The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold the hearing April 24 as part of an investigation into whether misinformation stemmed from a government strategy to mislead the public, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement was scheduled for later Tuesday.

The hearings come two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its own twin investigations into Tillman's shooting, three years after his death, and four years after Lynch's kidnapping.

The committee has been quietly investigating the Tillman case since that release, and decided to add Lynch to the scope of its probe.

The Tillman family and some lawmakers said the previous investigations were inadequate and did not sufficiently address the role of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in hiding the true circumstances of Tillman's death from his relatives for five weeks.

The Army maintained publicly during that time that he had been killed by enemy fire, when in fact his fellow Rangers shot him after a chaotic ambush. The military concealed the truth although dozens of officers knew within hours or days that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire.

Tillman's mother and father did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday, nor did a Lynch spokeswoman.

VISIBLE FACE OF IRAQ WAR

Lynch, a 21-year-old former Army supply clerk, became one of the most visible faces of the war when she was rescued from an Iraqi hospital on April 1, 2003. Her convoy was attacked after taking a wrong turn in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah. Eleven American soldiers were killed and six, including Lynch, were captured.

Her videotaped rescue by special forces from a Nasiriyah hospital on April 1 branded Lynch a hero at a time the U.S. war effort seemed bogged down.

It also stirred complaints of U.S. government media manipulation. Early reports — never stemming from Lynch or her family, and later disproved — had her suffering knife and bullet wounds while fighting off attackers until running out of ammunition.

TILLMAN'S DEATH GOT WORLDWIDE ATTENTION

Tillman was killed with three shots to the forehead after his Army Ranger comrades were ambushed in eastern Afghanistan. He and an allied Afghan fighter a few feet away from Tillman were killed by the same Rangers, who failed to identify both men as "friendlies."

His death got 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 the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The oversight committee is investigating the sources and motivations behind the misinformation, and whether Bush administration officials have been held accountable, one official said.

Details of the hearing entitled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield," have not been completely ironed out. It was not yet clear whether the committee plans to call officials with knowledge of the cases to testify.

Though empowered to do so, the committee has no plans to subpoena witnesses, said one official involved in the investigation.

NO SUBPOENAS ISSUED IN ANY OF PROBES

The committee, run by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a frequent Bush administration critic, has launched several investigations since Democrats took power in Congress in January. But it has not issued subpoenas in any of its probes, including one into the administration's claims that Iraq sought uranium from Niger and another into contacts between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.

A third congressional official with knowledge of the current investigation said that although the upcoming hearing might only last one day, it could mark the start of much more sweeping inquiries by lawmakers. The House Armed Services Committee is also considering Tillman hearings, a spokeswoman for that panel said Monday.

In all, the Army and Defense Department have conducted five investigations into Tillman's April 22, 2004, death, with the most recent one pointing toward high-ranking military officers knowing the circumstances of his death long before Tillman's family.

Rep. Mike Honda, a Democrat who represents the Tillmans' San Jose district and was first to call for congressional hearings last month, praised the news Tuesday.

"After successive failed Department of Defense and Army inquiries, only a comprehensive, unrelenting congressional investigation can do justice to Pat's memory, and restore service members' confidence in their chain of command," Honda said. "I will not rest until the unvarnished truth — no matter where it leads — is brought to light."

One top-ranking officer, then-Maj. General Stanley McChrystal, tried to warn President Bush a week after Tillman's death to avoid repeating in speeches the official Army line: that Tillman had been killed by enemy forces. McChrystal knew an investigation would probably conclude it was friendly fire, according to internal Pentagon memos obtained by The Associated Press.

The White House says Bush never got the message from McChrystal, who still heads military "black ops." But Gen. John Abizaid, chief of Central Command at the time, did get the information before the Tillmans.

"The deception surrounding this case was an insult to the family," Tillman's family said in a statement after the Pentagon's findings were disclosed March 26, "but more importantly, its primary purpose was to deceive a whole nation.