Iraq TV Shot Tape of POWs Lynch, Piestewa

Associated Press ^ | 12/30/03

[saquin]

NEW YORK - Graphic video footage of a badly injured Jessica Lynch and Lori Piestewa, who may have died shortly afterward, was taken by Iraqi state television following the ambush of the soldiers' Army convoy, NBC reported Tuesday night.

The video, aired on "NBC Nightly News," shows the two Army privates at the hospital where they were taken following the March 23 ambush of the 507th Maintenance Co.

The tape was never aired in Iraq, NBC reported.

Piestewa, her face swollen and bruised and her head loosely bandaged, is shown as someone positions her feet, and then her head, for the camera shot. Her lip is shown curling back in an apparent grimace.

Lynch, 20, of Palestine, W.Va., is also shown bandaged, her lip cut.

Neither appears awake or alert.

"I haven't watched it," Piestewa's mother, Percy Piestewa, said when contacted by The Associated Press. "I don't want to talk to any reporters right now."

Telephone messages left with two spokespeople for Lynch's family were not immediately returned.

Iraqi doctors have previously said the women were brought to a private clinic following the ambush, and that Piestewa, a 23-year-old mother of two from Tuba City, Ariz., died half an hour later of severe head injuries.

Lynch and four other soldiers were rescued by U.S. special forces April 1, but 11 of their colleagues died during and after the ambush in Nasiriyeh.

Piestewa was the first U.S. female service member to die in the war.

The identities of Lynch and Piestewa were verified for NBC by Spec. Shoshana Johnson, one of the rescued soldiers.

"It was a little shocking to see Lori, but it also gave me a little peace to know that they tried, they did their best for her," Johnson, 30, of El Paso, Texas, told the network. "I mean, it was obvious they tried to bandage her up and give her medical care."

NBC told the Army it had obtained the tape before airing it so the families of the soldiers could be told first, according to MSNBC.com.

Defense Department spokesman Jim Turner said Tuesday night officials were aware of the Iraqi video, but had not seen it and did not have details about what it contained.

The United States repeatedly bombed Iraqi TV studios after they aired interviews with American prisoners of war. But this tape survived because an employee at the state network kept it at home, NBC reported.

[Kirkwood]

Yes, that sounded like agonal breathing to me as well, which means she probably died before the cameraman even left the room.

[Kirkwood]

I may be wrong because I only saw the tape once and I don't care to see it again. But this was not standard US military compression bandaging. Dressings were held on by adhesive tape, which is not the correct method for these types of wounds, and I don't believe adhesive tape is even in military first aid field kits. Adhesive tape is never used in tactical medicine and I teach this course to professional rescuers.

[Kirkwood]

I think yes, but it is hard to say with certainty since the tape was so short.

This is the kind of breathing I demonstrate to teach rescuers when a person is dying and not likely to be revived.

[SkyPilot]

This is the kind of breathing I demonstrate to teach rescuers when a person is dying and not likely to be revived.

Thank you for your professional medical opinion. I have spoken with US military interpreters who have returned from Iraq. They mentioned that Iraqis that were involved with the regime in any fashion these days are very quick to say: "It was ALL Saddam--we were forced to do these things." While not a war crime, this tape is at least evidence of medical incompetance, and worse---postioning a dying patient for a propaganda video.

I am 100% certain the tape would have aired on Al Jazziera (sp?) and/or media hostile to the US / Anglo cause had it not depicted the Iraqis in a bad light. We can make fun of Baghdad Bob as a raving clown, but the propaganda ministers in Iraq new good propaganda when they saw it.

Video of a dying US female soldier gasping for breath in agony was probably deemed "not helpful."

[Kirkwood]

I do want to add that it is possible that the Iraqis didn't have the correct supplies at their hospital for the appropriate dressings, cervical collars, splints, etc. I know that seems unlikely, but it is possible. However, I think medical professionals should have done a much better job even if conditions were spartan and supplies limited. Also as another freeper said, the docs possibly had no training in emergency medicine. Or maybe the docs weren't even around to try to patch these soldiers up for the cameras, but someone with no training at all. Maybe it was not the docs moving the victims, but someone else who was just there to assist the cameramen. It is hard to know what exactly was going on.

