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SNIPPET: "Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is currently the Director of the Mapping Sharia Project and the Owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing..." SNIPPET: "Below is a sampling of the results of the interrogations agents and I obtained: I have the documents, photographs, and contact information of Iraqis and U.S. personnel who were also aware. Anything I write or speak about can be verified. Simply ask VP Biden and our President to release the complete intelligence reports my team and I wrote in 2003. 1. When...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war whose 2003 rescue in Iraq made her an instant celebrity, is pregnant. She and boyfriend Wes Robinson are expecting their first child in January, publicist Aly Goodwin Gregg said Thursday.

EL PASO (AP) - Former POW Shoshana Johnson has signed a deal to write a book about her life and 22 days of captivity after a deadly ambush in the early days of the Iraq war. Johnson, a former U.S. Army specialist with the Fort Bliss-based 507th Maintenance Co., will write "One Wrong Turn" with Paul T. Brown for Dafina Books. The single mother was one of five soldiers captured in the March 23, 2003, ambush that killed nine others in her unit. She suffered injuries to her feet in the attack and has since left the Army with a...

Three years after her capture and dramatic nighttime rescue in the early days of the Iraq war made her an instant celebrity, Jessica Lynch yearns for the ordinary. She's just finished her first year at West Virginia University, where she's become an anonymous college student on a campus of thousands. "I think people recognize who I am; they just don't make it obvious," Lynch, 23, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "That's good for me because it gives me the opportunity to blend in and not stick out and really experience the college life just like they...

ATROCITIES AGAINST AMERICANS 2/6/2004 3:10:00 PM What Really Happened After the Ambush? A new development in the story of former POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch should give pause to anyone who promotes the assignment of female soldiers in or near direct ground combat units. In the fall of 2003 American doctors who examined Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch after her rescue from Iraq confirmed that she had been brutally sodomized by Iraqi thugs. The abuse reportedly occurred shortly after the violent ambush of the 507th Maintenance Unit on March 23, 2003, during a three to four hour period when Lynch was unconscious....

<p>SALEM, Ore. -- A soldier caught up in the same ambush as former POW Jessica Lynch was not killed in action but captured by Iraqi fighters and then executed, officials said.</p> <p>"He was executed -- shot twice in the back," Maj. Arnold Strong, a National Guard spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "An Iraqi ambulance driver witnessed six Fedayeen rebels standing outside a building guarding him while he was still alive. That same witness evacuated his dead body to a hospital."</p>

08:09 PM PDT on Thursday, May 27, 2004 By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff SALEM – Sgt. Donald Walters was captured then killed by his Iraqi captors after his U.S. Army convoy took a wrong turn into the town of Nasiriyah during the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A photo of U.S. Army Sgt. Donald Walters of Salem, which was on display during a past memorial ceremony. (AP Photo) Walters, a Salem man who was thought to have been killed in action and posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his valor in combat, is now considered a prisoner...

PORTLAND, Ore. - A soldier initially listed as killed in action while riding in the same doomed convoy as former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch actually had been captured by Iraqi fighters before he was killed, the Oregon National Guard said Thursday. More than a year after the March 23, 2003, ambush, the military released new details to the family of Sgt. Donald Walters of Salem, Ore. Walters "was held separately from his fellow soldiers and killed while in custody," according to a news release from the National Guard. "He was executed — shot twice in the back," Guard spokesman...

Ex-POW wanted private meeting with Iraqi lawyerFormer POW Jessica Lynch has met the Iraqi lawyer who helped lead American soldiers to the Army supply clerk after her capture last spring. The meeting with Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief took place earlier this month in Washington, D.C., where Lynch was speaking at a seminar. "It was a wonderful meeting and I can never control my emotion," said al-Rehaief, who is in Huntington for a Saturday book signing. Al-Rehaief said Lynch was grateful for his part in her rescue. "She tell me ‘thank you,' and she say ‘thank you very much for what you...

8 Bodies Found in Raid Were U.S. Soldiers .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight of the bodies found during the rescue of an American POW in Iraq this week were members of her ambushed Army maintenance unit, the Pentagon announced Saturday. The eight soldiers were with Pfc. Jessica Lynch when their unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. The U.S. commandos who freed Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah this week also found 11 bodies, nine of which were believed to be those of Americans. The nine bodies had been returned to a...

