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When Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey and 2nd Lt. Andre D. Tyson were killed in Iraq, the Army reported that they had been killed in an ambush by insurgents.

It wasn't true. An Army investigation concluded in September, 2005 that McCaffrey and Tyson were killed by two members of the Iraqi Army they were patrolling with. Not in a friendly fire incident. These were insurgents who had infiltrated the Iraqi units and who murdered McCaffrey and Tyson during the ambush.

In fact, the military was aware there were infiltrators in the Iraqi units:

An Army officer who served in the same unit as Tyson and McCaffrey in Iraq said Thursday that military commanders knew militiamen had infiltrated the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps unit they were training long before the Iraqis killed the two Americans.

"We were told that before we went over there," the officer told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because a criminal investigation remains open in the case. "They told us half these guys were insurgents. We knew it."

The Pentagon revealed the truth to McCaffrey's parents only this week, nine months after their investigation ended, and only after pressure from Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The Pentagon is hardly above lying in the interests of propaganda or to cover up embarrassing facts. Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman come immediately to mind. But covering up the truth behind the deaths of McCaffrey and Tyson is not just shameful, it is yet another attempt to keep Americans unaware of how badly things are going in Iraq.

Update: From Common Dreams:

A month before he died, Patrick [McCaffrey] told his father that Iraqi forces they were training had attacked his unit. When he filed a complaint with his chain of command, Patrick "was told to keep his mouth shut," his mother said.

This is becoming a particularly ugly story in this indefensible occupation.