Spin behind Jessica Lynch story?

Hollywood writers could not have imagined a more gripping and rousing story as that of the capture of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the dramatic Special Ops rescue caught on videotape and instigated by an Iraqi lawyer who reportedly put his life on the line for hers. But some question whether elements of the saga are more hype than fact, created to spin the POW's experience to serve political purposes.

An avalanche of movie and book offers flooded the Lynch family days after her April 1 rescue amid a Washington Post report of her defiant stand against the Iraqi soldiers that ambushed her convoy in Nasiriyah on March 23. According to the Post, Lynch "sustained multiple gunshot wounds" and also was stabbed while she "fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers ... firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition." The paper cited an unnamed U.S. military official as saying "she was fighting to the death."

But hours after it hit the newsstands, Col. David Rubenstein, commander of the Army hospital in Germany where Lynch was taken, told reporters medical evidence did "not suggest that any of her wounds were caused by either gunshots or stabbing." Lynch's father echoed that report the following day, telling reporters that Army doctors told him Jessica hadn't been shot, but suffered arm and leg fractures.

More recent reports indicate Lynch suffered a head wound, spinal injury and fractures to her right arm, both legs and her right foot and ankle. She is undergoing occupational and physical therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

The Toronto Star quotes a physician who treated Lynch at the Iraqi hospital as describing her injuries as blunt in nature, possibly stemming from a fall from her vehicle. "She was in pretty bad shape. There was blunt trauma, resulting in compound fractures of the left femur [upper leg] and the right humerus [upper arm.] And also a deep laceration on her head," said Dr. Harith Houssona.

The Post writers couched their report with a cautionary paragraph, which stated that Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation. It said the account was based on "battlefield intelligence" and information from Iraqi sources "whose reliability has yet to be assessed."

Post ombudsman Michael Getler concluded "what really happened is still not clear." He questioned the "thin sourcing" used in the article and suggested portions of it were overblown, in response to critical feedback. The dramatic footage of the Army Rangers and Navy Seals swarming the Nasiriyah hospital and carrying Lynch out on a stretcher provided a proud moment for the military and America. The subsequent surge of patriotism muted the catcalls of the anti-war naysayers.

Military advocate Elaine Donnelly sees another political agenda behind the Post's misinformation. "I think someone in the Army – probably a woman – leaked the story to the Washington Post to spin it," she told WorldNetDaily. "If you plant the story first, it's almost impossible to turn." Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness, is a longtime opponent of allowing women to serve in combat positions. Donnelly suspects "Pentagon feminists," whom she says have actively pursued the advancement of women in the military beyond the dictates of common sense and at the cost of military effectiveness, are behind the unsubstantiated report of Lynch's valor and erroneous report of her injuries. She suspects the Post story was an attempt to tip the long-simmering debate about women in combat in proponents' favor and possibly dampen the potential public outrage over any future reports of torture.

Recent editorials indicate Lynch's ordeal is critical to the debate. A commentator writing in USA Today argued it proves "the time is right to blast through the armored ceiling that keeps women second-class citizens in the military." Another columnist wrote in the Orlando Sentinel that Lynch's story offers conclusive evidence that "women can be as fierce as men."

"I would like to know what happened to those men who were shot right away," Donnelly added, in reference to the nine members of Lynch's unit recovered from a makeshift morgue at the Iraqi hospital with apparent gunshot wounds to their heads.

Donnelly suspects the men may have been trying to protect the women in the company, based on interviews of military servicemen she conducted for a presidential commission in 1992. "Why is nobody asking any questions?" she continues. "Something fishy is going on here."

For its part, the Pentagon says it will not release an account of what happened to the 507th Maintenance Company until debriefings are completed with Lynch and five other company members held captive for three weeks before U.S. Marines rescued them south of Tikrit. Officials are also interviewing soldiers who escaped the ambush.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ducked a question about Lynch's condition. "I believe that's a matter for her doctors and her family and not for us to talk about," he said. Legend precedes reality even for Lynch. The Associated Press reported she told debriefers in Washington she doesn't remember anything between the time her vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and when she regained consciousness at an Iraqi hospital.

Fox News reports her amnesia extends through the duration of her ten days in captivity, and that the Army supply clerk has no memory of the brutality U.S. military officials believe she endured. "She basically has amnesia, and has mentally blocked out the horrible things we strongly believe she went through," one official told Fox.

