Jessica Lynch Was Not Raped, Iraqi Doctors Say

[IndianaGreen]

Jessica Lynch Was Not Raped, Iraqi Doctors Say
Tue November 11, 2003 12:21 AM ET
By Rosalind Russell

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi doctors who treated U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch dismissed on Monday allegations made in her biography that she was raped during her capture in Iraq, saying she had the best possible care.

Surgeons who treated Pvt. Lynch after her convoy was attacked near the southern city of Nassiriya in the early days of the U.S.-led invasion in March said they were shocked and hurt by accusations that she was sexually assaulted.

<snip>

Dr. Jamal Kadhim Shwail was the first doctor to examine Lynch when she was brought to Nassiriya's military hospital by Iraqi special police. Shwail said Lynch was lying in hospital reception, unconscious and in shock from blood loss.

She was wearing her uniform including a flak jacket, military trousers and boots, none of her clothes had been unbuttoned or removed, as the book claims, he said.

"We only had a few minutes to save her life. We found a vein in her neck to give her fluids and blood," Shwail told Reuters at his home in Nassiriya.

REUTERS

[Voltaire99]

1. This just in: Iraqi doctors hid WMDs inside Jessica Lynch

Now we know where they are.

[scottcsmith]

2. I don't know what to believe

With all of the propaganda that's been put out on the Lynch story, I just don't know what to believe about her ordeal. Of course, since the doctor is Iraqi, his claims will be dismissed. Isn't that odd? Bush made it clear that the war was to remove Saddam and his regime, and was not a war against the Iraqi people, but the unspoken word by Bush, his administration, and even the "elite" media is not to necessarily believe a statement made by an Iraqi, especially when it contradicts the U.S. sanctioned version of events.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Jessica Lynch never claimed she was raped

The claim was made by the author of the book, Rick Bragg, a man that was forced to resign from the NY Times shortly before the Jason Blair scandal for making up stories.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Rick Bragg's Lousy Alibi (Author of the Jessica Lynch book)

Rick Bragg is the only person to allege that Lynch was raped, a very dubious and unsupported claim.

Rick Bragg's Lousy Alibi
The suspended New York Times reporter insists—wrongly—that everybody does it.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2003, at 4:27 PM PT

On Friday, New York Times reporter Rick Bragg insisted to the Columbia Journalism Review he'd done nothing wrong in claiming 1) the byline for a story that an unpaid free-lancer had reported for him and 2) the dateline "Apalachicola, Fla.," after visiting the town only briefly. (See "Rick Bragg's 'Dateline Toe-Touch.' ")

"I wouldn't have done anything different," Bragg tells CJR.

Bragg reiterates that position to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz again today—as he pre-announces his resignation from the New York Times. He tells Kurtz:

I have dictated stories from an airport after writing the story out in longhand on the plane that I got from phone interviews and then was applauded by editors for "working magic." … Those things are common at the paper. Most national correspondents will tell you they rely on stringers and researchers and interns and clerks and news assistants.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2083607/

[underpants]

19. Bragg put that in there to sell more books

Which is stupid because this book is going to sell well anyway. I think it is disgraceful to jump the gun and of all things to use to sell books rape is the worst.

[IndianaGreen]

20. but it shows that Bragg never went to Iraq to question the doctors and...

but it shows that Bragg never went to Iraq to question the doctors and nurses that tended to Lynch when she was brought in. Their testimony is crucial, but instead of relying on that (which would have shown that there was no rape) Bragg reverted to relying on an uncorroborated source at Landstuhl. Is this the same source that said that Lynch's broken bones were caused by bullets?

Shame on Bragg!

[madrchsod]

7. the "foreign" press

published the story that is basically what jessica is saying just after all this happened. so the truth was out there but not for the american public. remember the usa news organizations were told what to print.and more importanly the doctors stories have changed in all these months unlike the government`s. and as for that scum and his book,may he rot in hell.

[Mal]

12. Think about it

Lynch would have been medically examined inch by inch after her "heroic rescue". If there was any evidence, even the slightest suggestion, of sexual assault, the news next day would have read "Heroic All-American Girl Brutally Gang-Raped and Tortured!!!!"

