San Francisco – A U.S. House committee announced Tuesday that it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public.
One or more members of the Tillman family will probably testify, the committee said. Lynch’s spokeswoman said Lynch also will testify.
Tillman’s family has said the previous probes were inadequate and did not sufficiently address the role of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in hiding from them for five weeks the true circumstances of the former NFL player’s death.
Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital after being captured by Iraqi forces April 1, 2003. Her videotaped rescue stirred complaints of government media manipulation to boost support for the war.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
CHICAGO
Handgun discharges, wounds 2 students
A high school student was passing a handgun to a classmate in a Chicago classroom Tuesday when it discharged, striking both in the leg, police said.
One student, 14, was listed in good condition. The condition of the other boy, 15, was not known. They are students at Chicago Vocational Career Academy, said Robert Lopez, an assistant deputy police superintendent.
The school has metal detectors, but students are chosen at random to go through them because it would take too long to scan each teen, a police spokesman said.
TROY, Mich.
Shooting suspect said to be mentally ill
A man expected to be charged today in an office shooting that left one dead and two wounded had a history of mental illness, including two suicide attempts and a hospitalization for depression in the past five years, an attorney for the man’s estranged wife said Tuesday.
Investigators said Anthony LaCalamita, 38, of Troy lost his job as an accountant at Gordon Advisors on Thursday, bought a 12-gauge shotgun on Friday and returned to his former workplace on Monday morning.
Within a few minutes, Madeline Kafoury, 63, of Warren, was dead and Alan Steinberg, 48, of Bruce Township and Paul Riva, 47, of Sterling Heights were wounded by shotgun blasts.
The two men remained hospitalized Tuesday. LaCalamita was expected in Troy District Court today to face murder, attempted murder and other charges connected to the shooting.
“He has suffered from depression and a bipolar, manic disorder in recent years and had taken medication for it. Whether he was taking it or not now is not known,” said Jose Fanego, attorney for Michele LaCalamita.
WASHINGTON
$59 million in U.S. aid OK’d for Palestinians
Nearly $60 million in U.S. aid to help the Palestinian security forces has cleared congressional hurdles and is now ready to be spent, the State Department said Tuesday.
The $59 million package, reduced from $86 million over concerns that some money might go to radical groups, met with no objections from lawmakers and soon will be on its way to security apparatus controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
