Fleischer: Rape of POWs 'not worth mentioning'

WorldNetDaily ^ | March 25, 2003 | Les Kinsolving

[Dajjal]

Fleischer: Rape of POWs 'not worth mentioning'

Spokesman fails to address issue of U.S. women held by enemy

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Posted: March 25, 2003
7:10 p.m. Eastern

Editor's note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you'd like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily's exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT!

By Les Kinsolving
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

At today's White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer about the Iraqis' holding of a female United States soldier as a prisoner of war and how it relates to the issue of women in combat.

WND: Ari, one of the U.S. POWs in Iraq is Shoshana Johnson of Texas, while The New York Times this morning reports that Pfc. Jessica Lynch of West Virginia is missing or captured. And during Desert Storm, Maj. Rhonda Cornum was captured and gang-raped, while the other U.S. female prisoner of war would neither confirm or deny that she, too, was gang-raped. And my question, does the president think that the Iraqi army has somehow changed to avoid the raping of female prisoners?

FLEISCHER: Lester –

WND: Or does he believe that it would be wise –

FLEISCHER: Lester –

WND: – to keep the women out of combat areas?

FLEISCHER: The history of our military is that men and women have served this nation honorably and with distinction. The treatment of prisoners by Saddam Hussein is the only point worth mentioning here. It's a given that men and women serve our country with dignity, that Saddam Hussein's regime had better not harm our prisoners. The president has made that clear. … Lester, no follow-up.

The Washington Times reported yesterday that Johnson was the first U.S. female held as a POW since the Clinton administration's military leaders repealed a rule barring servicewomen from positions with a high risk of encountering enemy fire or capture.

"It's bad when a man is captured. But if a woman is captured, she doesn't have the same chance [to defend herself] that a man does," Elaine Donnelly, president of the Military Readiness Center, told the paper.

Said retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, "You must consider that women in every society are preyed upon if they are overtaken. ... Now that women are closer to the front lines, they are more subject to becoming captives and being manipulated."

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Submit a question to the MR. PRESIDENT! forum.

Les Kinsolving is WorldNetDaily’s White House correspondent and a talk-show host for WCBM in Baltimore.

[shadowman99]

>> "The title is MADE UP from whole cloth."

Agreed, which is why I just reported it as abuse.

[Bob J]

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[Petronski]

Les Kinsolving needs a gold watch and a kick in the ass.

Has he no friends who will tell him he is the great fool of the White House press corps?

[MSgt Smith]

All the men and women taken in 91 were raped

[Fury]

The headline, from what I can see, is inaccurate and I believe it's probably deliberate.

One of the reasons I gave up on WND some time ago as a primary news reporting source.

[Cate]

stupid question. The sad fact for POWs, male or female, they are subjected to sexual torture. A class act like Ari would never embarass them or their families by discussing this distasteful fact of war.

[shadowman99]

>> "The title is MADE UP from whole cloth."

In fact, the more I think of this, the more it pisses me off. We need to freep Les Kinsolving for this.

His Email.

[Howlin]

Evidently the "left" is not the only "side" with liars who have access to the media.

[AAABEST]

Talk about scummy behavior.

You're the scumbag, scumbag. It's because of people like you that she's suffering now.

I view the soldier (sister) as a woman who's life is now ruined because of a$$holes who tag along with leftist idiot policy. Like yourself. I find it pathetic for idiot-boys to rain on some reporter who simply questions the fact that this idiot policy (thought up by idiot-boys without a clue) is in place.

Good reporters should be asking why we're doing dumb things. Ef "Ari".

[Cold Heat]

And exactly what does this issue have to do with anything but dredging up a 30 year old argument.

Just how can the modern military keep a woman from being killed or captured or raped and at the same time give them the rights and privileges that they demand.

You figure it out. Most other people are done with this lousy and long ago lost argument.

[rs79bm]

Seems sad that any journalist would stoop to such low levels.

-rs79bm

[RGSpincich]

When you call others "morons" it would be a good idea for you to have your facts straight. The lady in the picture is not captured.

[Catspaw]

Women should be NOWHERE near a combat situation. Though we now live in PC world, with PC jackasses who are afraid to rock the boat. Even if it means the degradation of our military and women suffering permanent and immeasurable harm.

Blah blah blah.

Tell me how that salacious old loon's question going to help the family of Shoshana Johnson or any of the other POWs? How does that stop the memories of Rhonda Cornum from being publicized by Les Kinsolving?

Les is too damn chicken to find the parents of Shoshana Johnson and ask this question to their faces. No, he's got to plant in everyone's memory that Shoshana Johnson is probably going to be sexually brutalized by her Iraqi captors. In fact, Kinsolving probably is getting aroused by the question as I type.

I hope Les is right there when Shoshana Johnson comes home. I want him to ask her to her face if she was raped. And I want it well-publicized because the reaction of the people around her isn't going to be pretty.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Maj. Rhonda Cornum was captured and gang-raped

From everything I've read Cornum has always maintained that she was fondled not gang-raped. Wonder if Lester was working for Hearst when the Maine blew up.

[Lando Lincoln]

I support Ari and the President. There is no point in going over this. It does no one any good.

I agree with you totally. It's enough to say that our troops are being mistreated or brutalized. To follow the rape line of questioning satisfies only our more prurient curiosity and degrades the victim. When male POW's are tortured, more often than not their genatalia are molested or brutalized. Yet, it is safe to say that reporters do not follow that line of questioning.

Lando

[Howlin]

Go right to the top:

Editor and CEO
Joseph Farah
jfarah@worldnetdaily.com

[cynicom]

Headline has no basis in fact, is fictional.

[discostu]

Hey I'm not the one brandishing this woman's picture in a disgusting effort to prove my non-existent point.

Now back to points. Since women in hazardious zones started in WWII do you think Patton was a PC moron?

And here's the saddest part. The woman captured WASN'T in a front line unit, she was in a backup maintentance unit. Asd for leftist idiot policy, my view on women in combat zones comes straight from my mother, a Viet Nam era Marine whom I garauntee can STILL outshoot you, out pummel you, and out drink you. People that have the will and the skill should be on the frontline. As has been pointed out, the gang rapes in Iraq aren't reserved for female prisoners, if we're gonna keep people out of the frontline because somebody might rape them then I guess we need to pull out of Iraq entirely, I'll let you explain to the Iraqi people why we're abandoning them... again.

Les didn't ask why anything. He was just gunning for sensationalistic headlines trying to increase his career by waving around tragic incidents. Not unlike yourself, which I guess is why you support him.

[Mfkmmof4]

I have no admiration for Les as he believes in abortion and feels that it is a fetus up until birth even if the baby is delivered at 9 months of gestation. I recently heard him speak this and was greatly disappointed.