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Iraqi informer angered by treatment of POW
Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | April 3, 2003 | By JUAN O. TAMAYO

Posted on 04/03/2003 7:09:25 PM PST by 68skylark

MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq - The Iraqi man who tipped U.S. Marines to the location of American POW Jessica Lynch said Thursday he did so after he saw her Iraqi captor slap her twice as she lay wounded in a hospital.

"A person, no matter his nationality, is a human being," the tipster, a 32-year-old lawyer whose wife was a nurse at the hospital, said in an interview at Marines' headquarters, where he, his wife and daughter are being treated as heroes and guests of honor.

"He is an extremely courageous man who should serve as an inspiration to all of us to do the right thing," said Lt. Col. Rick Long, spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

After he saw Lynch slapped, the lawyer slipped into her room at the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah and told her, "Don't worry." Then he walked six miles to the nearest U.S. Marines and told them where she was.

He later returned to the hospital, at the request of U.S. commanders, to map the facility and count how many Saddam Hussein loyalists were there.

A U.S. commando force whose name remains secret rescued Lynch early Wednesday local time. She was taken Thursday to Germany for treatment of injuries she suffered when she was captured.

The lawyer, whose first name is Mohammed and who asked that his last name not be published, smiled between every sentence as he recounted in broken but expressive English how he helped the Americans. He learned English at Basra University.

Wearing Marine hand-me-downs after fleeing with only the clothes on their backs, Mohammed, his wife Iman, 32, a nurse at Saddam Hospital, and 6-year-old daughter Abir, seemed surprisingly cheerful for a family on the run.

Grateful Leathernecks showered them with Marine unit patches, a commemorative coin and an American flag on their way to a refugee center near the port of Umm Qsar, where they hope to ride out the war.

"I love America. I like America. Why, I don't know," Mohammed said as he recounted the critical role he played in Lynch's rescue.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has long repressed Iraq's people with such a brutal grip that even with American troops at the gates to Baghdad many refuse to rise up against him out of fear that he will outlast the Americans.

But Mohammed's tale is one of a man who didn't like what he saw when he walked into the Saddam Hospital last Friday to visit his wife and was told by a doctor friend that an American woman POW was in the emergency ward.

The friend walked him to the ground-floor ward, taken over by the feared Saddam Fedayeen at the start of the war, and past a window where he saw Lynch, an Army private first class captured after her convoy became lost near Nasiriyah in the opening days of the war.

Her head was bandaged, her right arm was in a sling over a white blanket and she had what Mohammed thought was a gunshot wound to a leg. But her real problem then was the black-uniformed Fedayeen commander who everyone addressed as "colonel."

The man slapped her, Mohammed said. "One, two," he added, making single slapping and back slap motions with his right hand. She was very brave, he recalled.

"My heart cut," Mohammed added, meaning stopped, putting his hand over his chest and grimacing. "There, I have decided to go to Americans to give them important information about the woman prisoner."

He walked into her room with his doctor friend. "I said 'Good morning.' She thought I was a doctor. I say, 'Don't worry.' She smiled," he recalled.

Doctors treating Lynch wanted to amputate her leg, Mohammed said, but his doctor friend persuaded them not to. His friend, he said, "hates Saddam Hussein and hates security of Saddam Hussein."

Mohammed said he told his wife to take their daughter to his father's house for safety, and then set off on foot to find the American troops he had heard were occupying the edges of Nasiriyah.

"This was very dangerous for me because American soldiers shoot," he said, throwing up his hands in the air to show how he carefully approached what turned out to be the U.S. Marines.

He told them about the woman prisoner, and about a U.S. military uniform he had also seen, presumably of a U.S. soldier killed in the fighting in and around Nasiriyah, some of the heaviest of the war.

They asked him to return to the six-story, 234-bed hospital to gather information on its layout, its hallways, stairways and doors, its basement and whether a helicopter could land on its roof.

