A bright shining lie.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Briefly Noted - Pat Tillman's death - Brief article

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Pat Tillman, a professional football player who made headlines by joining the Army Rangers after 9/11, was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire in 2004. "They have a hard time letting it go," the lead military investigator of his death said of the soldier's family in 2005. "There's not a whole lot of trust in the system." With good reason, it turned out.

As detailed in the infuriating 2010 documentary The Tillman Story, now on DVD, Pentagon officials authorized a cover-up that falsely portrayed Tillman's death as the result of a heroic engagement with the enemy. Tillman's mother...