SMITHVILLE LAKE, Mo. -- Family and friends honored a fallen soldier Tuesday. Sgt. Don Walters died exactly one year ago Tuesday in an ambush in Iraq. It was the same ambush where Jessica Lynch was captured. Tuesday, friends and family planted a red maple leaf tree at Smithville Lake to honor Walters. The family recently learned that the military would honor Walters with a silver star for his bravery during the ambush.

CENTER POINT, Texas (Reuters) - At a ceremony on Tuesday marking the one-year anniversary of the Iraqi attack on Pvt. Jessica Lynch's Army unit, the widow of a soldier who died in the fight blasted President Bush (news - web sites) for "lying to America" to justify the Iraq (news - web sites) war. In bitter comments beside the grave of Army Specialist James Kiehl, widow Jill Kiehl accused Bush of fabricating reasons to launch the invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). "The evidence that's starting to come out now feels like he (Bush) was...

Too Many Medals? Michael Moran for MSNBC For 1st Lt. John O. Merrill, the fateful moment came in the skies over Mayen, Germany in February 1945, when he continued to fly his burning, flak-riddled B-26 bomber until all of his crew could bail out. Capt. Ernie Arzabal's setting was different -- Vietnam, 1970 -- but the story familiar. Flying a light observation helicopter, Arzabal repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to rescue wounded American troops. These actions earned both men the Distinguished Flying Cross, a decoration given to a relative handful of soldiers since Charles Lindbergh won the...

NEW YORK -- Nearly a year after being shot and taken prisoner in Iraq, former Army specialist Shoshana Johnson said the 22 days she spent in captivity do not make her a hero. "I'm a survivor, not a hero," Johnson told Essence magazine in its March issue. "The heroes are the soldiers who paid the ultimate price and the Marines who risked their lives to rescue us. ... They took a chance and because they did, I'm here." Johnson, 31, of El Paso, Texas, was a cook for the 507th Maintenance Company when it was ambushed in March 2003. She...

A new development in the story of former POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch should give pause to anyone who promotes the assignment of female soldiers in or near direct ground combat units. In the fall of 2003 American doctors who examined Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch after her rescue from Iraq confirmed that she had been brutally sodomized by Iraqi thugs. The abuse reportedly occurred shortly after the violent ambush of the 507th Maintenance Unit on March 23, 2003, during a three to four hour period when Lynch was unconscious. (See “Jessica Lynch Reality Shatters Amazon Myths”) On March 23, 2003, Al...

Former POW, Shoshana Johnson, Visits Philadelphia Johnson Shot In Ankles During Captivity 4:36 PM EST January 9, 2004PHILADELPHIA -- Former prisoner of war, Shoshana Johnson spent more than three weeks being held in Iraq. Friday, she visited Philadelphia and NBC 10 reporter Joe Vasquez got a chance to talk to her about her ordeal and life after the Army."I'm doing OK. I have a lot of support from my family," Johnson told NBC 10 News.Johnson is still recovering after being shot in both ankles in Iraq. "I still have problems with my legs. I use a cane once in a...

After forcing myself to read Jessica Lynch's book I've come to the conclusion that this country needs to have a talk -- an honest, no holds barred, to-heck-with-brain-numbing-political correctness, talk with itself. Do women belong in combat situations or not? Are we going to engage in an emotional orgy every time a woman soldier gets captured or not? Is a female soldier's life more precious than a man's or not? Jessica Lynch seems like a nice enough girl and she has suffered horribly but she's not a heroine as she herself has stated. She was thrown into a hideous situation...

I recently appeared on the November 11, 2003 episode of the Montel Williams show. The program featured guests who had lost loved ones in the war in Iraq. One of the guests, Kathy Dowdy, recalled hearing that her husband, 1st Sgt. Robert Dowdy, had been killed: "They found 11 shallow graves. One of the bodies was my husband. He was a first sergeant of 507th Main--Maintenance Unit. Couldn't ask for a better husband. Gave up his life for us. He took somebody else's place going to Iraq. He wasn't supposed to go to Kuwait at all," recalled Dowdy, tears streaming...

It was an easy story to write: Wholesome 19-year-old from rural West Virginia dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher but, in a brutal early twist of the Iraq war, becomes the Barbie doll symbol of the new American veteran. U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, now 20, was frail, heroic, patriotic, blonde. She was a victim rescued on dramatic video, so print, broadcast and online journalists ate up her capture and rescue like hyenas. In the process, they skipped a story that wasn't as easy to write: a married, African-American mother of a toddler, an immigrant from Panama living in Texas,...

