Retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger was formally censured by the Army and could see his rank and retirement pay reduced retroactively by a review board, Army Secretary Pete Geren said.

Though the latest review, the military's seventh into Tillman's death, led to written criticism for six officers, only Kensinger faces serious discipline

A former football star for the NFL's Cardinals and Arizona State University, Tillman was killed - accidentally, according to Pentagon investigators - by his fellow Army Rangers in April 2004. It took officials more than a month to publicly acknowledge that Tillman was not killed by Taliban fighters, as initially announced.

"Errors and failures of leadership confused and misinformed the American people and compounded the grief suffered by the Tillman family," Geren said. "Many have come to believe that the Army manipulated that tragedy to serve ends other than the pursuit of truth, deceiving a grieving family and violating our duty to a fallen comrade. Considering the constellation of errors, this perception of deceit is understandable, but (that perception) is not supported by the facts found in the multiple investigations."

A House panel has a hearing scheduled for today into why the Pentagon initially put out the false version of Tillman's death, even though officers in Afghanistan began investigating whether his fellow soldiers had killed him within days of the incident.

Democrats and Republicans on the committee have said the Pentagon and White House have been slow to turn over documents that would show what high-ranking officers knew about Tillman's death. A group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, VoteVets.org, wrote to President Bush on Tuesday, urging him and his aides to cooperate fully with House investigators.

"Those of us who served know that it is the duty of any officer to write to the families of those under us who were killed and tell them the entire truth regarding their love one's death," eight veterans wrote Bush. "To lie about any details or withhold any information would not just cause unjust pain to the survivors but is to dishonor the fallen. As our nation's top commander, it is your duty to Pat Tillman and his family to release all materials related to his death."

Tillman's family has also criticized the Pentagon's handling of the incident, saying each investigation has fallen short of uncovering the whole truth. Family members could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

A Department of Defense inspector general report in March found that nine officers, including Kensinger and three other 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.

"The soldiers who handled the investigation and family notification made many mistakes," Geren said. "They did not follow Army regulations nor DOD policy. But they did so unknowingly, with no intent to deceive."

The newest report, by Gen. William Wallace, found that because Tillman's Ranger platoon was on a classified mission, the officers who were investigating his death mistakenly believed they had to keep information about the incident closely guarded.

"Almost incredibly, but true, this misunderstanding of Army regulations and policy about secrecy was shared up and down the chain of command," Geren said.

"As a result, the truths ultimately uncovered by their investigations were kept from the Tillman family and the public for a month while misinformation went unchallenged and uncorrected."

Kensinger was found to have lied to investigators looking into the matter after the fact, apparently to conceal the extent to which he had failed to follow regulations, officials said. If the review board recommends demoting Kensinger retroactively from a lieutenant general to a major general, he would lose about $900 a month in retirement pay.

Rep. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat whose district includes ASU, where Tillman played football, said he was not satisfied by the Army report. The Army's chief of staff, Gen. Richard Cody, briefed him on the report Tuesday morning.

"The Army indicated it just goes up to Kensinger, and that's it," Mitchell said. "Well, how do we know that? I think that's why we need to look at the documents the (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee) is requesting from the White House."

The committee issued a subpoena for Kensinger on Monday, but spokeswoman Karen Lightfoot said U.S. marshals were trying to locate him to deliver it. Donald Rumsfeld, who was secretary of Defense when Tillman was killed, is scheduled to testify, as are three other retired generals who oversaw investigations into Tillman's death.