Military accused of misrepresentation of battlefield heroics

Описание: (24 Apr 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Wide shot committee
2. SOUNDBITE (English) US Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat - California), Chairman of House Government Reform and Oversight Committee:
"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth. That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman the government violated its most basic responsibility. Sensational details and stories were invented in both cases. Sometimes because of the fog of war the first reports from the battlefield are inaccurate. But that doesn't seem to explain what happened here."
3. Screen showing the original press release for Lynch
4. SOUNDBITE (English) US Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat - California), Chairman of House Government Reform and Oversight Committee:
"But then they went on, 10 days after her capture, US officials had become the source of a report that riveted the nation but twisted the truth beyond recognition."
5. Mid of House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
6. Jessica Lynch and Kevin Tillman are sworn in
7. Mid of chairman
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kevin Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman
"This was a narrative that inspired countless Americans as intended. There was one small problem with the narrative however: it was utter fiction."
9. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kevin Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman
"This freshly manufactured narrative was then distributed to the American public and we believe the strategy had the intended effect. It shifted the focus of the grotesque torture at Abu Ghraib and a downward spiral of an illegal act of aggression, to a great American that died a hero's death. Over a month after Pat's death, when it became clear that it would no longer be possible to pull off this deception, a few of the facts were parcelled out to the public."
11. Audience
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jessica Lynch, former US Army private:
"It was not true. I have repeatedly said when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspire our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good. However, I'm still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were legendary."
13. Panel
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Jessica Lynch, former US Army private:
"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype. Thank you."
15. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Gene Bolles, Neurosurgeon:
(giving evidence about Jessica Lynch's injuries)
"I saw no evidence of gunshot wounds. I looked for metallic fragments on X-rays. I saw none. I saw no injuries that looked like a gunshot wound, to my eye. I saw no entrance and exit wounds that appeared to be corroborative of that."
17. House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
STORYLINE:
The US military was criticised on Tuesday for inflating and fabricating stories about Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, perhaps the most famous American military victims of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," said US Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat, and chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
"For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, the government violated its most basic responsibility," he added, speaking at a committee hearing on Tuesday.
It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.

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