Iraqis raped Lynch during her captivity, book reveals

NY Daily News ^

[saquin]

BY PAUL D. COLFORD AND CORKY SIEMASZKO New York Daily News

NEW YORK - (KRT) - Jessica Lynch was brutally raped by her Iraqi captors.

That is the shocking revelation in "I Am a Soldier, Too," the much-anticipated authorized biography of the former POW. A copy of the book was obtained by The New York Daily News on Wednesday.

Best selling author Rick Bragg tells Lynch's story for her, often using her own words. Thankfully, she has no memory of the rape.

"Jessi lost three hours," Bragg wrote. "She lost them in the snapping bones, in the crash of the Humvee, in the torment her enemies inflicted on her after she was pulled from it."

The scars on Lynch's battered body and the medical records indicate she was anally raped, and "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003," Bragg wrote.

"The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead."

The 207-page saga published by Knopf hits bookstores Tuesday, which is Veterans Day.

In it, America's most famous G.I. - for the first time since her dramatic rescue on April 1 - dispels some of the mystery surrounding the blistering battle that resulted in her capture, her treatment by the Iraqis in a hellish hospital, and the searing pain that is her constant companion.

A 20-year-old from the hollers of West Virginia, Lynch knew what could happen to her if she fell into Iraqi hands. A female pilot captured in the Persian Gulf War had been raped.

"Everyone knew what Saddam's soldiers did to women captives," Bragg wrote. "In (Lynch's) worst nightmares, she stood alone in that desert as the trucks of her own army pulled away."

The nightmare became real in the dusty and dangerous city of Nassiriyah, when Lynch's unit got separated from its convoy and was ambushed by Iraqi fighters.

Bragg, a former New York Times reporter who quit after admitting he had a legman do some of his reporting, gives a cinematic account of the desperate firefight that mortally wounded Lynch's Army buddy, Lori Piestewa, and 10 others in the convoy.

But while early Pentagon reports suggested the young Army private heroically resisted capture, Lynch told Bragg she never fired a shot, because her M-16 jammed. "I didn't kill nobody," she said.

Lynch also denied in the book claims by Iraqi lawyer Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief, who said he saw one of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's black-clad Fedayeen slap her as she lay in her hospital bed.

"Unless they hit me while I was asleep - and why do that?" she said.

Lynch described to Bragg how Iraqi doctors were branded "traitors" by Saddam's henchmen for helping her and how they tried to treat her wounds in a shattered hospital where painkillers were scarce. She said one nurse tried to ease her agony by singing to her.

"It was a pretty song," she said. "And I would sleep."

Lynch also confirmed reports in the book that Iraqi doctors tried to sneak her to safety in an ambulance but turned back when wary U.S. soldiers opened fire on them.

But eight days after she was captured, Lynch found herself face to face with a savior.

"Jessica Lynch," he said, "we're United States soldiers and we're here to protect you and take you home."

"I'm an American soldier, too," Lynch replied.

Lynch's painful recovery from an ordeal that left her barely able to walk, unable to use her right hand or control her bowels is vividly described. So, too, is Lynch's discomfort with the spotlight - and with being called a hero.

"I'm just a survivor," she said in the book. "When I think about it, it keeps me awake at night."

---

© 2003, New York Daily News.

[jjm2111]

"They can do the button-pushing jobs, that frees up more men for the infantry."

Are (or were you) even IN the military? I really don't mind women in the military at all. It makes changing in a tent a little uncomfortable; that's it. But some women (and some men too) aren't at all cut out for it.

TheCrusader is right. Mixed gender boot camps are a mess. Sharply reduced physical standards for women is wrong. And every member of the military that has even the remotest chance of meeting an enemy soldier should be able to competently and confidently wield a weapon. PR guys and gals in Washington can be the exception.

You're screaming at everyone here for having an 'agenda'; but what's yours? The brass really screwed the pooch with this one and they're trying to turn it into a propaganda victory.

Why wasn't the convoy protected? Why didn't the convoy commander turn his vehicles around in the desert outside of the town? What was the training regimen of the 507th?

[Chief_Joe]

... it seems illogical to me to disregard aspects of gender that are undeniable, simply for the sake of a false sense of equality. Unfortunately the PC crowd may never grasp that equity and sameness or two different things

Well said!

[JoeGar]

A female pilot captured in the Persian Gulf War had been raped.

If my memory serves me correctly, there was no female pilot captured in the Persion Gulf War. There were two female prisoners. One was an Army enlisted truck driver who made a wrong turn and was captured. I never heard anything about her captivity. The other was Major Rhonda Cornum, a medical doctor who was injured and captured when the helicopter in which she was riding was shot down. Both of Major Cornum's arms were broken in the crash. In her book, She Went To War, she said she was vaginally fingered but mentioned no rape. (After the war, feminists changed the definition of rape to include fingering.) I saw Major Cornum on TV saying that she was well-treated. She said, "Look at my broken arms. I could not go to the bathroom without the help of my guards." Then she described how they discretely kept her covered and helped her when she had to urinate or defecate.

