Bush officials can't recall Tillman facts

WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. congressional committee report criticized the "near universal lack of recall" by the Bush administration about the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman.

The report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said administration officials turned over 1,500 pages of e-mails and other documents related the to 2004 death the National Football League star-turned Army Ranger in Afghanistan, but none contained any mention of "fratricide," the San Jose Mercury-News reported Tuesday.

Committee investigators also said their interviews with such White House figures as communications chiefs Scott McClellan and Dan Bartlett and speechwriter Michael Gerson yielded nothing but "I don't recall" answers about when they or U.S. President George Bush first learned Tillman didn't die fighting the Taliban as the White House first said, but from friendly fire.

The newspaper said the timing of Bush's knowledge of the nature of Tillman's death is important because the soldier's family has accused the U.S. Department of Defense of covering up the facts to detract from a spate of bad news coming from the battlefield that month.