Via NBC:

The  festival, “9/11 Reclaiming the Truth, Reclaiming our Future,” is organized by the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, a group that formed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The lineup of films and speakers kicked off at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland this afternoon, and will continue on Sunday at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco after a march from Justin Herman Plaza to the theater.
   
Similar events are being held in Seattle and in Toronto, and a portion of those events will be broadcast live in the Bay Area as part of the film festival.

The slate of films includes “Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup,” “9/11: Explosive Evidence — Experts Speak Out,” and “We Were Also Killed on 9/11: First Responders.”

“We’ve had rallies every year,” said Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance co-founder Carol Brouillet. She said the group organized its first film festival in 2004 and has had similar events every year since.

She said the main goal of the festival is to inform attendees about “the disparity between the official version and the actual events.” …

The rub below the fold:

However, she believes that the federal government was at the very least informed about the attacks and allowed them to happen as justification for a shift in foreign and domestic policy.

While that view has never gained traction in the mainstream, a recent BBC News poll found that 15 percent of those polled in the U.S. believe that there was a conspiracy behind 9/11 that involved the federal government.

Those last two paragraphs buried near the bottom the story spell it all out. This isn’t really about believing in some sick conspiracy, this is about spreading hatred for America through lies and propaganda.

I may go to Hell, but I’ll have better living quarters than any one of these bastards.

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This is a bad film, both in its execution and its intent.  As a lawyer, it insults my intelligence.  As a veteran, it insults my professionalism.  As an audience member, it failed me as a film.  Pat Tillman, first seen in footage sitting nearly silently in a studio, begins the film as a cipher and ends as a cipher.  I know little more about the man or his motivations than I did coming in.  All I know is that I could not wait for it to be over.

This over-praised documentary is based on the premise that there was an enormous, mysterious conspiracy surrounding the death of Pat Tillman, which is a problem for the filmmaker since it is clear there is no giant, mysterious conspiracy surrounding the death of Pat Tillman.  The filmmakers cannot explain who conspired, or what they conspired to do.  Was there a cover-up?  Of what?  The film desperately wants there to be one, as does the family – perhaps that would give them the story the producers need and generate the meaning the family wants.  But, as the film demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt, there isn’t one.  This is a story of mistakes, not malice.

Pat Tillman died in a tragic battlefield accident.  That happens – young men, powerful weapons, and “the fog of war” all combine to make fratricide a terrible and ever-present reality of infantry combat.  I know nothing about the circumstances of Tillman’s death other than what the film showed (including several instances where the camera focused on Army investigation documents that revealed information the filmmakers did not highlight).  But what the film shows makes it clear that there are no “unanswered questions.” 

Since the film presumes to stand on its own I have taken it at its word and report only what the film and its accompanying publicity materials show.  There is plenty of speculation out there in cyberspace, most of it numbingly stupid, and there are at least two Army investigations, one which recognized the failure to initially get the family accurate information about the circumstances of Tillman’s death.

The film reports that Tillman’s patrol was ordered split into two elements so one element could recover a broken vehicle.  Whether this was a tactically sound decision is unclear – none of the officers in the chain of command were interviewed, though a private states he did not like the order.  In any case, Tillman’s element went first through a canyon.  The second followed.  Tillman’s element heard explosions and firing from back in the canyon.  Tillman led his team (accompanied by a friendly Afghan militia fighter) up a steep hill to go back and assist, even asking to drop his body armor so he could go faster (The squad leader denied his request).

At the crest of the hill, a hummer from the second element saw Tillman’s team and misidentified them.  They fired, killing the Afghan militia fighter.  Tillman attempted to stop the fire by standing up and shouting.  He was hit in the head, apparently by machine gun rounds if the film is to be believed, and was killed.  It is unclear whether the vehicle was moving or stopped at the time, or if the shooters had dismounted.

Those are the sad facts of the incident itself.  However, the early confusion over what happened out there on that remote battlefield sparked the entire conspiracy meme.  Initially, the family was told Tillman died heroically charging the enemy.  Tillman was issued a Silver Star almost immediately.  Then, about a month later, but after a memorial ceremony where Tillman’s heroism was praised, they were told he was killed by friendly fire.  This demonstrates why it is so critical not to discuss such matters until all the facts are absolutely clear and documented – that is the least America owes the families of the fallen.

There’s a truism among soldiers – repeated in the film during an interview with a general punished for his part in the initial confusion – that the first reports are always wrong.  They were here.  And it is understandable why.  Tillman was charging toward what he thought to be the enemy.  He did die bravely even if as the result of a tragic mistake.  Apparently the producers never played “Telephone” as kids; they can either not understand, or not accept, that things in the real world could get screwed up between Khost and California.

