Jessica Lynch Criticizes Accounts of Her Ordeal (NYT)

[stevedeshazer]

<snip>
In her first public statements since her rescue in Iraq, Jessica Lynch criticized the military for exaggerating accounts of her rescue and re-casting her ordeal as a patriotic fable.

Asked by ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer if the military's portrayal of the rescue bothered her, Ms. Lynch said: "Yeah, it does. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. Yeah, it's wrong" according to a partial transcript to be broadcast on Tuesday.

After months of retreating from the news media, Ms. Lynch will be a ubiquitous presence next week. In addition to her apppearance on ABC, she will be on the cover of Time magazine, and NBC will broadcast a movie based on an Iraqi's account of her ordeal. On Tuesday, the book publisher Knopf will release an account of her experience, "I Am a Soldier, Too," written with her cooperation by a former reporter for the New York Times, Rick Bragg.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/national/07LYNC.html?ex=1068872400&en=456dd578d7db397b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
___________________________________________________________________

This really blows a hole in the Pentagon's account of her story. It's bound to be a big, big story.

[frank frankly]

1. thanks again, Jessica

standing up to the BFEE is a brave brave thing, Ms. Lynch.

thank you.

[librechik]

2. I say again: good for her

can't wait for Shoshana Johnson's big interview!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1025pow25.html

[T Bone]

3. Maybe Ms Lynch has been listening to her state's US Senators

and realizes that they are right based upon her personal experiences.
Could be.

[RandomKoolzip]

4. I'm guessing she won't go whole hog into what REALLY happened...

If she had, she'd already be dead, and ABC would be too. Still, a bone has been thrown our way, guys.......

[w4rma]

5. Jessica Lynch has honor and integrity. (n/t)

[Cooley Hurd]

6. This explains why she wasn't too keen on meeting up with...

...the Iraqi lawyer who claimed to have saved her:

<snip>
Ms. Lynch also disputed statements by Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, the Iraqi lawyer, that he saw her captors slap her.

"From the time I woke up in that hospital, no one beat me, no one slapped me, no one, nothing," Ms. Lynch told Diane Sawyer, adding, "I'm so thankful for those people, because that's why I'm alive today."

Jeff Coplon, who helped Mr. Rehaief write his book, "Because Each Life is Precious," said it was possible that both he and Ms. Lynch were telling the truth in their divergent accounts.

"One of the questions that could arise in the wake of this kind of trauma is that someone could believe they remember everything and their memory could still be incomplete," Mr. Coplon said.
</snip>

That fills in a blank, doesn't it?

[gardenista]

9. "No one slapped me"

Yes, that was a direct contradiction of his claim.

And, remember, folks, Lynch withdrew from any involvement in the upcoming, apparently overhyped (surprise?), "Saving Private Lynch". This is based on an account of the "Rescuer/Lawyer", NOT Lynch.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Good for her...and it's just as most of us suspected...

...I guess I must have been out of the loop somehow when this became common knowledge:

"...and the hospital was already in friendly hands when her rescuers arrived." Amazing. Truly amazing.

That just absolutely destroys the rescue version of events.

[stevedeshazer]

8. It also ruins the credibility of the account

outlined in this Rick Bragg dude's book.

[Newsjock]

10. Time to attack NBC?

Suggest that their Lynch movie be given to a historical review board to check it for accuracy. Any quotes that can't be verified shouldn't be allowed. And we will mobilize every media outlet we have to apply 24/7 pressure until NBC gives us what we want.

Ohwait, we don't behave like that, do we.

[gbwarming]

11. Dude, Rick Bragg wrote Lynch's book.

I am a Soldier, too: The Jessica Lynch Story
by Rick Bragg, Jessica Lynch
Hardcover: 224 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.12 x 9.58 x 6.46
Publisher: Knopf; (November 11, 2003)
ISBN: 1400042577

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400042577/qid=1068190708/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-6259779-4552820?v=glance&n=507846

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. Read to me like Stevie D. already knew that...

...when he or she stated "outlined in this Rick Bragg dude's book".

I think he or she may have been referring to the rape story that Bragg included in his book and was kicked all over the lot yesterday may also be questionable.

[truthisfreedom]

12. bah, they're trying to discredit her already.

"One of the questions that could arise in the wake of this kind of trauma is that someone could believe they remember everything and their memory could still be incomplete," Mr. Coplon said.






someone, huh?

[smallprint]

13. Good for her

She's fighting back. The Pentagon is in biiiig trouble now.

[dfong63]

14. ironically, that girl is now showing herself to be a real heroine

... by standing up and dispelling the myths that the military brass tried to conjure up about her, in their desperate search for propaganda fodder.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. You're right - she IS a real hero!

It would've been easy for her to go along with the "story," but she chose to tell the truth. That takes GUTS!

[DoctorMyEyes]

24. I agree

I'm really impressed by her resistence to being used as a propoganda tool by the Rove machine.

Too bad there's no medal for that.

