Rumsfeld Denies Tillman Cover-Up

Ex-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.

"I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me. I know that the gentlemen sitting next to me are men of enormous integrity and would not participate in something like that," Rumsfeld told a House committee.

It was Rumsfeld's first public appearance on Capitol Hill since President Bush replaced him with Robert Gates late last year. He reiterated previous testimony to investigators that he didn't have early knowledge that Tillman was cut down on April 22, 2004, by fellow Rangers, not by enemy militia, as was initially claimed.

The truth was kept from the public and Tillman's own family until five weeks later — May 29, 2004. Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, and other family members watched from the back row at Wednesday's hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

But former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers said he did know there were questions about Tillman's death long before the family and public were told the truth. But he said it was the Army's job, not his, to tell the family.

"This is the responsibility of the United States Army, not of the office of the chairman, so I regret that the Army did not do their duty here and follow their own policy," Myers said.

Rumsfeld and Myers both said they couldn't remember precisely how they learned of Tillman's death or that it might be friendly fire.

"I don't recall precisely how I learned that he was killed," Rumsfeld said. "It could have been internally or it could have been through the press."

Rumsfeld and Miers both denied telling the White House the real story, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports, but said someone else at the Pentagon might have.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Tony Snow said the administration stands by Rumsfeld's comment that there was no cover-up of how Tillman died.

"I'm certainly not going to contradict Secretary Rumsfeld," Snow said.

"It is deeply regrettable that this sort of thing happened, and you try to make sure that it doesn't happen at anytime," he added.

Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after 9/11.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., charged that unanswered questions surrounding Tillman's death reach into the highest ranks of the Pentagon and beyond.

"The concealment of Cpl. Tillman's fratricide caused millions of Americans to question the integrity of our government, yet no one will tell us when and how the White House learned the truth," said Waxman.

Greeting Rumsfeld as he entered the hearing room were two activists who held signs reading "war criminal."

"Are you not ashamed?" one said. Rumsfeld didn't react.

Rumsfeld was mostly sober and measured in his testimony. On occasion there were flashes of the cocky, combative Rumsfeld known to the public from Pentagon briefings.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, demanded to know whether there was a White House and Defense Department strategy to manage press portrayals of the war and other events.

"Well, if there was, it wasn't very good," Rumsfeld remarked.

"Well, you know, maybe it was very good," Kucinich objected loudly. "Because you actually covered up the Tillman case for a while, you covered up the Jessica Lynch case, you covered up Abu Ghraib, so something was working for you.

"Was there a strategy to do it, Mr. Rumsfeld?"

"Congressman, the implication that 'you covered up' — that's just false, you have nothing to base that on, you have not a scrap of evidence or a piece of paper or a witness that would attest to that," Rumsfeld replied hotly. "I have not been involved in any cover-up whatsoever."

The congressional inquiry comes a day after the Army laid most of the blame for the response to Tillman's death on Philip Kensinger, a retired three-star general who led Army special operations forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Army censured Kensinger for "a failure of leadership" and accused him of lying to investigators probing the aftermath of Tillman's death. Seven other officers received lesser punishments.

Kensinger denies he lied to investigators, but the Army is likely to demote him, which would cost him $900 a month in retirement pay, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

Army Secretary Pete Geren insisted, however, that there was no intentional Pentagon cover-up.

That wasn't good enough for Democrats, who along with Tillman's family suspect a cover-up that goes all the way to the White House.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., questioned Rumsfeld's truthfulness when the former secretary said he did not know of the possibility Tillman was killed by friendly fire for about a month after the death.

He then demanded of Rumsfeld, Myers, Abizaid and retired Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command: "I ask all of you, do you think there was a cover-up by DOD?"

Like Rumsfeld, the others denied one.

The committee issued a subpoena Monday for Kensingers' testimony but U.S. marshals weren't able to deliver it.

Kensinger's attorney, Charles W. Gittins, told The Associated Press Tuesday night that Kensinger was on business travel and had declined to "participate in a hearing that is all about show and no substance."

Among possible evidence of White House knowledge, lawmakers cited a memo written by a top general seven days after Tillman's death warning it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by his own comrades and making clear his warning should be conveyed to the president.

President Bush made no reference to the way Tillman died in a speech delivered two days after the memo was written.