[Chief_Joe]

The brass really screwed the pooch with this one and they're trying to turn it into a propaganda victory.

Why wasn't the convoy protected? Why didn't the convoy commander turn his vehicles around in the desert outside of the town? What was the training regimen of the 507th?

This is another example why people are so upset with this over glorification of Jessie - it's media-driven pop gibberish. The real questions like the ones you've raised aren't addressed. That's the first thing I noticed when reading the official report. It stood out to me that they were undermanned, I mean the whole fighting force, not just the 507th. They did not have all the firepower you'd expect to protect the supply line. I don't know if this is the thread to get off into these issues, but the Jessie story and women in combat angle can be explored. One woman does not equal one man, so we actually have less of a fighting force over there than is being said.

[bimbo]

Whats with all the M-16's jamming? I've carried a few and fired them in a variety of adverse conditions and have never had this problem. Lousy weapons maintenence, not necesarily by the individual, is what I suspect. Or lousy magazines.

I never had a problem either. IMHO, “M-16’s jamming” seems to be an acceptably convenient excuse for something.

[bimbo]

"Everyone knew what Saddam's soldiers did to women captives," Bragg wrote.

Then the question remains for the Commander-in-Chief: Why propogate the insanity of the “Clinton Military Doctrine?”

[TexKat]

Jessica Lynch will be interviewed by Dianne Sawyer tonight on whatever that tv station is. I am not up on the different shows on the mainstream media.

However Fox News reported a little while ago that Jessica is upset that the military publicize this story, she did not think that it was right for the military to video tape her rescue and if they had to, they did not have to expose it to the media.

[milemark]

nmh probably thinks she's an 'itch to not thank the sub-humans who raped her. nmh wants Jessica to thank him for calling her an 'itch.

[#3Fan]

Plenty of military vehicles have power steering, but, power steering or not, a HEMMETT and a Lincoln Navigator aren't even in the same ball park.

Whatever. It amazes me that you bashers want to blame her vehicle breakdown on bad driving with no evidence. They were driving all day in hot sandy conditions! Proves what you guys are here for, not for truth, but to bash.

[#3Fan]

Are (or were you) even IN the military?

Don't give me the "you have no right to speak of military matters since you never served" speech. I told Terrell I didn't want to discuss it and that I prefer to listen to Army brass about it it but he keeps starting the same fight with me so I answer him.

I really don't mind women in the military at all. It makes changing in a tent a little uncomfortable; that's it. But some women (and some men too) aren't at all cut out for it. TheCrusader is right. Mixed gender boot camps are a mess. Sharply reduced physical standards for women is wrong. And every member of the military that has even the remotest chance of meeting an enemy soldier should be able to competently and confidently wield a weapon. PR guys and gals in Washington can be the exception.

More people were killed stateside than in this war. Maybe all women should join the military so they'll be safe.

You're screaming at everyone here for having an 'agenda'; but what's yours? The brass really screwed the pooch with this one and they're trying to turn it into a propaganda victory.

The Washington Post screwed the pooch. My agenda is support for a POW who has sacrificed a lot for her country against those that are perpetually angry about something or another.

Why wasn't the convoy protected? Why didn't the convoy commander turn his vehicles around in the desert outside of the town? What was the training regimen of the 507th?

Dunno. He hasn't been attacked unfairly much so I don't know his story.

[William Terrell]

All you seem to be doing is repeating yourself.

You still haven't separated the women from the 100,000 (your number) who do traditional jobs in the military from those whose job puts them in active contact with the enemy. Even if all 100,000 are the latter, how specifically does where they are make war safer and produce less casualties?

Assuming they all are the latter, if all 100,000 were discharged today and the policy of using women in combat were reversed, don't you think that another 100,000 men would be recruited to replace them? Even without a few 30 second commercials on the media?

We definitely had a higher casualty rate in WWI and WWII than in the two Gulf conflicts. Did you forget that those were world wars, and at least in WWII we were fighting on two fronts, and the Gulf wars were local conflicts?

How can you rationalize the low casualty rate has anything at all to do with the presence of women? Maybe their perfume bambized the Irqui soldiers?

How, specifically, does an all volunteer military save lives? By assuming that the motivation is higher if a person actually volunteers? This is not born out by my direct experience.

Many of the Marines I founght with in Viet Nam were drafted. Each one had to tell me he was drafted. In actual service I couldn't tell the difference. I volunteered, and wasn't any more motivated than those that were drafted. Remember that men who volunteered for the service are mostly drafted from duty stations in the States, and other safe places, to go into a combat zone.

