Now that the Army has completed its seventh inquiry into the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman and top military leaders have testified in Congress, we still don’t know who concocted a phony story about how Corporal Tillman died and whether the White House knew it was happening. Congress needs to clarify whether this messy affair reflects astonishing incompetence or a conspiracy to exploit a famous soldier’s death.

Corporal Tillman, who gave up a pro football contract to volunteer as an Army Ranger, was shot dead in Afghanistan in April 2004 while trying to assist another Ranger unit. Almost immediately, soldiers in the field recognized that he had been hit by fire from fellow Rangers. Yet witness reports were rewritten to make it seem like he had been felled by the enemy. That became the basis for expediting a posthumous Silver Star before a memorial service in early May. Even after the truth was recognized, the Army stuck by its award on the theory that Corporal Tillman acted heroically before he was killed. Even the Tillman family deemed it a cynical effort to exploit the tragedy.

Army and Pentagon investigators have been unable to establish who rewrote the witness reports, and why. This week Army Secretary Pete Geren called it “a perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership.” The Army punished its designated villain, a conveniently retired general who is apt to lose a star and some pay.

Meanwhile, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and three senior generals testified that they knew of no cover-up at the Pentagon or the White House. The bungling and misrepresentations might well have been the Army’s sole doing. Yet the White House could ease doubts by granting the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee full access to key personnel and documents.