Army censures general for 'deception' after Tillman death

(CNN) -- Calling him the captain of a ship that ran aground, the Army Tuesday announced it has censured a retired three-star general for misleading investigators probing the controversial death of Cpl. Pat Tillman.

It also ordered a grade review board to consider whether Retired Lt. Gen. Phillip Kensinger should be stripped of a star.

The developments come after the Army reviewed recommendations from the Department of Defense inspector general and Gen. William Wallace, who investigated the incident and its aftermath.

Kensinger "compromised his duty to the acting Secretary of the Army by providing a report including information he knew to be false, which was his own sworn testimony, undermining the principle of civilian control of the army," said Army Secretary Pete Geren.

"Further, I concluded that he failed to provide proper leadership to the soldiers under his administrative control in the 75th Ranger regiment. He let his soldiers down," Geren said.

The secretary said the grade review panel, made up of four-star generals, would examine the case and recommend whether to bump Kensinger down to major general.

The reduction in rank would decrease Kensinger's monthly pension by about $1,000, according to Army officials.

The review panel's recommendation, however, is non-binding. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will make the final decision.

Tillman was a safety with the Arizona Cardinals in the National Football League when he passed up a multimillion-dollar contract to join the Army in 2002, after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

He was a corporal with the service's elite Rangers when he was killed during an ambush in an Afghan mountain pass in April 2004.

The Army posthumously awarded Tillman the Silver Star, the third-highest U.S. combat decoration, announcing that he had been killed leading a counterattack. But it later admitted that officers in his chain of command knew almost immediately that he had been shot accidentally by his own comrades.

For five weeks, his family was not told that the death was a result of friendly fire. There was also some question about whether the citation for Tillman's Silver Star was in order, but Geren said he found nothing questionable in that.

Geren concluded there was never an attempt to cover up the facts of Tillman's death, but he acknowledged that the former football star's family was not notified of the friendly fire investigation in a timely manner. Watch the Army Secretary apologize »

Last March, Defense Department Inspector General Thomas Gimble faulted nine Army officers -- including Kensinger -- for making critical errors in reporting Tillman's death.

Geren said eight other officers discussed in Wallace's report and a ninth discussed in the Defense Department inspector general's report received some form of a written admonition.

Some members of Tillman's platoon also received punishment during the course of the investigation, but, Geren said, the Army does not publicly discuss punishment given to soldiers below the rank of general.

The developments come amid calls by the House Oversight Committee for four former White House staff members to talk about when and how the Bush administration knew that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. E-mail to a friend

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