[gramho12]

Injuries from a fall from her vehicle? Yeah, I really believe that. Thank goodness she was rescued before they operated on her. Sounds like they are the ones doing a CYA.

[heylady]

Sounds like someone is trying to cover their butt in the event war crimes are being considered.

[Green]

So are we to take from this that the lawyer's story is all fabricated?

[JZoback]

B.S. Meter just went off the scale.

I am sure the military put this in the best light possible for public consumption, but for us to believe we could have just walked in and "asked" for Pfc Lynch is a bit much.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Sounds like they want to be rewarded like the Iraqi lawyer was. Also, the blunt trauma was supposedly caused by a fall from a vehicle....yeah, right. Where is mention that the Iraqi lawyer decided he had to help after seeing her being slapped while in her hospital bed?

[FryingPan101]

Hmmm. I'm slow.

[WIladyconservative]

Ewww - she got blood while in the hospital? I'll bet they're testinging her exhaustively!

[ladyjane]

Toronto Star? hmmm....

[Criminal Number 18F]

Dr. Mudhafer Raazk, 27, observed dryly that two cameramen and a still photographer, also in uniform, accompanied the U.S. teams into the hospital. Maybe this was a movie after all.

What Dr. Raazk saw is SOP now. US elite units have been so routinely accused of bogus war crimes that any major SF/Seal/"others who can't be named"/etc direct action mission is taped and photographed. It's a CYA thing.

For that reason, I suspect that Dr. Raazk and his people are telling the truth. Yes, we WOULD go into a hospital where a POW was held loaded for bear, and execute a dynamic entry. Reason? If it is really nothing but a hospital, we won't hurt anybody, because they won't be armed or looking for a fight. But -- if it is full of Fedayeen we have to be ready.

One thing that people don't understand, that the reporter might not have known, and that the hospital staff may not understand yet, is that the US is liable for damage to innocents' property done by our forces. If we really trashed the hospital bed and otherwise damaged the hospital, the administrators can make a claim at the HQ. In Afghanistan, CTF-180 had a whole staff section that did nothing but evaluate and pay these claims. So will the Iraq task force once it is a little more settled.

That may seem like a waste of taxpayers' money. It isn't, at least in Stan: I frequently had people comment on this and contrast it to the way the Soviets behaved. (In my job I meet a lot more "ordinary people" than the average GI). When you do the right thing, people notice. (When you do the wrong thing, they really notice).

Note the tone of the Iraqis in the article. They are showing a lot of forbearance, compared to some of their more immediate-gratification oriented countrymen. I think they realise that a period of US stewardship for their country can be very good for their hospital and its patients.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[chainsaw]

I have never thought Jessica's injuries occurred at the hospital. However there are no reports about what happened to her before she got to the hospital.

Well, I did hear something on the G. Gordon Liddy show - That she was hanged by her feet and beaten with a club or baseball bat. which would account for two fractured legs, a fractured arm, a fractured vertebrae and maybe the head laceration.

[bert]

CYA Alert !!!

[jlogajan]

I believe the only report of mistreatment was the laywer who saw a fedayeen slap her.

Nine of her comrades were killed in the ambush, so we presume they all didn't just fall out of their trucks. Two of the POW's had less serious injuries as well.

So Lynch's injuries were likely sustained in the initial ambush environment.

There would be little reason to suppose that the health workers at the hospital would mistreat her, and we've had no actual witnesses suggest that beyone the slapping incident by a fedayeen, which occurred several days before her rescue.

So the hosptial staff could be telling the true, or polishing it up a bit.

Lynch and the other POW's are still heroes -- they put their lives on the line in a combat zone.

[Tinman]

"Until such time as she wants to talk — and that's going to be no time soon, and it may be never at all — the press is simply going to have to wait."

Everyone will have to wait and speculation will do no good.

I'm a bit closer to this entire situation because the 507th is my son-in-law's unit. He did not deploy due to medical reasons. Those who were lost and all that made it home, were/are his friends and comrades. I also know the CSM who had the sad duty of calling the roll, which went unanswered, at the memorial service for those who did not make it home.

Additionaly, I had the great honor and pleasure of spending a few hours with one of the POW's, in the relaxed atmosphere of a cookout, in my son-in-law's backyard. Sgt. Jim Riley is a fine young man who told me point blank that all involved are under orders not to speak about what happened over there, until such time that all investigations are complete.

Eventually, the truth will come out. Until that time, everything is nothing but rumor and speculation.

Regards to all

[Ranger]

The 3 organized groups, the Iraqi soldiers the Fedayeen and the hospital workers probably cover the full spectrum of humanity. All of them tramped through that building. I see no reason not to pour on the assistance to the medical personnel there trying to do good works. As for the Fedayeen, bullets are too good for them.