In fact, that same assumption of malice applies to everything in The Tillman Story.  Each and every fact is sinister.  Each and every fact is evidence of a conspiracy.  One of Tillman’s team members is assigned to fly back with the body but is told not to discuss the circumstances of the incident (which was still being investigated) with the family.  Is this a reasonable precaution to avoid passing potentially bad information to the family (especially with this particular team member, a smarmy little creep who the filmmakers note later went AWOL), or part of a plot?  After a month, Army officers inform the family that there is reason to believe it was fratricide.  Is this an attempt to, perhaps, tell the family what happened, or part of a plot?  The father sends an obscenity-laced letter to the Army regarding the initially mistake, so the Army initiates a second investigation (which would find at least one general officer culpable).  A reasonable reaction to the family’s concerns, or part of a plot?

In The Tillman Story, it’s all part of a plot.

And the innuendo runs fast and furious.  A memo circulates to various headquarters indicating the possibility that it was a fratricide incident, but the filmmakers assume that every general reads and digests every single memorandum that comes through their thousand soldier headquarters.  That a bunch of them, and Donald Rumsfeld, cannot precisely testify before a Congressional committee as to the exact date they first read the memo becomes the most damning evidence of all in the eyes of these credulous documentarians. 

This movie was, frankly, nearly too stupid to endure.  To my right sat a short man who I think was a modestly successful actor (I won’t name him since I can’t be sure) nodding feverishly and making little noises of agreement with each of the film’s unsupported assertions and at all of its clichéd images.  (Don’t get me started on the hackneyed, unlistenable old Neil Young tune “Hawks and Doves” that closes the movie).

Naturally, there was ominous footage of President Bush, who was apparently somehow in on it.  Now, he did not say that Tillman was killed by the enemy when discussing Tillman’s death.  Apparently, telling the truth was even worse and somehow more supportive of the giant lie than, well, not telling the truth would have been.  Oh, and there is footage of Karl Rove as well, who is daring to smile at the Washington Correspondent’s dinner.  The sort-of star to my right nearly climaxed when the Architect showed up on screen – if I was nicer I would have offered him a cigarette.

What’s particularly annoying, besides the fact that – as the guy on my right proved – the filmmakers correctly believe that all they need to do to get their critical hosannas is flash a shot of one of the designated villains to make their case, is that they think their audience is so stupid.  For example, they discuss how there is supposedly no evidence of any ambush against the second element at all even as the camera pans over witness statements where one of the Rangers states that he saw Taliban and witnessed muzzle flashes.  Sorry, guys, but it’s still evidence even if you don’t like what it proves.

The filmmakers assert that Tillman’s legacy has been hijacked by evil neoconservatives who have tried to make him a symbol of the Global War on Terror, but in reality they are the ones enlisting Tillman’s memory in support of their own incoherent agenda.  What’s clear is that the last thing they want is Tillman’s actions or words speaking for themselves. 

They claim that Tillman refused to speak of his motives for joining the military, but they then dismiss as some sort of invasion of Tillman’s privacy the taped interview Tillman gave on September 12, 2001 in which he expressed admiration for American fighting men and expressed concern that he himself was not making any contribution (he enlisted a few months later). They note (twice) that Tillman read at least one book by the inexorable Noam Chomsky, as if that made him a convert to Chomsky’s dictator-loving leftist idiocy any more than his study of the Bible and other religious works meant he believed in God, which he allegedly did not.  They portray him as alienated by the “illegal” war in Iraq, yet even after allegedly being offered a chance to get out of his enlistment early to return to the NFL he instead chose to accompany his battalion on the fateful deployment to Afghanistan.  Even in death, Tillman refuses to conform to others’ expectations – especially those of these agenda documentarians.

While the film fails to make Tillman’s motives or his character clear, but what is clear is that the Tillman family is devastated by Pat’s death.  You cannot see them without your heart going out to them.  It’s horrible enough to lose a son or a brother, but to have it happen because of such a stupid, avoidable screw-up makes it doubly painful.  The Tillmans’ constant refrain is that they are looking for answers, and it is clear they are.  However, it is not clear what kind of answer they seek.  The film does not answer the question – the family picks to pieces every bit of information they get, alternately complaining that the Army has not given them enough information then, after receiving a box of materials including witness statements photos, videos and forensic reports, declare that the Army must be trying to hide the facts by drowning them in information.  