He walked back, with no taxis in sight, even as U.S. jets bombed parts of the city of more than 500,000 people. "Boom, boom. I walked under bombs. Fire, Fire," Mohammed recalled.

He did the same thing the next day to report back to the Marines.

There were 41 Fedayeen based at the hospital, with four guarding Lynch's room in civilian clothes but armed with AK-47 assault rifles and carrying radios.

"I drew them a map. I drew them five maps," he said, plainly relishing his cloak-and-dagger missions into the heart of Saddam's terror network.

Fedayeen raided his house the next day, he said, taking away all his possessions and even his car, a Russian-made Muscovitch Brazilia 680. He said a neighbor was shot and her body dragged through the streets just for waving at a U.S. helicopter.

"Very bad people," he said. "There is no kindness in my heart for them."

He got his family out of Nasiriyah on Tuesday night, hours before a task force of U.S. commandos rescued Lynch in a raid so noteworthy that the U.S. Central Command in Qatar called a 4:30 a.m. news conference to announce it.

Four American journalists who have had regular access to the Marines' combat operations center in southern Iraq were asked to stay away from the COC as the rescue operation was getting underway.

Mohammed and his family are now officially "temporary refugees."

After showers, Mohammed put on an oversized green Marine pullover, his wife put on one of the gray T-shirts that MTV donated to the Leathernecks and his daughter was covered to her knees in a green T-shirt from a Marine chemical warfare unit.

But Mohammed did not appear despondent, as his wife smiled and stayed shyly in the background and daughter Abir played with a neon-green illumination stick given to her by a Marine.

"I am very happy," he said, adding that his wife wants to work in a hospital helping Americans and that he is eager to help the Marines any way he can until he can return home to Nasiriyah and resume his normal life.

"In future, when Saddam Hussein down, I will go back to Nasiriyah because my house and office are there," he said. As for the Fedayeen, he said, "when Saddam Hussein down, I sure they go away."

"Believe me, not only I, all the people of Iraq, not the people in the government, like Americans," Mohammed said. "They want to help the Americans, but they are all afraid."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: 507th; army; injuries; iraq; jessica; jessicalynch; lynch; pfclynch; pow; pows; wva
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To: 68skylark
This man's courage and decency indicates Saddam Hussein could not turn all his people into soulless animals.

His exceptional heroism should be rewarded and held as an example that his instinctive love/like of America was valid.

61 posted on 04/03/2003 10:03:41 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: 68skylark
Thanks for the post I have been reading about this today.

I have an idea that when this is all over we will find that there are many stories of this sort and I hope that they come to light.
62 posted on 04/03/2003 10:03:42 PM PST by Irish Eyes
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To: Enemy Of The State
Got that right. But at the very least, some medal for Iraqis who really help the US forces should be available. Someone clue me in if there is already such a thing for foreigners who assist the US, but it just seems like that would be perfect in a situation like this.
63 posted on 04/03/2003 10:12:49 PM PST by July 4th
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To: 68skylark
Then he walked six miles to the nearest U.S. Marines and told them where she was

This man is a real hero.

64 posted on 04/03/2003 10:14:48 PM PST by lawgirl (Running from the Grand Ennui)
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To: lawgirl
This man is a real hero.

Let's not forget about him and his family... I'm sure Jessica and her family won't...

65 posted on 04/03/2003 10:27:50 PM PST by clilly54
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To: McGavin999
That guy and his family should get a green card today! This man is more an ally than the frogs who supported the dictator!

MUHAMMED FOR FRENCH PRESIDENT!
66 posted on 04/03/2003 10:29:22 PM PST by MattGarrett
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To: July 4th
I do know that there are medals that the US government can give to foreign soldiers and I am fairly sure that there are civil service medals that can be given to foreign nationals....wish I could be of more help.
67 posted on 04/03/2003 10:39:23 PM PST by Enemy Of The State (http://www.dleepow.us/emergency.html)
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To: XEHRpa
"And look for those same Hollyeweird lefties out protesting the war to be falling over themselves to get a leading role in the movie that will surely be based on this event."

