Who really saved Jessica Lynch?

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » April 22, 2003, 7:10 am

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 17,00.html

THE rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war, was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses.

Doctors at al-Nasiriyah general hospital said that the airborne assault had met no resistance and was carried out a day after all the Iraqi forces and Baath leadership had fled the city.

Four doctors and two patients, one of whom was paralysed and on an intravenous drip, were bound and handcuffed as American soldiers rampaged through the wards, searching for departed members of the Saddam regime.

An ambulance driver who tried to carry Private Lynch to the American forces close to the city was shot at by US troops the day before their mission. Far from winning hearts and minds, the US operation has angered and hurt doctors who risked their lives treating both Private Lynch and Iraqi victims of the war. “What the Americans say is like the story of Sinbad the Sailor — it’s a myth,” said Harith al-Houssona, who saved Private Lynch’s life after she was brought to the hospital by Iraqi military intelligence.

“They said that there was no medical care in Iraq, and that there was a very strong defence of this hospital. But there was no one here apart from doctors and patients, and there was nobody to fire at them.”

Dr Harith was on duty when Private Lynch was brought to al-Nasiriyah general by Iraqi soldiers a few days after her capture on March 23. She was a member of a 15-member US Army maintenance company convoy that was ambushed after taking a wrong turn near the city.

At the time, she was suffering from a head injury, a broken leg and arm, a bullet wound to her leg, a pulmonary oedema and her breathing was failing. In a hospital inundated with war casualties with few drugs, her condition was stabilised and she regained consciousness.

“She was very frightened when she woke up,” Dr Harith, 24, a junior resident at the hospital, said. “She kept saying: ‘Please don’t hurt me, don’t touch me.’ I told her that she was safe, she was in a hospital and that I was a doctor, and I never hurt a patient.”

Private Lynch’s military guards would allow no other doctor to tend to her and Dr Harith formed a friendship with her. She talked to him about her family, including her arguments about money with her father, and about her boyfriend, a Hispanic soldier named Ruben.

Dr Harith went outside the hospital during the bombing to get supplies of Private Lynch’s favourite drink, orange juice, and struggled to persuade her to eat.

“I told her she needed to eat to recover, and I brought her crackers, but her stomach was upset. She said as a joke: ‘I want to be slim.’

“I see (many) patients, but she was special. She’s a very simple person, a soldier, not well-educated. But she was very, very nice, with a lovely face and blonde hair.”

The Iraqi intelligence officers told the hospital that Private Lynch would soon be transferred to Baghdad, a prospect that terrified her.

After her condition stabilised, they ordered Dr Harith to transfer Jessica to another hospital.

Instead he told the ambulance driver to deliver her to one of the American outposts that had already been established on the ouskirts of the city.

“But when he reached their checkpoint, the Americans fired at him,” he said.

On April 1 the local Baathists fled al-Nasiriyah for Baghdad and arrived at the hospital looking for their prize captive. Dr Harith moved her to another part of the hospital, and other doctors told the soldiers that he was away.

“They said that they thought Jessica had died, and they didn’t know where she was,” he said. In their haste and confusion the soldiers left, leaving behind only a few critically injured soldiers.

The American “rescue” operation came on the night of April 2. The hospital was bombarded and soldiers arrived in helicopters and, according to the hospital doctors, in tanks that pulled up outside the hospital.

Most of the doctors fled to the shelter of the radiology department on the first floor.

“We heard them firing and shouting: ‘Go! Go! Go! Go!’ ” Dr Harith said. One group of soldiers dug up the graves of dead US soldiers outside the hospital, while another interrogated doctors about Ali Hassan al-Majid, the senior Baath party figure known as Chemical Ali, who had never been seen there. A third group looked for Private Lynch.

US soldiers videotaped the rescue, but among the many scenes not shown to the press at US Central Command in Doha was one of four doctors who were handcuffed and interrogated, along with two civilian patients, one of whom was immobile and connected to a drip. “They were doctors, with stethoscopes round their necks,” Dr Harith said.

“Even in war, a doctor should not be treated like that.”

Unluckiest of all was Abdul Razaq, one of the hospital administrators, who took shelter from the bombardment in Private Lynch’s room, believing that he would be safe.

He was seized and taken with the US soldiers on their helicopter to their base, where he was held for three days in an open-air prison camp.

“When he left his skin was the colour of yours,” another doctor, Mahmud, said. “When he came back, he was black.”

Bizarrely, the rescuers cut open a special bed, designed for patients with bed sores, which had been provided for Private Lynch’s use.

“They took samples of sand out of it,” Dr Harith said. “It was the only bed like it that we have, the only one in the governorate.”

Today, the hospital struggles on without adequate supplies of drugs and without running water or mains electricity.

“There are two faces to Americans,” Dr Harith said. “One is freedom and democracy, and giving kids sweets. The other is killing and hating my people. So I am very confused. I feel sad because I will never see Jessica again, and I feel happy because she is happy and has gone back to her life. If I could speak to her I would say: ‘Congratulations!’”

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » April 22, 2003, 9:37 am

Not that I have hard time believing this...because I'm sure the doctors helped her indeed. BUT...is this the same doctor who would not remove the picture of Sadam in his office when they asked him for it? I truly wish I could source it...but there was a doctor at the al-nasirah hospital that refused to take down his personal picture of Sadam...some brits of course forceably removed it.

All the same, I don't doubt my fellow american troops steamrolled that hospital and then quickly left. Probably much less of a deal than this report makes it out to be too. Embelishment by both sides is my guess.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » April 22, 2003, 11:37 am

Kluden i saw that video. I dont know who owned the rights to it but it aired on CNN International a lot.