The film takes a moment to play an interview of an Army colonel who investigated the case speculating that the source of the Tillman family’s inability to be satisfied is their rather militant atheism (At Tillman’s memorial, Tillman’s younger brother, beer in hand, launched an obscenity-fueled tirade against speakers like John McCain who referred to Pat being in the hands of “a loving God.”).  The filmmakers clearly expect their audience to roll their eyes at the colonel’s notion that without the comfort of religious faith the family members are seeking to satisfy their natural human need to understand Pat’s death via their endless “investigation” – here, the pseudo-star’s peepers nearly did a somersault.  But, frankly, and meaning no disrespect to the family, the colonel’s comments ring truer than anything else in the film except Pat’s own words about 9/11. 

Sadly, one legacy of the Tillman incident, according to some, is a reluctance by the military to issue decorations to recognize military heroes in order to avoid even the remotest chance of another embarrassment.  If true, that would be a terrible disservice to a brave American.  The filmmakers can say what they want, but Pat Tillman still chose to leave the NFL to join the Rangers.  He chose to go to Airborne School and Ranger School.  He chose to charge up that hill, and he chose to try and stop the friendly fire toward his men. 

His actions speak louder than any confused , twisted characterization by these documentarians.  His actions also speak louder than any characterization I might give them.  Tillman’s actions speak for themselves, and the one thing the movie does affirm is what we all already knew — that Airborne Ranger Corporal Pat Tillman probably would have wanted it that way.

Pat Tillman left one of the most sought after jobs on Earth as a star in the NFL to join the Army and volunteer as a Ranger. It was a noble, patriotic and selfless act that deserves to be his legacy. Unfortunately the circumstances surrounding his death get more attention than the sacrifice he made for this country. There is a movie coming out called “The Tillman Story” that seems to perpetuate some of the worst conspiracy theories about his death. It is important that we separate myths from reality. This piece will focus on the circumstances of the incident and the immediate reaction from the military in the weeks that followed.

Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan in 2004 was a tragic accident and resulted from fratricide. He was shot by members of his own unit who failed to identify an Afghan soldier and Tillman as friendlies. There are those who want to cast doubt on that and claim that there was a crime committed and that Tillman was murdered, but there is simply nothing in the evidence available that points to that. I have read hundreds of pages from the multiple investigations of the incident and there is simply no way to get that many people to tell almost exactly the same story of how the incident unfolded.

Tillman was on a patrol when one of the vehicles broke down and they were attempting to tow it back to their base. During the course of that the patrol split into two groups. Tillman and serial one were to head back via one route and the broken vehicle and serial two were to rendezvous with a recovery vehicle via another. Serial one left and shortly thereafter serial two did as well. The civilian truck towing the broken vehicle stated that he was unable to traverse one section of the route and serial two then redirected to follow the same route as serial one. They were unable to convey this change to serial one due to the extreme terrain. The second group came under enemy fire during this movement and began to attempt to clear themselves from the ambush site by moving forward.

Tillman and the members of the first group also heard the fire and began to react. They exited their vehicles and Tillman spotted one of the sources of enemy fire. He asked permission to assault that position and when it was granted, moved out and began maneuvering and firing upon it. As he was doing this one of the vehicles from the second serial rounded a corner and observed an Afghan soldier who was with Tillman firing an AK-47. The light conditions prevented them from identifying him as a friendly, so based on the proximity to the ambush site, his weapon and a dark face they took him under fire. Multiple weapons systems from the vehicle engaged and killed him. During this Tillman and another American took cover behind a rock.

There was a lull in fire after the Afghan was killed and Tillman stood up to identify himself shouting “I’m Pat Fu**ing Tillman, why are you shooting?”. Unfortunately all the Rangers in the vehicle saw was another silhouette and a possible threat and they shot and killed him. Almost immediately after this the driver of the vehicle that had fired rounded a corner and saw the vehicles from Tillman’s group and began yelling for a cease fire because there were friendlies in the area.

They immediately learned that they had killed Tillman and the other allied soldier and in all of the statements they made this was noted. But there are several more items that are regularly brought up as “evidence of some sort of cover up.” The first is that Tillman’s uniform and body armor were burned several days after this. This was done mistakenly by personnel who believed that because the gear was covered in blood that it represented a bio hazard. Although this was not the case, by this point it was common knowledge that this was a friendly fire incident and that Tillman’s body armor had been hit by multiple rounds identified as US because of the green markings on the bullets. There was no attempt to hide this fact and there was an investigation into the incident underway.

