General McChrystal Invited to Testify at House Oversight Committeee August 1st 2007 Tillman Hearing

Heres the announcement for the hearing: House Oversight Committees 8-01-07 Hearing Announcement with McChrystal Invited

... From House Dems want Rumsfeld, generals to testify in Tillman case
Zachary Coile, San Francisco Chronicle Monday, July 16, 2007 (07-16) 12:07 PDT Washington -- House Democrats, suspecting that top Pentagon officials covered up the friendly fire death of football star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, are calling former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and five generals to testify about the San Jose's native 2004 fatal shooting by solders in his unit in Afghanistan. The committee also wants testimony from Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who sent a highpriority cable five days after Tillman's death to Abizaid and other top Army commanders, warning that the former NFL safety probably had been killed by friendly fire -- not by Taliban insurgents as the Army claimed publicly. Rumsfeld and the others may resist testifying before the committee But Waxman holds a powerful card: He is the only committee chairman who can issue subpoenas without a committee vote and could order them to appear. The Army did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on whether the current or former officials would agree to testify. ...

12-26-10 UPDATE:

A Lexus-Nexis search found this mention that Gen. McChrystal was still on the invited list just three days prior to Congresss 8-01-07 hearing:

EVENT: HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE (Federal News Service Daybook, July 28, 2007 Saturday)
SUBJECT: Full committee hearing on "The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew." Pat Tillman, a former NFL football player, was killed on April 22, 2004 in a "friendly fire" incident while serving in the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion in Afghanistan.

LOCATION: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building -- August 01, 2007 PARTICIPANTS: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff retired Gen. Richard Myers; former commander of the U.S. Central Command retired Gen. John Abizaid; past commanders of the U.S. Special Operations Command retired Gen. Bryan Brown and retired Gen. Philip Kensinger; and commander of the Joint Special Operations Command Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, testify ... Note: On July 13, 2007 the Oversight Committee announced that they were inviting McChrystal. As of July 28, 2007 he was still on the list, just 3 days before his hearing. But McChrystal never showed up. Acccording the the following AP piece, he declined to appear before Congress! Heres some excerpts:

From AP: Tillman Memo Contradicted Citation

By SCOTT LINDLAW and MARTHA MENDOZA The Associated Press Saturday, August 4, 2007; 12:47 AM SAN FRANCISCO -- Just a day after approving a medal claiming former NFL player Pat Tillman had been cut down by "devastating enemy fire" in Afghanistan, a high-ranking general tried to warn President Bush that the story might not be true, according to testimony obtained by The Associated Press. Despite this apparent contradiction, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was spared punishment in the latest review of Tillman's shooting. On Tuesday, the Army overruled a Pentagon recommendation that he be held accountable for his "misleading" actions. In a sometimes contentious November interview under oath and via videoconference, Pentagon investigators sharply questioned McChrystal about the conflicting accounts, according to the testimony obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act. "Why did you recommend the Silver Star one day and then the next day send a secret backchannel message warning the country's leaders about using information from the Silver Star in public speeches because they might be embarrassed if they do?" an investigator asked McChrystal. Despite numerous questions, the general never directly explained the discrepancies. "That question seems to imply the fact that we were giving the award with one hand and then with the other hand saying it was something different," he protested. "But that's exactly the opposite of the way I felt and feel now." ...

Attempts to reach McChrystal this week by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful. Ken McGraw, a spokesman for US Special Operations Command, said in an e-mail Friday that it would be "inappropriate" for McChrystal to comment or speculate about the punishment decisions. McChrystal also declined an invitation to appear Wednesday before a congressional committee investigating the misinformation given to Tillman's family and the American public following his friendly fire death in Afghanistan. Tillman's parents have been critical of the military's punishments surrounding their son's death. The Army waited about five weeks after it suspected friendly fire was involved before telling Tillman's family the true nature of his death. ... After a year-long inquiry that ended in March, the Pentagon's acting inspector general found that McChrystal should be held "accountable for the inaccurate and misleading assertions" in the Silver Star award recommendation; and for failing to notify the officials processing the award that friendly fire was likely. ... But the Army cast that aside Tuesday when it overruled the Pentagon's recommendation. Another Army general, William Wallace, concluded McChrystal had behaved reasonably in assuming the supporting material presented to him for Tillman's Silver Star recommendation was accurate. The Army's statement Tuesday made no mention of McChrystal's acknowledgment under oath that he had known prior to approving the Silver Star that fratricide was a strong possibility.