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
I don't have any "other" lessons, but you didn't get the first, so here it is again: If you have a problem with a post, refute it. Dont run to the moderator or call names (like newbie, for instance). The newbie argument doesnt work, cuz theres always someone who has been here longer.
I don't have any "other" lessons, but you didn't get the first, so here it is again: If you have a problem with a post, refute it. Dont run to the moderator or call names (like newbie, for instance). The newbie argument doesnt work, cuz theres always someone who has been here longer.
OK. I guess I overreacted. Next time I'll restrain myself. Thanks for the feedback.
Sarah Michelle Geller? I hear she's somewhat 'conservative'. At least from a hollywood standpoint.
Big money blueblood. Private schools, ivy leagues. Way out of my class. I'm given to understand that even though they're a bunch of dems, they are pretty nice.
It is obvious that Jessica was tortured (the two broken legs) any other therorizing on what else may have happened to her during her captivity is, in my opinion, furthering the torture started by the Iraqis. She is 19 years old. There is a reason news outlets do not publish the names of rape victims...yet here we sit, safe and sound at our keyboards, taking the horror Jessica (and other American POWs) face and contorting them to our own political agendas. Let it go folks...say a prayer for her recovery (physical as well as emotional), and let her heal. Let her family heal. She (again) is only 19--last year her biggest problem was maybe finding a dress for her prom, and now she is the flashpoint for women in the military, enlisting for college money, and (now) even abortion. All of that and the emotional (being ready to die at 19) and physical (two broken legs, at broken, arm, gun shot wounds) trauma, and now a nation theorizes of what 'else' may have happened. Post traumatic stress is very real--adding additional problems (in the public forum) does her no good.
God bless Jessica, and all the young women and men serving our Country.
With which part of my comment?
Look, I'm not out to be disrespectful to Jessica. I admire her strength and courage. This topic was already brought up and I added my 2 cents. This IS a DISCUSSION forum, right? isn't that the entire point of posting articles? ......to stimulate conversation and discussion? Am I confused? I'm here (like everyone else) to share my OPINION....Do with it what you wish but how dare you condemn me and suggest I feel shame for expressing one on a DISCUSSION forum. It's on topic.... If the moderator or anyone else has a problem with that, I hope they let me know because I'm really interested in knowing if I'm doing something wrong here.
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