Posted on 11/05/2003 9:51:58 PM PST by 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.
I'd agree, but in this case I thought she was a supply clerk, at the back of the lines, and she and her team got lost and wound up in the path of a wandering band of Saddam loyalists.
Believe what you like, but facts are stubborn things and the Marines-which are the only branch which trains males and females entirely seperately-never has trouble meeting its recruiting goals while the Army, which preforms largely the same mission, constantly struggles. Young males are motivated by the need to prove themselves men, if a girl can do it then they are denied that opportunity, hence young men see Marine boot camp as affording them that opportunity in a way that Army boot camp doesn't.
I wonder what these ''push botton'' jobs you keep referring to are? All military jobs require a great deal of physical exertion-even a push botton is part of a machine that has to be loaded, unloaded, set up, taken down, moved and manhandled on any manuver. But that is beside the point. An absolute need would mean that we could not have a military without females. As we have done so for most of our history, and as a number of nations continue to do so to this day, this is clearly not the case.
I see that you continue to assert that "most vehicles have power steering" which of course does not speak to the issue of whether or not an Army 5 ton does (many don't). You really shouldn't comment on those things you are so obviously ignorant of.
You're as sick as the "sub-humans" who raped her.
She IS a *itch for not thanking the man that saved her life.
I sure do question WHY she couldn't thank the man that saved her life. The shallow may think of this as a "photo op" but clearly this man risked his life to save her life. He didn' thave to do that and it would have been in his best interest NOT to get involved. Now we have a prima donna who can't muster up a simple thank you? If anything this *itch ought to have the gumption to thank this man. She has time for everyone else but the man that saved her life.
I wonder what type of huma being you are.
Maybe it's time afer writing a book and isn't a movie in the works that she FINALLY meet with this Iraqi and THANK him for saving her life? Or must selective memory cover that too? Too busy profiting from the experience to have the time for an Iraqi. How sad.
People who support this *itch show how self absorbed and selfish they are. You completely ignore the fact that is it weren't for this Iraqi lawyer she would be dead. Yet it is too much to ask of her to meet him and thank him.
Male Marines struggle to outdo female Marines? I'd have to see that to believe it.
I wonder what these ''push botton'' jobs you keep referring to are? All military jobs require a great deal of physical exertion-even a push botton is part of a machine that has to be loaded, unloaded, set up, taken down, moved and manhandled on any manuver.
I think there are a lot of more jobs that can be done by women these days and this frees up better men for the front.
But that is beside the point. An absolute need would mean that we could not have a military without females. As we have done so for most of our history, and as a number of nations continue to do so to this day, this is clearly not the case.
I didn't say it was an absolute need, I said that having a better choice of men for the front cuts down on casualties.
I see that you continue to assert that "most vehicles have power steering" which of course does not speak to the issue of whether or not an Army 5 ton does (many don't). You really shouldn't comment on those things you are so obviously ignorant of.
I think I'm safe when I say most large vehicles have power steering. lol This is a discussion site and we discuss what we think we know all the time without documentation, so you better get used to it. Can you document that males are afraid to join because they can't outdo females? Can you document that all military jobs require a large amount of physical strength? See how easy that can be turned around on you.
A CNN lie. They didn't mention that she was going to meet him later to avoid the spotlight. You guys complain that she hogs the spotlight and then complain when she avoids it.
A CNN lie. She said she would meet him in private.
Amazing you let CNN propaganda rule your thoughts. She said she would meet him in private.
He was there for a book promotion, she wasn't going to his book promotion to thank him. Open your ears and don't let CNN fool you like this. I think you want to be fooled though.
It was a CNN lie. She said she would meet him later, not at his book promotion.
She is a badly hurt young woman who will never have a good day for the rest of her life. She will never walk normally, never have the full use of her right hand, never have control of her bladder and bowels and always have to take several pills a day to control the constant pain, yet still not be free of that pain. She must deal with the psychological trauma of having been sodomized by sub-human barbarians.
Some "spoiled little brat"
Maybe they would be more sympathetic had she been killed. But I doubt it.
It was in his best interest to get involved. He was an opportunist. He saw a chance to get on the good side of his new masters and took it. He got out of his hellhole of a home country as fast as he could, landed a cushy lobbying firm job, a book deal and a tv movie deal. Good for him. Unlike some here, I like opportunistic people.
But Lynch doesn't recall him or the slapping incident he claims to have witnessed. the Iraqi's at the hospital say he was never there, his wife never worked there. He somehow found out about her being there and embellished a story to get him and his family out of dodge and in the money.
And how do you know she didn't thank him? All you know is that you didn't get to watch it on the boob tube. Get over it.
'itch 'itch 'itch 'itch 'itch 'itch... Do you have a rash, bub?
You just can't deal with not getting to see a tearful huggy tv hallmark kodak moment between Lynch and al-Rehaief. You feel cheated that she will meet him and thank hi privately. You feel you are owed a spectacle. In your 'itchy complaining, you provide us with the spectacle of you, 'itching. It's not a pretty sight.
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