” One Lidl shopworker said she had been subjected to a three-hour interrogation by managers after being falsely accused of pocketing the deposits on empty bottles She was asked to resign “I was completely shattered,” the shopworker said. The Verdi report cited Lidl workers who spoke of a “climate of fear” at the stores. Staff said they were required to do unpaid extra work shifting products before the stores opened and after they closed.Management was said to routinely search the lockers, pockets, clothing and cars of staff to ensure they had not stolen products.