"These things usually take months – sometimes years – but usually months to eventually clear up," and the patient recovers, Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld said.

Fox reports the military may have the surviving soldiers from her unit visit her to help refresh her memory. Officials say she "has to be brought back to reality," since she may be the last living witness to war crimes in Iraq.

In addition to the issue of how the 20-year-old supply clerk was taken prisoner by Iraqi soldiers, reporting discrepancies raise questions about Lynch's treatment in captivity and her rescue. The Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed Odeh Rehaief, who became an American hero for alerting U.S. military forces to Lynch's presence at the hospital, conducting surveillance of the facility and relaying the information back to coalition troops, reportedly put her safety before his after seeing her being slapped on the face by an Iraqi security officer. The 32-year-old, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter were granted political asylum in the U.S. as reward for his courage. NBC News reported coalition forces were told an American soldier was being tortured at the hospital.

But the treating physicians at the Iraqi public hospital dispute the claims. The medical team interviewed by the Toronto Star said the Iraqi intelligence officers took no interest in her.

As they describe, Lynch was given VIP care, which included extra juice and cookies and the attention of the hospital's "most nurturing" nurse.

"We all became friends with her, we liked her so much," Houssona said. "Especially because we all speak a little English, we were able to assure her the whole time that there was no danger, that she would go home soon."

The Star reports three Nasiriya doctors, two nurses, one hospital administrator and local residents also ridiculed the U.S. military for its clandestine, midnight raid of the hospital to rescue Lynch. They claim Iraqi soldiers and commanders left the hospital two days earlier.

"The night they left, a few of the senior medical staff tried to give Jessica back," said Houssona. "We carefully moved her out of intensive care and into an ambulance and began to drive to the Americans, who were just one kilometer away. But when the ambulance got within 300 metres, they began to shoot. There wasn't even a chance to tell them 'We have Jessica. Take her.'" The next night, the sound of helicopters circling the hospital's upper floors sent staff scurrying for the x-ray department, the only windowless area in the complex. As the rescue unfolded, the power was cut and the forces blasted through locked doors.

"We were pretty frightened," Dr. Anmar Uday told the paper. "Everyone expected the Americans to come that day because the city had fallen. But we didn't expect them to blast through the doors like a Hollywood movie."

"They made a big show," Haitham Gizzy, another physician told the Charleston Daily Mail, the local paper from Lynch's hometown of Palestine, W. Va. "It was just a drama. A big, dramatic show."

Gizzy and other doctors said most of the Saddam's Fedayeen fighters, and the entire Baath Party leadership had come to the hospital earlier in the day, changed into civilian clothes and fled. "They brought their civilian wear with them," said Mokhdad Abd Hassan, pointing to green army uniforms piled on the lawn. "They all ran away, the same day."

She is an American soldier. She suffered severe injuries during an ambush and possibly afterwards in captivity.

There is no need to spin this pro or con women in the military. She deserves, as all our soldiers deserve, our gratitude for serving, and she does not deserve to be used by anyone (pro or con) with an axe to grind or copy space to fill.

See here for some early suspicions about the stories.

If the report that several male soldiers died trying to protect her and the other women in the group, then the women may have "survivor's syndrome".

At what point does chivalry interfere with the mission? Some military think tanks would have done a lot of studies on this, yes? Or would such studies have been ruled out as sexist from the get-go and never performed? If studies were performed, one wonders, did they extend to dealing with new variations of post trauma stress that gender-integrated armed forces might incur?

She is an American soldier. She suffered severe injuries during an ambush and possibly afterwards in captivity.

And selective amnesia is very likely for not being able to cope with the trauma she endured. The memories could kill her.

She was left for dead. I think her injuries and things done to her are much worse than reported at all! I have feared from the beginning her 'back spinal injury' may have left her paralised and we should not diminish what she has gone through.

This woman is echoing what I said in the first days of the incident..

