Posted on 04/03/2003 1:34:43 AM PST by kattracks
Tip from Iraqi led to hospital roomJessica was being tortured.
That was the urgent word from an Iraqi man who alerted U.S. troops where to find Pfc. Jessica Lynch - and her injuries seem to bear out the allegation.
Lynch, who was flown to a military hospital in Germany yesterday, had her legs broken, one arm broken and at least one bullet wound, officials said.
The 19-year-old West Virginia private was able to call her parents yesterday for the first time since her rescue Tuesday. She was in good spirits but very hungry, her parents told CNN.
The rescue of Lynch, who was driving a water truck when she went missing after a March 23 ambush in Nassiriya, had added urgency when one of two tips to Americans said she was in danger.
One tip came when an English-speaking Iraqi man approached NBC reporter Kerry Sanders to tell him about the soldier being held captive.
"Please make sure the people in charge know that she's being tortured," he told Sanders.
Belying her country-girl smile and petite 5-foot-5 frame, Lynch put up a Rambo-worthy fight when her unit, the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co., came under attack, according to a new report.
Lynch opened fire on the Iraqi assailants, picking them off one by one until she ran out of ammunition, according to today's Washington Post.
She continued shooting - even after she was shot and stabbed and her unit members were killed all around her.
"She was fighting to the death," a U.S. official told The Post. "She did not want to be taken alive."
Yesterday, when Lynch was plucked from Saddam Hospital, Special Forces troops found a soldier in pain.
Her broken bones are a sure sign of torture, said Amy Waters Yarsinske, an ex-Navy intelligence officer and an expert on POW treatment.
"It's awfully hard to break both legs and an arm in a truck accident," Yarsinske said.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's thugs are known to use steel bars to bash their prisoners' limbs, she said.
"In the first gulf action, they tried breaking their [captured U.S. airmen's] legs with steel bars," Yarsinske said.
Another clue that Lynch and other POWs were being tortured came Friday, when Marines raided a hospital near Nassiriya where other members of Lynch's unit were videotaped and later shown on Iraqi TV. Marines found at least one shredded woman's uniform spattered with blood and the name patch torn off. In addition to Lynch, two other female soldiers went missing after the ambush.
In one hospital room, Marines discovered a car battery next to a bed - a possible electrical shock torture chamber.
During the last Persian Gulf War, Iraqis attached wires to one American POW's jaw and shocked him, Yarsinske said.
An Iraqi pharmacist who works at Saddam Hospital told Britain's Sky TV he treated Lynch's leg injuries. He added: "Every day I saw her crying about wanting to go home."
The pharmacist, who gave his name only as Imad, said Lynch knew U.S. troops were on the other side of the Euphrates River, and "kept wondering if the American Army were coming to save her."
Lynch's hometown of Palestine, W.Va., continued its celebration of her recovery yesterday.
Her brother, Gregory Jr., who is also in the Army, told CNN his sister sounded "disoriented" when she phoned home. "Her voice was crackly and low. She sounded like she was sick."
West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise stopped by the Lynch's home yesterday and told her parents that their daughter, who had joined the Army to pay for college so she could become a kindergarten teacher, would not have to worry about tuition.
"There will be a full scholarship for her whenever she wants to go for college," he promised.
With News Wire Services
Symbolically, its a glorious picture to present to the Islamofascists. Here is a little bitty thing, a cutie, that gave battle bravely as a warrior, took a lot of punishment, and survived. How humiliating is that the the Iraqi military? Did that put some chinks in the theology of Islamofascism, if after all their heartfelt supplications to Allah they got beaten so severely by armies that used teenaged girls as warriors?
seek help
Which happens at 6 to 10 days, so at 2 weeks (14 days) it's too late.
eh?
However, the discussion of the specifics or consequences of her torture or mistreatment plays into the hands of her captors. That is because the reason for her torture or mistreatment by this type of regime is not to actually extract information as some imply. They know there is little to gain from a PFC truck driver of a support unit.
The torture is instead to degrade, dehumanize and and inspire fear in the captive as well as those that person is close to and their entire universe of supporters. The torture of women is often meant to take from them their self-respect and public discussion of specifics facilitates that sort of broken thinking.
The media is a lurid vampire and wouldn't be satisfied with a blunt fact but would instead, feed at thier own bite until they have the most lurid details. I hope she is counciled to say little herself and to let her comrades shine their look of scorn on those living off of such information.
For the baby's sake, you can't presume she DIDN'T. If she DID, you'll then have a dead or deformed baby.
1. What's your definition of a tattle tale?
2. How long do I have to "be here" to use "newbie"? I didn't know there was a rule.
3. "unaffiliated1" said that there is something shameful about a woman carrying a baby to term if she is raped, and anyone who thought she shouldn't have an abortion is a "militant pro-lifer" like "Eric Rudolph." S/He got under my skin. I thought the moderator might like to check and see if "unaffiliated1" was disrupting, so I pinged him. (Can I say "ping"?) If I'm wrong about the poster, fine. By all means, if you have any other etiquette lessons,let me know.
Thank god the reporter notified was not Peter Arnett.
Hoping to get me banned? Not necessarily.
What, the Inquisition returns?Inquisition? You sure sound like a lib to me.
Then implied I am a twisted troll? You've defined for me what constitutes a "militant" pro-lifer, simply by your reply. So according to you anyone who thinks abortion is wrong and that an unborm child is innocent is a militant "Talibornagain trying to establish Amerighanistan" like "Eric Rudolph." You have not convinced me my opinion of you is mistaken.
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