All the statements, and implications from other statements, I have read by enlisted women indicate that, beyond the few officers which are dedicated feminists with an agenda, they went in to get a job and be trained form a skill they could use in the civilian world. Of course, men do that, too, but they are capable of fighting with much less danger to themselves and others when their primary purpose is activated.

Can a "dedicated and diciplined" woman throw a grenade outside its blast radius, carry a wounded comrade from the field of fire, hump cases of heavey mortar rounds to the tubes, carry combat field equipment over many grid squares on patrol and still have energy to deal with a conflict?

Not hardly.

No American woman I know of could have dealt with the American method of fighting in Viet Nam. I do remember the Army coming in conflict with a group of female North Vietnamese regulars.

They were used as cannon foddar by the NVC and male programing did make our men hesitate critically in small arms fire situations. But they did not prevail because, while men are hardwired to defer to women, that is overridden when women are trying to kill them.

Nowhere in either Gulf "war" is there any evidence that using women in high risk jobs made any difference at all, let alone made the conflict vastly superior, unless you count the tail available to male soldiers without the necessity of going on R and R.

How, specifically, does any statements from "brass hats" about a volunteer military imply that women should be placed in high risk positions? Traditionally, women have indeed volunteered, but for rear jobs.

You have no results to prove me wrong. Our military has always been vastly superior. The only reason that women can fill any nontraditional jobs therein at all is because of the new high tech components.

Again, if all the women, even the ones in traditionals jobs were to be discharged tommorrow, unless we had a world war with the scope of the last two, the 25,000,000 men available would be able to fill the gap like the ocean filling a thimble without a draft.

The experiment with women in combat has only been active since the Clinton administration. There has been no conflicts enough to provide any evidence to speak of for women doing those jobs. The vast majority of examples have been negative.

You have been leaning on a "volunteer" military to support your liberal viewpoints on this topic. I have been waiting for you to start making the other liberal argument that equal opportunity DEMANDS that women be allowed to serve in the mentioned capacities, and it's just not fair unless those who want to can.

Go for it.

[jjm2111]

>>It amazes me that you bashers want to blame her vehicle breakdown on bad driving with no evidence.

I have not said one ill word about Jessica. Not ONE! Almost all, if not all, of the other posters also did not say one ill word about Jessica. She suffered more any any woman (or any man for that matter) should ever suffer.

People do criticize the brass and the system, and rightfully so.

[cyborg]

According to her own relatives, she already had committments at the time. She was unconscious at the time of the said rape, so I don't think that really has anything to do with it personally. I'd have to find the article but she has thanked him before.

[CWOJackson]

Her commitment was the daily physical therapy. His own time agenda precluded him from coming at a better time (he is on tour selling his book).

[cyncooper]

No, your comments do not "help me out".

LOL

[cyborg]

thanks a lot...

I wonder if Lori was also raped and the reason we didn't hear about it is because she was dead? Oh well, either way, it doesn't shock me that a female would be raped in the hands of an enemy in war time. That's how it's been even from the time of the Bible.

Everyone has a book these days...

[jjm2111]

Don't give me the "you have no right to speak of military matters since you never served" speech.

Never said that. But many people who haven't served, don't know much about it and draw conclusions based on incomplete evidence.

...that I prefer to listen to Army brass...

First mistake. General or Flag officers in any branch are almost all politicians. Even the good ones are politicians to some extant and they have their agenda. PR for their particular branch, covering their butts, etc. W/ regards to Jessica Lynch, the brass has it's agenda.

"More people were killed stateside than in this war. Maybe all women should join the military so they'll be safe. "

This comment shows your lack of service (and I'm not being accusatory here, just stating a fact). I'm 27 and don't have anything against women in the service, but what I said about mixed boot camp, physical standards, etc. is true.

The brass screwed the pooch because it let an unprotected convoy venture into a dangerous area. Were there ANY crew-served weapons on this convoy?

[CWOJackson]

It's not always just the women...some people also use it as a way to demean male prisoners and break down their resolve.

[jjm2111]

"This is another example why people are so upset with this over glorification of Jessie - it's media-driven pop gibberish. The real questions like the ones you've raised aren't addressed. That's the first thing I noticed when reading the official report. It stood out to me that they were undermanned, I mean the whole fighting force, not just the 507th. They did not have all the firepower you'd expect to protect the supply line."

My sentiments exactly. Did they even have one crew-serve weapon? Did they have any infantry carried anti-tank weapons? A couple of those stupid T-54s could have made mincemeat of that convoy.

As to women in the service, my reserve unit has some really top-notch females who really know their stuff, but I know for a fact that none of them could drag my 6'4" 225lb frame out of a burning Humvee.

[twowilliam]

I agree with you. But consider that the
book was written by Rick Bragg formerlly
of the New York Times. He could not get his
stories right there, how do we know that he
had the facts now?