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
Someone stated in a different thread that it's very sad that we live in a country that would place 19 year old females into harms way. I must say that I agree wholeheartedly.
About as often as I win the California State Lotto.
To think otherwise is foolish.
About as foolish as using the exceptions to make general policy.
I bet my wife would have fought the same way in that situation. Don't underestimate a PO'd woman. ;-)
It won't be about "Pro-War" or "Anti-War" anymore. It will be about women's rights and the power of women to break down the barriers in the military. That little war thing will be just an aside...
It's pretty simple. Give the baby up for adoption. Should the child die for the sin of his father? Besides, she will have enough problems without having the blood of this innocent child on her hands.
Anyway, I think this WOMAN is terrific! I still don't think that they(WE WOMEN) should be up on the front lines (I don't think it is an accident that she was apparently the only one taken alive)
But since she was there, what a great example of bravery! She could have just been a "victim", but she wasn't!
BTW.. any resulting baby should be put up for adoption (if she didn't want to keep it)... no need for one more death. Jessica has seen enough! Let the baby be a reminder to her that somewhere out there, some parents think that there was one good result of her capture IMHO (if it is even ever an issue)
These Iraqis are monsters on the level with the German Nazi's and I hope and pray they are punished appropriately in this world. I know God will take care of the next world.
My first reaction to your question was queasiness over the quickness to turn every dramatic story into a slick movie -- which then trivializes and distorts the story.
You're right, Hollywood must be slobbering already over the idea of producing this movie.
First prediction: Reese Witherspoon will get the role of Jessica Lynch.
Second prediction: Jessica's character will be made out to be a proto-feminist -- whether she IS, is in reality, doesn't matter.
Third prediction: Jessica's rescuers will be shown as an idealized multi-ethnic, multi-'gendered' team, no matter what the real composition of the rescue force was.
Fourth prediction: The Saddam-ites will be shown as angry, patriarchal male chauvinist pigs. (Perhaps Hollywood will even change them to angry white men? Nah, guess they wouldn't dare.)
At least some of the white men in the movie will also be shown as angry, patriarchal male chauvinist pigs.
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