Ins0mniac
09-11-2003, 04:24 AM
Former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch accused the military of using her capture and dramatic nighttime rescue to sway public support for the war in Iraq.
Dramatic video of U.S. commandos whisking the former Army supply clerk from a Nasiriyah hospital to a waiting chopper April 1 helped cement Lynch's image as a hero. But the private told ABC's Diane Sawyer there was no reason for her rescue to be filmed.
"They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff," Lynch, 20, told Sawyer in a "Primetime" interview to air Tuesday. "It's wrong." The network posted the excerpt on its Web site Friday.
Lynch suffered broken bones and other injuries when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was attacked after taking a wrong turn in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah on March 23.
Early reports had Lynch fighting her attackers until she ran out of ammunition and suffering knife and bullet wounds. Military officials later said Lynch wasn't shot, but was hurt after her Humvee utility vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle.
On Thursday, Lynch won admiration in her hometown for having the courage to reveal she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
The attack is documented by medical records cited in "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story." The authorized biography, written by reporter Rick Bragg, is being released by Knopf publishing on Tuesday, Veterans Day. It is unclear if the book cites American or Iraqi records.
Family spokesman Stephen Goodwin acknowledged that the book discusses the sexual assault. "It's important to tell the story and let it be known, but she's not going to talk about it anymore," Goodwin said.
Lynch said she has no memory of the assault. Iraqi doctors who treated Lynch dismissed on Friday claims that she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital, performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she was raped or sodomized.
Khafazji said Lynch was taken first to the Military Hospital, a few hundred yards from the ambush site at around 8 a.m., about an hour after the attack. A few hours later, she was brought to his hospital.
Dr. Jamal al-Saeidi, a brigadier general and head of the orthopedic department at the now disbanded Military Hospital, remembers seeing Lynch's motionless body on a bed in the crowded lobby of his hospital.
Al-Saeidi said he found no signs of rape during an examination although he acknowledged he was not looking for signs of sexual assault.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usjess083531398nov08,0,6349080.story?coll=ny-nationworld-headlines
Dramatic video of U.S. commandos whisking the former Army supply clerk from a Nasiriyah hospital to a waiting chopper April 1 helped cement Lynch's image as a hero. But the private told ABC's Diane Sawyer there was no reason for her rescue to be filmed.
"They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff," Lynch, 20, told Sawyer in a "Primetime" interview to air Tuesday. "It's wrong." The network posted the excerpt on its Web site Friday.
Lynch suffered broken bones and other injuries when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was attacked after taking a wrong turn in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah on March 23.
Early reports had Lynch fighting her attackers until she ran out of ammunition and suffering knife and bullet wounds. Military officials later said Lynch wasn't shot, but was hurt after her Humvee utility vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle.
On Thursday, Lynch won admiration in her hometown for having the courage to reveal she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
The attack is documented by medical records cited in "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story." The authorized biography, written by reporter Rick Bragg, is being released by Knopf publishing on Tuesday, Veterans Day. It is unclear if the book cites American or Iraqi records.
Family spokesman Stephen Goodwin acknowledged that the book discusses the sexual assault. "It's important to tell the story and let it be known, but she's not going to talk about it anymore," Goodwin said.
Lynch said she has no memory of the assault. Iraqi doctors who treated Lynch dismissed on Friday claims that she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital, performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she was raped or sodomized.
Khafazji said Lynch was taken first to the Military Hospital, a few hundred yards from the ambush site at around 8 a.m., about an hour after the attack. A few hours later, she was brought to his hospital.
Dr. Jamal al-Saeidi, a brigadier general and head of the orthopedic department at the now disbanded Military Hospital, remembers seeing Lynch's motionless body on a bed in the crowded lobby of his hospital.
Al-Saeidi said he found no signs of rape during an examination although he acknowledged he was not looking for signs of sexual assault.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usjess083531398nov08,0,6349080.story?coll=ny-nationworld-headlines