[jaykay]

Wow, look how well the Iraqis treated our injured and dying POWs. Jerking their wouded heads around by the hair to get them into position to film for their agitprop videos. Not to mention what they must have done to them for their conditions to be such as it was.
Where are the "usual suspects" now? No comments form them in this thread. I guess they conveniently "won't find" this story, even though it's a Drudge headliner.

[jaykay]

"We Iraqis took excellent care of Jessica Lynch. We examined her very thoroughly and found no sign of rape. We gave the finest medical care." - Comical Ali

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

May Lori's spirit live on through her children!

God bless the Piestewa family. This must be beyond excruciating to watch.

[BykrBayb]

I saw the tapes. I'm sorry if you didn't catch my point. I cast no aspersions and honor all veterans. I would not let women fight until the last battle when no more men can answer the call. Call me what you will.

You do not honor all veterans by casting aspersions on the female vets. You dishonor all vets by suggesting that nothing they do is of value. Their entire value as a soldier depends on their genitalia. That's a ridiculous notion. Thank God the Pentagon doesn't agree, or all awards would be given based on penis size.

[milemark]

I almost want to ping the bunch who jumped into bed with the Iraqis who said they treated our POWs well, gave Lynch and Piestewa excellent care, examined Lynch carefully and found no sign of rape, etc...

But then I'd have to go back through the shamefull Lynch bashing threads, since I don't remember most of their IDs.

Besides, I can do without yet another Kick Jessica thread in 2003. You know they would turn this into just that. I can see it now: "How dare Jessica hog our tv screens like this! The nerve of her making the poor Iraqis film her like that! And on and on....

[texasflower]

Are you talking about her not seeing the Iraqi LAWYER that gave information to our forces?

If so, he had nothing to do with her medical treatment. I don't understand her snubbing him. Bad manners in my opinion.

[Dog]

So much for the news stories that the Iraqis gave Lynch great medical care.

NBC really goofed airing this baby....this one will tar them.

[texasflower]

It looked to me like she may have had a more serious head injury than that bandage shows. The right sided head injury with what might have been reflexive leg movement on the left and the breathing like that look like a head trauma response. Do you think that could be it?

Obviously she has other injuries too, but I think it's primarily head trauma.

If so, at least she wouldn't have had to be aware of what they were doing to her. At least I hope she wasn't aware.

May God bless her family as they go on without her.

[jaykay]

Are you talking about her not seeing the Iraqi LAWYER that gave information to our forces?

If so, he had nothing to do with her medical treatment. I don't understand her snubbing him. Bad manners in my opinion.

---

She did not snub him. That implies that he went to her hometown for the express purpose of seeing her and was turned away. In fact, he went there to visit a group of people who had invited him.

You don't understand? You don't understand why someone who doesn't remember 3 hours of her life in which horrible things happened to her including what she has been told by U.S. Army doctors was a sodomizing rape might be hesitant about meeting someone whose face and voice may bring back memories of horrors she would rather not face?

From: http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003103041 -

"Jessica Lynch is a young soldier living with horrible injuries and memories. Meeting Mohammed al-Rehaief, her Iraqi rescuer, would bring back many feelings and thoughts.

"Jessica's mother had sent word just days before Mohammad and his family arrived that Jessica was 'not ready.' Mohammed understood this, but chose to go ahead and come to West Virginia and keep his planned meetings with West Virginians.

"Mohammed and his family asked that we be patient with Jessica Lynch while she heals. He understands that her family must protect and support her at this time." - snip

If he knew in advance that she would not be meeting him, but he went anyway, he was not snubbed. He went to meet with others. If he is not impatient with her, why are you?

[neverdem]

I thank you for your service. I regret I wasn't eloquent enough for you to appreciate what I was trying to say. This is a world where the killers of Daniel Pearl still walk free. Happy New Year!!!

[WhiteGuy]

The Iraqi's are a worthless bunch.

Exploiting wounded soldiers is reprehensible.

Maybe The bush administration should spend another 10 Billion of our money building better TV stations in Iraq.

That would show'em

[cars for sale]

yes he did...or at least he Said and Jessica did not even remember him...

[texasflower]

WOW. Try cutting back on the caffeine.

I was not aware that he had been told that she wasn't ready. I stand corrected.