The doctor did not remove the picture. He is a doctor not a fool.

He was standing calmly behind his desk. This was about 1 day after the first coalition incursion into Basra, long before the government in Baghdad had lost control, and there were still quite a few Feydayin Saddam in the Basra area.

This doctor is not going to put a bullseye on his children's, wife's and own backs by dancing up and down on a saddam picture on international television.

He calmly said that he would not remove it from the wall.

A British marine said what would it take to remove it from the wall.

He said he would have to be forced to remove it, with no change in vocal tone.

The marine pushed a chair up to the wall, stood on it, and removed the picture.

not exactly a military standoff.

The state of who was in control of Iraq was very much in flux at that moment, and my interpretation was this doctor was simply not doing anything that was going to get him in trouble with EITHER the Hussein regime or the coalition forces.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » April 22, 2003, 11:43 am

I read about the "rescue" about a week ago in Norwegian papers. Pretty much the same story as was posted here, with a couple of interviews etc.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » April 22, 2003, 2:17 pm

Jesus saved Jessica just like he's going to save us all.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » April 22, 2003, 2:24 pm

Fairweather Pure wrote:Jesus saved Jessica just like he's going to save us all.

Except you Fairweather. Sodomy makes Jesus cry.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » April 22, 2003, 2:26 pm

Voro...that's how I saw that film too. I mean that, I saw a person doing nothing. That way, his video taped image was of a neutral position.

It can also be looked at as if he was very pro-Baath party, and since he knew he could not "fight" off a british marine, he stood there in pride. Then, he spewed lies to reporters about the "real rescue".

I'm just saying it is possible. If you hate a country enough, you will use their attention whoring media for your own means.

Like I said before though...I really don't give a shit how the Delta force members did what they did. They were commanded to do something, and performed it in a manner to minimalize casualties. If it caused some people discomfort...oh well, atleast they were not shot.

In the end, I'm sure no matter what, each side has only sensationalized things to fit their own agendas. (Kluden=surly bastard today)

Salis · Post by **Salis** » April 22, 2003, 2:30 pm

I heard it was Xanupox

noel · Post by **noel** » April 22, 2003, 3:11 pm

Everyone knows Jessica Lynch was rescued by Brittney in his Reaver and Salis in his MAX suit.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » April 22, 2003, 3:19 pm

i think you are speculating quite a bit though Kluden. specifically when you say "if you hate a country enough"

regardless i dont see how it is relevant to Jessica Lynch, as this guy was in "coalition controlled" space before Lynch was rescued (from non-coalition controlled space).

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » April 22, 2003, 7:27 pm

I'm just playing Devil's Advocate (read: Dubya's Advocate) on this guys side of the story. I just feel, if I was one of the team members sent into that hospital, and part of the intelligence going around is that Iraqi militants are dressed up in plain clothes, hiding out in hospitals and mosques, then I'm gonna immobilize (non-lethal) all that I see.

I just think this has been taken way to far. This doctor is saying he does not deserve this, and feels he was being picked on. Well, for safety of the "invading" force, they immobilized all.

It just seems to me these things are "over-cooked" because the media no longer has live shots of missiles falling on buildings to make a big deal of...

I missed the part about him being in coalition controlled areas before she was even rescued.
See what I mean...I'm such a surly bastard today. So opinionated...

And another thing...when his compatriate came back from teh open air camp...the doctor said he was "black"...like that is a bad thing. (/sarcasm off)

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » April 22, 2003, 9:11 pm

If your skin suddenly turns dark brown when a week before it wasn't dark brown that is a pretty fucking bad thing yeah.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » April 22, 2003, 10:31 pm

Was making a Chris Rock type of joke...in bad taste of course

Post by **Sylvus** » April 23, 2003, 1:30 am

kyoukan wrote:If your skin suddenly turns dark brown when a week before it wasn't dark brown that is a pretty fucking bad thing yeah.

WTF does that mean exactly, anyway? Apparently I'm not following what they are insinuating with that.

Braxter · Post by **Braxter** » April 23, 2003, 3:00 am

Sylvus wrote: WTF does that mean exactly, anyway? Apparently I'm not following what they are insinuating with that.

Confining prisoners to fenced in open air camps in the blistering desert heat for days on end would yield such results. Yes, even brown people get sunburned.

Fallanthas · Post by **Fallanthas** » April 23, 2003, 11:49 am

which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war

Umm, yeah.

Difficult period of the war.

Right.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » April 23, 2003, 12:26 pm

Sodomy makes Jesus cry.

Depends if he's catching or pitching.

Pahreyia · Post by **Pahreyia** » April 23, 2003, 2:52 pm

As impolite as the american forces may have been, you can be damn sure Iraqui forces fould have been much more cruel.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 23, 2003, 3:06 pm

Pahreyia wrote:As impolite as the american forces may have been, you can be damn sure Iraqui forces fould have been much more cruel.

Are you sure about that?

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » April 23, 2003, 3:21 pm

yeah i think that is a safe bet.

a young woman who phoned in reports to international media of Iraqi barbarism during the occupation of Kuwait was torn limb from limb and left on her father's doorstep.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 23, 2003, 3:31 pm

Voronwë wrote:yeah i think that is a safe bet.

a young woman who phoned in reports to international media of Iraqi barbarism during the occupation of Kuwait was torn limb from limb and left on her father's doorstep.

And American soldiers have never mistreated POWs or civilians in a war zone?