Simply by surviving, Jessica done good. She deserves recognition for that fact. BUT, we now know she was not shot or stabbed. I can't imagine that anyone would report she had been both shot and stabbed unless that person had an agenda. This leads one to strongly question the claims that she kept killing Iraqis until she ran out of ammo.
Another point, even when the report came out that she had fought to the last bullet, I was quite disturbed. There are 3 possibilities why she was the lone survivor. 1, a combo of skill and luck (probably more luck since she was a supply clerk) 2, the Iraqis saw blonde hair and decided they were taking her alive for the obvious reasons 3, the men with her died protecting her, forgeting their training when their biological instincts kicked in to protect the young woman.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/885012/posts?page=77#77

So the WorldNetDaily and the Center for Military Readiness aren't spinning the story either?
I agree it was irresponsible of the Pentagon sources to feed the WP an unsubtantiated story of heroics, which if it turned out to be untrue would inevitably cause people to disrespect Pfc Lynch through no fault of her own.
Just a point about the doctors stories; where the Toronto Star refers to "intelligence agents" it's clear from the article that they are referring to the central command in Baghdad, not the local Fedayeen.
I think this brave young woman should be allowed to recover in peace without being used as an example to support any political position.

The author is accusing others of what they are doing, printing what happened without knowing what happened and drawing conclusions to fit their agenda. Much of what is supposedly attributed to her was from others, yet she is being pilloried as a liar. That is shameful.

I do not want women in combat, but the article is offensive.

I wish the press would just leave her alone.

She's gone through a hideous experience, has had multiple injuries and surgeries from which she's still recovering, and people want to make her into a Poster Child for their own agendas.

I'm just happy she's safe and on the long road to recovery.

Just serving in the war was dramatic. Being captured by enemy forces is dramatic. Being held in a rat hole cell in a foreign land is dramatic. Being injured is dramatic. Being rescued by special forces is most dramatic and joyous. Where are these people coming from?
Too much hype? If you want hype, watch the loser democrats running for president!!

From falling from a vehicle?, was she standing

If the vehicle was moving when she panicked and jumped her efforts could have killed her.

Yes, you may number me among the skeptics of WOMEN IN COMBAT.

At this point the Pentagon has a pretty good idea of what happened and the fact they refuse to discuss it does not bode well for the gender neutral military concept.

Best regards,

"...yet she is being pilloried as a liar."

There in lies the problem with the forces of the media, Hollywood and public opinion. I don't ever recall hearing a word from PFC Lynch on this matter. The media and Hollywood seem to be writing the script and public opinion is running with it.

Maybe PFC Lynch is feigning amnesia because she's too embarrassed to admit she fell out of the truck when it hit a bump, they had to stop the convoy to pick her up and were subsequently attacked as they fell behind?

Hey, who's to say? The only people that know what happened are not talking or can't talk anymore. If you have a quote from the poor girl, please link us to it.

Gizzy and other doctors said most of the Saddam's Fedayeen fighters, and the entire Baath Party leadership had come to the hospital earlier in the day, changed into civilian clothes and fled

Did this guy just say criticize the Americans for "blasting through the doors like a Hollywood movie" because the Iraqis had laft the hospital TWO DAYS earlier? I guess he's making a distinction between Iraqi soldiers and Baath party leadership and Fedayeen Sadaam. I personally see no difference. If they were there earlier in the day, then American intelligence WAS right, and the rescue was necessary.

I didn't believe all the overblown stuff in the original article anyway. From whom would they have gotten that information? I suspect, as Elaine Donnelly said, it was put out by someone trying to solidify womens' place in combat roles. As the truth comes out, I believe that fervor will be gone. Thank God that Bush is President right now. If it had been a Democrat, they'd have already pushed through the changes making it policy, because Lynch supposedly fought 'as fierce as any man'.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT criticizing Pvt. Lynch. She has become a pawn in this fight. She and her family, as far as I can tell, have acted with complete honor in this. It is the feminists behind the scenes with whom I have MY beef!

"BUT, we now know she was not shot or stabbed."

No, we don't know that.

A subsequent medical briefing (after the April 4th article you quoted) said the open fractures in her arm and leg may have been caused by gunshots.

Maybe the author of this piece should ask this woman if there's an "armored ceiling" in the military. (Yes those are 3 stars on her epaulets)

Lt General Leslie F. Kenne,
AF Deputy Chief of Staff for Warfighting Integration.

She and her family, as far as I can tell, have acted with complete honor in this. It is the feminists behind the scenes with whom I have MY beef!

She and her family act like they'd like to be left alone --- the feminists ought to find someone else. Maybe Hillary can fight in the next war and be a ferocious hero.

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