A former football star for the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University, Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed — accidentally, according to Pentagon investigators — in April 2004 in Afghanistan. AP file photo | 2003

"I know that I would not engage in a cover-up," Rumsfeld said. "I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me."

Rumsfeld and several retired generals who oversaw the planning and management of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is seeking to find out why the Bush administration took more than a month to disclose the truth about Tillman's death.

All of them blamed Army officials for failing to follow regulations and none accepted responsibility themselves, though they all expressed their condolences to Tillman's family sitting in the back of the room. Multiple Pentagon investigations have found mistakes in how the Army dealt with Tillman's death, but recommended serious discipline for only one officer.

A former football star for the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University, Tillman was killed — accidentally, according to Pentagon investigators — in April 2004. The Pentagon initially said he had been killed by the Taliban, and a memorial service and a Silver Star award both lauded how he had died fighting. But officers investigating his death came to believe within days that so-called "friendly fire" killed him.

"We just know that although everyone on the ground knew this was a case of friendly fire, the American people and the Tillman family were told that Corporal Tillman was killed by the enemy," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the committee. "And that doesn't make any sense."

Yet Rumsfeld, the retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, retired Army Gen. John Abizaid and Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, who both oversaw Tillman's chain of command, said they had little to do with the delay in putting out information about the case.

"(Notifying Tillman's family) is the responsibility of the Army and not of the chairman (of the Joint Chiefs)," Myers said. "I regret that the Army did not do their duty here and follow their own policy, but they did not."

Reading from a prepared statement, Rumsfeld denied any knowledge of an internal investigation that had quickly determined Tillman was the victim of so-called "friendly fire," though several generals who he worked closely with in managing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were informed about the development.

"(A message about Tillman's death) was not addressed to me," Rumsfeld said. "Nor do I recall seeing it. There are a great many, indeed thousands, of communications throughout the Department of Defense that a secretary of defense does not see."

In a report disclosed Tuesday, Army investigators found officers believed they had to keep the details of Tillman's death secret until there was official word on whether U.S. troops killed him, because the mission his Rangers platoon was on was classified. But Army policy says the military should have notified his family much earlier.

Retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, the former head of Army Special Operations, was censured Tuesday and could face a reduction in rank. Kensinger refused to testify Wednesday, dodging U.S. marshals who tried to serve him a subpoena from the committee.

A Defense Department inspector general report in March found that nine officers, including four generals, made "critical errors" in responding to Tillman's death. But Army criminal investigators found no evidence that the soldiers who killed him, or the officers who looked into his death afterward, had committed crimes.

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