BTW - I was reading this story on Yahoo news, and the comments being made about the story were just unreal. The same people that were calling her a hero before and practically wanted her cannonized as a saint have completely turned on her.

[TennesseeWalker]

16. Thank, you, Jessica. You're a TRUE patriot.

I can't thank you enough. You are a HERO, in every sense of the world. God bless you, and God Bless America. We need more heros like YOU.

[dusty64]

17. WOW, this is interesting.

Maybe the deaths/murders ? of her "rescuers" are pissing her off. I hope she tells the real story of what happened to her in time for nbc to have to ditch her movie.

[Snellius]

18. I wonder if even this rape charge is true

I certainly wouldn't put it past some of her captors but I also wouldn't put it past some in the U.S. army to falsify evidence of a crime of which she has no recollection. The way they concocted fake letters home.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. That's a fair question, IMHO....

...I just find it beyond reasonable that her Iraqi captors would brutally assault her on one hand, and then turn her over to the hospital where she apparently was treated very well. Just doesn't make sense to me.

[berner59]

22. 1st thought too...

When her response was that she didn't remember the rape attack and that she wasn't treated harshly... Who wouldn't think for a second that her medical records would be messed with to benefit the "cause"????

What a crock this whole "story" has become...but good for her to speak up with Sawyer but again, her bio book was authorized by her so there seems to be a contradiction...the book seems like it supports the propaganda...hmmm...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Well, we're certainly being told that Bragg's book was authorized...

...by her and/or her family, but I'd be willing to bet that the Army/Defense Department had a fair amount of say over what was being told in the book. Since Lynch "officially" doesn't remember the initial hours of her ordeal, how easy would it have been for somebody from the Army/DoD to point at some detail in Lynch's medical file and claim that she was raped? All they had to do after that was point to the awful experience of Cornum from Desert Storm, and remind everyone that the Iraqis do rape female prisoners.

Another discrepancy in the "official" story, IMHO, involves when Lynch actually became unconscious. The "official" version seems to indicate that Lynch was knocked out when her vehicle crashed, but she states that she was not only conscious following the crash but tried to use her rifle which jammed. So, at what point did she pass out, or did she pass out at all? Given her honesty with Sawyer, I'm thinking that if a rape had taken place while she was alert she would have acknowledged it.

You're correct...this story is definitely a crock. Too many versions and too many lies from "official" sources. Makes you think along the lines of what else are they lying to us about?

[Dhalgren]

21. This would be easy to verify, for Ms Lynch.

She should get her own doctor to verify the findings. I have a friend who was raped like that as a teenager, and thirty years later his doctor can still find evidence of it. If the rape part is true, it is horrific and should not be used by anyone for gain - one way or the other. But I am afraid that the Emperor will use this to bolster his standings in the next election.

[Snellius]

29. Here's a story questioning the rape:

The rape story raises some questions, not least because so much of the Jessica Lynch story has already been discredited as a propaganda opportunity for the Pentagon.

Why, one might ask, has it taken so long for the alleged rape to be made public?

Bragg was not commenting on Thursday.

Was Jessica Lynch abused by her captors?

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=vn20031107142734177C761954&set_id=6

The physical evidence seems to be confined to bruises and injuries that Army doctors concluded could not have been caused by her accident. There does not seem to be any semen traces.

[0007]

31. My gut feeling is that Jessica wasn't a victim of rape!

When the main story was shot full of holes. It was then said Jessica didn't remember nothing of the ordeal.

So rape was an easy item to inject to save face, and Karl's ass.

[LynneSin]

23. So Reagan mini-series is fictional and bad but.....

A TV movie that is based on falsehoods about Jessica Lynch is ok because we'll just fill it with more lies.

Personally, this is full of crap and THIS show should be pulled (and replaced with the Reagan Mini-Series).

I always suspected that when Jessica Lynch finally spoke to the press that the story would be nowhere near what the story was from the Pentagon.

You go gal!!!

[dArKeR]

26. Lynch: Military manipulated story - MSGOP

Former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch said the U.S. military was wrong to manipulate the story of her dramatic rescue and should not have filmed it in the first place.

THE 20-YEAR-OLD private told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in a “Primetime” interview to air Tuesday that she was bothered by the military’s portrayal of her ordeal.
“They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff,” she said in an excerpt from the interview, posted Friday on the network’s Web site. “It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about,” she said.
She also said there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed. “It’s wrong,” she said.

http://msnbc.com/news/990040.asp?0cv=CB20

[leesa]

27. Good for her. This is what she should be saying, but assuming the

physicians and medical team in Iraq cared for her as it sounds like they did, she needs to be forceful and say it loud. She is being used as a tool and I hope she keeps up the criticism.

[0007]

28. "I Am a Soldier, Too."

Jessica won't be meeting junior anytime to soon for a photo opp to present the purple heart, I bet.

Wouldn't it be ironic to have an AWOL pinning a purple heart?

[TahitiNut]

30. duplicate

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=204708

I'm locking this thread. Interested DUers are welcome to continue discussing this in the referenced thread.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,
TahitiNut - DU moderator