Patrick Miller's Untold Story Susan Peters Private First Class Patrick Miller received the Silver Star and Purple Heart last spring. Now the military is recognizing the bravery of the soldier from Valley Center. When most of Kansas first heard about Patrick Miller, it was through the lens of an Iraqi TV camera, just one day after being taken as a prisoner of war. Minutes before his capture the 23-year-old father of two had just performed what some are calling the bravest act of the war. "The way the unit was designed and set up, we were supposed to be toward...

SILVER CITY -- There were no emotional tears shed, only a well-known ear-to-ear smile from former prisoner of war Cpl. Joseph Hudson when he was reunited Monday afternoon with two of the Marines who rescued him from captivity. "I'm just ecstatic," Hudson said with enthusiasm. "It's really awesome. These are my two heroes standing next to me." Hudson, Sgt. Sam Overton and Lance Cpl. Curney Russell, dressed in their Class A uniforms, solidified their friendship during Silver City's 30th annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball. The Marine Corps turned 228 years old Monday. Hudson first met Overton and Russell on April...

Jessica Lynch on now until 10 PM CST....good interview

<p>Nov. 17 issue — The Jessica Lynch blitz isn’t a feel-good celebration for everyone. Lynch miraculously survived the ambush on the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company. First Sgt. Robert Dowdy—scarcely a household name—was killed riding in the military vehicle along with her. His 14-year-old daughter, Kristy, swallows hard at the constant mentions of Jessica’s battle. “Don’t they know it was Dad’s Humvee?” she says. “Don’t they know it was Dad doing stuff?”</p>

Pfc. Patrick Miller stood his ground in battle with a malfunctioning weapon, feeding bullets into it by hand to protect two wounded comrades. Even after he was captured, he foiled his captors' attempts to get his radio frequency codes. For such actions, recounted in a release by the U.S. Army, Miller, a Valley Center native, was awarded the Silver Star -- the third-highest military award for heroism in combat. Miller, 23, also received a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals July 2 during an Independence Day celebration at Fort Bliss, Texas. "I'm not real worried about awards," Miller said...

Three Of Jessica Lynch's rescuers are dead. Also a member of the 507th Maintenance Company killed himself. July 7, Josh Speer (AP) A U.S. Marine who was part of the unit that helped rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch died in a car crash on his first weekend home since returning from Iraq.Link to story August 23, David M. Tapper Killed in Afghanistan, the Navy SEAL was part of the Iraq team that rescued POW Jessica Lynch. Tapper, 32, died there Wednesday while conducting combat operations in a lawless province near the Pakistani border - an area where the military believes...

FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Pfc. Jessica Lynch is the celebrity soldier of the Iraq war. Pfc. Patrick Miller, a member of the same company captured with her in a ferocious firefight, remains one of its unsung heroes. Lynch, Miller and others in their convoy mistakenly drove into the vipers' nest of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, early on a March morning and were encircled by Iraqi fighters. In the ensuing swirl of chaos and shouting, wrong turns and unrelenting fire, Lynch's Humvee crashed, and she lay unconscious among her dead and dying comrades. It was Miller, a 23-year-old Army welder from...

Iraq: During one of the war's bloodiest battles, a young private saved fellow soldiers and then kept cool amid weeks of captivity. His name is Patrick Miller. FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Pfc. Jessica Lynch is the celebrity soldier of the Iraq war. Pfc. Patrick Miller, a member of the same company captured with her in a ferocious firefight, remains one of its unsung heroes.

<p>Shoshana Johnson deserves a lot more attention than she is getting. Three days ago, Johnson, an Army specialist who was shot in both legs during the firefight in Iraq that made another female soldier in her unit famous, was honored in Chicago by the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.</p>

507th weapon records gone Laura Cruz El Paso Times The ambush Killed # Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, El Paso. # Chief Warrant Officer 2 Johnny Villareal Mata, Pecos. # Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, Roswell, Ga. # Pfc. Howard Johnson II, Mobile, Ala. # Spc. James Kiehl, Comfort, Texas. # Pvt. Brandon Sloan, Bedford Heights, Ohio. # Pfc. Lori Piestewa, Tuba City, Ariz. # Sgt. Donald R. Walters, Salem, Ore. # Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, Cleveland. # Pfc. Edward Anguiano of the 3rd Forward Support Battalion. # Sgt. George Buggs of the 3rd Forward Support Battalion. Captured # Spc. Edgar Hernandez,...