Another point of contention was that it took 5 weeks to tell the family that this was fratricide. That was a failure by the command to properly understand the reporting procedures. They should have told them at the initial notification that it was believed to be friendly fire, but that investigations were still underway. Instead they waited for the investigation to give them positive confirmation and that caused the family concern and made them suspicious. They commenced an inquiry, helped by Sen. John McCain, and submitted a list of questions about the incident. I have seen the questions and answers and they leave no reason to believe it was not an accident or that there was a concerted effort to deceive them.

The other major issue surrounds the award of a Silver Star to Tillman for this event. It is often posited that this was to deflect from the fact that this was a friendly fire incident. While that may be true, CPL Tillman was leading his men on an assault of an enemy position when he was killed. He was attacking and leading from the front and that is why the award was submitted. Was there an element of “this is Pat Tillman” involved? Almost certainly, but the idea that this was simply part of a cover up is unfair. The speed with which the award was approved has also been questioned, but the Rangers had a policy of rapid response for posthumous valor awards so the families could be presented the medal at or before the funeral. There were numerous examples of this from the unit to validate that.

Anyone who volunteers for the military during wartime deserves our respect and our thanks. Someone who leaves comfort and riches behind to do so especially. Pat Tillman’s death was an unfortunate accident, but it was not a conspiracy to kill him or to cover up the fact that his own men pulled the triggers. He deserves to be remembered for the sacrifice he made as a patriot and a brave US Army Ranger.

Anyway, I guess Feldstein was just crazy enough to make the magazine a huge success. Now long retired and living in Montana (which seems to be a magnet for marginally crazy people), Feldman, an old lefty, recently forwarded an e-mail to a friend of a friend of mine who forwarded it to me. A million plus people have watched this e-mail by now. It’s a slickly produced film attacking Barack Obama. Any surprise that the President’s base is now turning on him?  It explains that he (Obama), is in the pocket of some amorphous, only hinted-at, world-wide society of manipulators who are behind everything bad in the world: “The Trilateral Commission, founded and conceived by David Rockefeller and his obscenely wealthy (redundancy?) Bilderberg Society cohorts… an amalgam of carefully chosen members of ‘The Elite’… the powerful rich… from the three main areas of the world: The U.S.A…. Europe… and Japan… who would slowly and carefully maneuver the free people of the Earth into a ‘One World’ system of Corporate/Fascism.” This is very old stuff. Conspiracy fodder. Been around for years in one form or another. International bankers turning Canada, the U.S. and Mexico into a single country, etc. And it’s all slickly packaged with music and graphics.

Left-wingers and right-wingers come together when they become extreme enough. The Nazi Party was called National Socialism, very similar to Stalin’s Communism, with the addition of “the Fatherland”. The crazies behind this film say they are non-partisan. They are: they’re equal-opportunity haters. They’ll never be satisfied until they are standing in the smoldering ruins of society… any society. They only feel comfortable in chaos. They whip up people’s fears and then give those fears something to latch onto.

The internet (as we are constantly reminded) is a powerful tool for good or for evil. This stuff is evil. It never goes away, and like all evil, it’s seductively attractive. No conservative can ever be conservative enough nor any liberal liberal enough to satisfy the conspiracy crowd. They are political nymphomaniacs, obsessive but incapable of satisfaction, and the stuff they disseminate is like pornography; once hooked on it you need more and more. Like the title of the late Marilyn Chambers flick, they are “Insatiable.”

In March, Andrew Breitbart was on a TV panel with a left-wing, intellectual African-American civil rights activist who, when asked if the election of Obama was at least a step forward, replied, “Just because one Black man is living in ‘public housing’ in Washington D. C., does not an end to racism make.” Nothing would satisfy him. If every white person in America were killed, he would turn on the remaining African-Americans and say they had been polluted and were Uncle Toms.

I’ve got no ending for this piece. I don’t know what to think. Everything’s a mess. The country is more divided than it has been since the war between the states. I’m not outraged by the left or the right. In my day, I’ve been both. One year I proudly sported on my refrigerator a Christmas card from the Young Republicans and Season’s Greetings from Gus Hall of the American Communist Party. The only people I intensely dislike are the ones who throw shit in the fan just to see everybody scurry out of the way.

I’m not a pessimist. I do believe that in some way we don’t understand, God has a hand in things and it will all work out for America. Our money says In God We Trust. And we are the best country, aren’t we?

Orson Bean’s latest novel, M@il For Mikey, is published by Barricade Books