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
According to other reports, she was neither shot nor stabbed. No "entry wounds." That makes it hard to explain the broken limbs by another other means than torture. The people who did this are probably already dead (if they were at the hospital) or they will be soon enough.
Ahhh..."choice"--the modern day god of liberals.
'Choice' could also be called 'freedom'. We like that word and it amazingly enough, means almost the same thing.
*snicker* I was thinking the same thing considering the political correctness run amok. Maybe we're in the Twilight Zone, eh?.
I'm sitting here watching a bunch of people speculate on whether a Young American Hero, who was Tortured, Beaten, Shot, and Held prisoner by a bunch of blood thristy Animals, might be pregnant, and whether or not she should be allowed to Abort some Imaginary pregnancy.
Hey we agree... She's a Young American Hero.
We just seem to disagree about discussing what may or may not have happened to her. I'm of the opinion that we're on a discussion board so we DISCUSS. You seem to be of the opinion that since the topic isn't pretty that I should remain silent. Your wish was granted. You won...I agreed to not discuss it further. You should be flattered, I don't let many people win [insertarazzingsmileyheresinceIsuckathtml]. I respect you for saying what you're saying,I just don't agree and find your opinion equally as appalling. Now we can drag this out to post #5,748 and start up some fun colorful name-calling. OR...we can agree to disagree.
Spit and shake? or may i be the fisrt to say "i know you are but what am i".
Sorry if I've offended you as well.
She wasn't on the front lines, and if they hadn't take a wrong turn and gotten lost, they would have been with the convoy and would have been protected.
I am not blaming her or whoever was driving the truck. Accidents happen. It is how we react when they happen that matters. I don't know where the Washington Post got their information. Everyone else who was with her is either a POW or is dead. Maybe some Iraqi gave the info to someone who gave it to the Post. The paper said that the info did NOT come from Jessica.
I'm sure the libs will try to say that since she did so well, that women SHOULD be in combat, but I still disagree. What is funny is that all those who say that are also FOR GUN CONTROL here at home. Now does anyone think that Jessica Lynch learned her marksmanship in the US Army? Methinks she's been honing those skills for YEARS in the hills around her home,and if there had been laws against individuals having firearms, she wouldn't have had the ability to defend herself as she did. Even if she HAD had some weapons training, she wouldn't have had as much as the front line forces, so her lack of skill would probably have meant her death.
Sorry you couldn't hang out a little longer. I don't know what all you did to get banned, but if it was just what I see on this thread, then I think the mods jumped the gun.
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You know this for a fact do you?
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