The story of PFC Jessica Lynch in Iraq has revived the long dormant custom of training non-combat troops to defend themselves in battle. This was because, for the first time in many years, American army non-combat troops found themselves under fire during the Iraq campaign. Over the last twenty years, combat training for non-combat army troops has declined. Since 1978, U.S. Army basic training for men and women has been combined. This has led to a steady lowering of basic training standards so that the women can keep up. When basic training was all-male, it was pretty rugged, the idea...

FORT MONROE, Va., Sept. 4 — The Army is looking to instill the fighting spirit in some unlikely combatants — its cooks, mechanics and other support troops who are normally far from the front lines. Unlike the Marine Corps, whose credo is that every marine is first and foremost a rifleman, the Army has too many soldiers who have lost touch with their inner warrior, said Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, the Army's top training general. And, he said, it is time the Army borrowed a lesson from the Marines. "We've become too specialized," said General Byrnes, the head of Training...

<p>September 5, 2003 -- The father of a soldier killed in the ambush in Iraq that Pvt. Jessica Lynch survived is furious she's getting a $1 million book deal.</p> <p>"I don't have a problem about her writing about her life, but when it involves not only my son, but of the others injured, wounded or killed, why should one person make money over the deaths of other people?" said Randy Kiehl, the father of Army Spc. James Kiehl, who was killed in action.</p>

Slain Soldier's Father Criticizes Lynch's Book Deal Kiehl Says Lynch Is 'A Profiteer' POSTED: 9:02 AM CDT September 4, 2003 COMFORT, Texas -- The father of a Comfort soldier killed in an ambush in Iraq that former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch survived said that Lynch's million-dollar book deal will taint the memory of the soldiers killed in the ambush. "Pretty severe, isn't it?" Randy Kiehl (pictured, left), the father of Army Spc. James Kiehl, said in an exclusive interview with KSAT 12 News Wednesday from his home in Comfort. "That she makes money off the death of my...

SAVING JESSICA LYNCH (NBC) - Benjamin King ("S.W.A.T.") has joined the cast of the upcoming Peacock telefilm. He will play 38-year-old Master Sgt. Robert James Dowdy, who, like Lynch, was with the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co. based out of Fort Bliss, Texas. Dowdy was one of the soldiers who died when their convoy was ambushed March 23.

The mass media's excessive fawning over Jessica Lynch and the other POW's from the second Gulf War is starting to have an effect on other soldiers, particularly those in the combat arms (infantry, armor, artillery, cavalry). Maintenance units, and other combat support units, such as the one ambushed by the Iraqis when Lynch and the others were captured, are notorious for their poor soldier skills, such as weapons maintenance, map reading, fire discipline, and 'combat driving.' The main reason these skills are not as well-developed in these support units is that for years the attitude of the soldiers has been...

<p>The American occupation authority in Iraq will equip the country's new army and police forces with Russian-design AK-47 assault rifles, officials said Friday.</p> <p>Bidding closed Friday for a contract to buy 34,000 of the rifles.</p> <p>The purchased weapons will supplement thousands of AK-47s seized in raids and other operations since the war started in Iraq in March.</p>

First time account from our soldiers themselves!

<p>Spc. Shoshanna Johnson took the attention in stride Sunday, chatting with well-wishers who asked her to sign autographs or to pose for photographs.</p> <p>A 30-year-old cook from El Paso, Texas, Johnson gained unwanted fame when she and seven soldiers in her unit, the 507th Maintenance Company out of Fort Bliss, Texas, were captured March 23 when their convoy was ambushed by Iraqis at Nasiriyah. Ten of her fellow soldiers were killed.</p>

By Gray Beverley Telegraph Staff Writer LIZELLA - About three days before Pfc. Jessica Lynch returned home to her family in West Virginia, one of her rescuers was visiting his parents in Lizella. Lt. Col. Jean Malone - who got back from the war about a month ago - said he was surprised by the attention given to the rescue operation, which he helped coordinate as deputy operations chief for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. "It's kind of surprising for me," Malone said Tuesday from his Camp Lejeune, N.C., home. "We didn't realize it was that big of a deal."...