We can count on seeing Alec Baldwin in the role of the Iraqi hero, Madonna as the nurse, Martin Sheen as a tough, brave Sergeant Major spearheading the rescue, and Jeanine Garafalo as mighty PFC Lynch!

All these silly Blinton Bunts will no doubt get all the juicy roles!

68 posted on 04/03/2003 10:50:39 PM PST by Husker8877
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To: 68skylark
This story brought tears to my eyes. This gentleman is a hero. He knew that he was risking his life and the lives of his family, for an American woman he had never seen before. He could have simply turned away after seeing her get slapped. He could have said to myself, "This is none of my business. I've got too much to lose, so I'm not going to get involved." But he didn't turn away. His courage and his compassion are simply awesome. He deserves a huge reward.
69 posted on 04/03/2003 11:13:25 PM PST by Rainbow Rising (God bless our troops)
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To: 68skylark
"I love America. I like America. Why, I don't know," Mohammed said

Well ... it's a start. (Thanks for posting this).

70 posted on 04/03/2003 11:15:37 PM PST by BunnySlippers
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To: Tailback
I love these kinds of stories...

... it brought a tear to my eye.
71 posted on 04/03/2003 11:27:21 PM PST by goodolemr
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To: Lady In Blue; Canticle_of_Deborah; Desdemona
ping
72 posted on 04/04/2003 12:16:48 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: 68skylark
"Boom boom. I walked under bombs. Fire fire" Mohamed recalled. He said "a neighbor was shot and her body dragged through the streets just for waving to a US helicopter"

This is a story for the ages. The Iraqi people can tell their children and grand children about Mohamed. He, and his wife should be given a prominent role in the new Iraq government, if they want, or make them US citizens, give them a big house here, and a big bank account. This story defines the word hero-One that shows great courage.

73 posted on 04/04/2003 12:30:07 AM PST by fly_so_free (Never underestimate the treachery of the demacratic party. Save the USA-Vote a demacrat out of offic)
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To: Calpernia
Ernie De Bella
74 posted on 04/04/2003 4:14:18 AM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (My ear infection sucks bigtime and that's even counting vicodin in the + column. I'm not an animal!)
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To: 68skylark
I've read several versions of the same story....this one, however, provides the most information. Glad I read it.
75 posted on 04/04/2003 4:23:26 AM PST by nicmarlo
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To: 68skylark
Fedayeen raided his house the next day, he said, taking away all his possessions and even his car, a Russian-made Muscovitch Brazilia 680. He said a neighbor was shot and her body dragged through the streets just for waving at a U.S. helicopter. ..

"Believe me, not only I, all the people of Iraq, not the people in the government, like Americans," Mohammed said. "They want to help the Americans, but they are all afraid."

What a great guy! Can he get a medal too?

76 posted on 04/04/2003 4:24:12 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: Enemy Of The State
Geeee...its a good thing the US press isnt reporting too many details to give this guys cover away.

Yeah, his name is Mohammed. That should narrow down the search.

77 posted on 04/04/2003 4:27:34 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: MattGarrett
That guy and his family should get a green card today!

Why do you assume his only desire in all this was to get to the U.S.? He stated in the story that he wanted to get back to his home and law office. He wants to stay and rebuild his country, not pull up stakes and move to another.

78 posted on 04/04/2003 4:30:51 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: 68skylark; GraniteStateConservative
On another thread on this story, later pulled because it was a duplicate, GraniteStateConservative expressed the hope that Mohammed would be seated in the visitors' gallery beside Laura, and be recognized by the President, at the January, 2004 State of the Union Address. That's such a good idea, I felt it should be repeated here.

Or maybe better yet, he could be an honored guest at President Bush's second Inaugural Address in January, 2005.

79 posted on 04/04/2003 4:53:37 AM PST by southernnorthcarolina (optional tag line, printed after my name)
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To: nickcarraway
Bump
80 posted on 04/04/2003 5:05:28 AM PST by Desdemona
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