Lynch Receives Bronze Star Before Homecoming Pfc. Jessica Lynch is returning home Tuesday, newly decorated for heroism in Iraq. A member of Ft. Bliss' 507th Maintenance Company, Lynch was captured during the attack on a portion of the unit in Nasiriyah, Iraq on March 23rd. She was rescued from captivity on April 1st. On Monday, Pfc. Lynch received the Bronze Star for heroism, Purple Heart for being wounded in combat, and P.O.W. Medal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she has been treated for more than three months. KFOX will have a full report on Private Lynch's homecoming Tuesday...

<p>HUNTINGTON -- A Salem, Ore., mother believes her slain 33-year-old son, a U.S. Army sergeant serving in Iraq, was mistaken for Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch during the ambush in which she was injured.</p> <p>The Washington Post initially reported Lynch, a Palestine, W.Va. native, emptied two pistols during a fierce gun battle with Iraqi fighters on March 23 and was shot and stabbed before she was captured.</p>

Jessica Lynch just arrived in her home town...

Jessica Lynch Awarded Bronze StarLynch Gets Medals Ahead of Homecoming ELIZABETH, W.Va. - Former POW Jessica Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Washington Monday as she prepares for her homecoming. Lynch, who returns to the hills of West Virigina Tuesday, also received Prisoner of War medals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The Bronze Star is given for meritorious combat service, a Purple Heart is most often awarded to those wounded in combat, and the POW for being held captive during wartime. "The Purple Heart ... was not necessarily about being wounded or injured...

SFTT Editors Analyze the An Nasiriyah Ambush Report Editor’s Note: Presented here are some interim assessments of the Army’s investigation into the ambush of the 507 Maintenance Company in Iraq on March 23, 2003, that left the unit devastated, with 11 soldiers killed and another seven taken prisoner. As additional contributors analyze the document, their conclusions will be added here. Details of Report Point to Leadership Failures, by Roger Moore 507th Soldiers Were Not Combat-Ready, by Paul Connors Army Report on 507th Is Just a Beginning, by Ray Perry Study Army Land Navigation Training, by Andrea West Questions Still Need...

Army releases findings from 507th ambush By Staff Sgt. Marcia TriggsJuly 17, 2003 WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 17, 2003) - The Army released a 15-page report today stating that members of the 507th Maintenance Company fought the best they could in Iraq until there was no longer a means to resist. Elements of the Fort Bliss maintenance company became an American interest when a navigational error caused them to come under attack March 23 in the city of An Nasiriyah. The report states that of the 33 soldiers in the 18-vehicle convoy, six soldiers returned fire while moving...

<p>A commander's map-reading mistake, acute fatigue and a harsh desert environment combined to imperil the 507th Maintenance Company in a fierce Iraqi ambush that killed 11 soldiers and produced the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the Army says in a report.</p>

Several soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company could not defend themselves or their comrades March 23 because their weapons malfunctioned while they sustained a lengthy fire attack by Iraqis near Nasiriyah, Iraq, according to a U.S. Army report on the ambush. The weapons that jammed or otherwise failed included a M-249 machine gun called a SAW (squad automatic weapon), a .50 caliber machine gun, as well as several M-16 rifles. The M-16 is the Army's standard issue weapon. The report is not conclusive about why up to three different kinds of weapons failed and suggests that the "malfunctions may have...

All the details of the 507th Maintenance Company element's desperate, bloody battle near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on March 23 may never be known. But a report released this week by Army investigators raises some serious questions that demand answers, because soldiers' lives could depend on them. One of the most serious questions is about the condition of the 507th's weapons. An executive summary of the Army report says that while the 507th was at Camp Virginia, a staging area in Kuwait, soldiers "... conducted additional training and preparations at Camp Virginia that included ... weapons and vehicle maintenance."...

The families of at least three of the soldiers who died in the March 23 ambush of Fort Bliss' 507th Maintenance Company said they haven't been told the details of their loved one's deaths. But the Army said it has finished telling the families of the fallen soldiers about the attack that claimed nine lives in the Iraqi desert. Randy Kiehl, father of Spc. James Kiehl of Comfort, Texas; Arlene Walters, mother of Sgt. Donald R. Walters of Salem, Ore.; and Roxane Dowdy, sister of Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy of Cleveland, said they are upset with the way the...

<p>A family member of one of the soldiers killed during the Iraq war ambush in which Pfc. Jessica Lynch was captured is frustrated about an official Army report due to be released today.</p> <p>The document, first reported in The Washington Times yesterday, rebutts early press accounts about the March 23 incident in which Pfc. Lynch and other members of the 507th Maintenance Company were ambushed by Iraqi forces.</p>