[Hobarticus]

5. She earned her Bronze Star...

...by standing up and saying that she's being used by the military. Attagirl, Jessica!

[IndianaGreen]

6. Lynch has been a class act all along, unlike her Pentagon superiors

It was her father who blew the whistle on the false stories about his daughter being shot and stabbed, and he is also the one that said that a Jason Blair's interview with the family never took place.

[Hobarticus]

9. You can say that again, she's a class act.

She never really seemed comfortable, with any of this. Think she just wanted to go home and live her life. The Pentagon and Bragg had other plans for her. I feel bad for her.

[underpants]

18. She's had to come forward several times to set the record straight

And she hasn't backed down from making sure the truth (as she can remember it) comes out.

From the beginning when the actual truth started coming out I said that the Pentagon might have picked the wrong soldier to go along with their made up story. I admit that I was characterizing her as an innocent (perhaps naive) WV girl but she has turned out to be anything but that. She is sharp and they did pick the wrong one, she simply refuses to be part of the lie.

Good for her and I hope she gets everything she can out of this.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thank you, Indiana Green. This article has very useful info.

First, however, have to post this sad photo. I hope at some point this human being will be able to live in peace. It seems OUTRAGEOUS to drag her out to an awards ceremony for Glamour Magazine:




Wish more people would read what the Iraqi doctors have stated:

(snip) "The thought did not cross my mind. Her injuries were consistent with severe trauma, a car crash, nothing else. Her clothes were not torn, her boots had not been removed. There is no way (she could have been raped)."

Shortly afterward Lynch was transferred to Saddam Hospital in Nassiriya, now renamed Nassiriya General.

There, Dr. Mahdi Khafazji operated on her fractured right femur. He cleaned her body before surgery and found no signs of sexual assault. "I examined her very carefully," he said at his clinic in Nassiriya's center. "I cleaned her body including her genitalia. She had no sign of raping or sodomizing."

"ASSAULT WOULD HAVE KILLED HER"

Lynch's wounds were so bad a sexual assault would have killed her, he said. "If she had been raped there is no way she could have survived it. She was fighting for her life, her body was broken. What sort of an animal would even think of that?" (snip)
(A mentally challenged propaganda pusher in the U.S.!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IF I had EVER believed the Iraqiis had raped her, I certainly wouldn't after reading this article. Thanks.

[Hobarticus]

10. That is a very depressing photo...

Fer Chrissakes, let the girl alone.

[IndianaGreen]

11. Lynch probably had to appear as part of the book promotion

Authors have to make public appearances arranged by their publishers in order to push book sales. I am sure Will Pitt has more to say about this.

[lostnfound]

15. Hey! Got to earn her keep doesn't she?! Sell, sell, sell!

:sarcasm off:
I feel sorry for her too. I hope that she stays strong and holds her feet on the ground in spite of the whirlwinds of government and media forces trying to use her for what they want.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. Same topic: Iraqi Doctors Dispute Lynch Rape Claim

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=206052


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-jessica-lynch,0,2863419.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- Iraqi doctors who treated former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch dismissed on Friday claims made in her biography that she was raped by her Iraqi captors.

Although Lynch said she has no memory of the sexual assault, medical records cited in "I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story" indicate that she was raped and sodomized by her Iraqi captors, according to U.S. media who said they had advance copies.

The book -- due to be released Tuesday -- covers Lynch's experience between March 23 when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah and April 1 when she was evacuated from a hospital by U.S. commandos. It was unclear if the book cites American or Iraqi records.

A family spokesman, Stephen Goodwin, confirmed the book alleges Lynch was raped.

Lynch suffered broken bones to her right arm, right leg and thighs and ankle and received a head injury when her Humvee utility vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle. Eleven soldiers were killed in the attack.

Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she was raped or sodomized.

Khafazji, speaking at his private clinic in Nasiriyah, said he examined her extensively and would have detected signs of sexual assault. He said the examination turned up no trace of semen.
<snip>

[imax2268]

14. I feel sorry for her...

I really do...people pushing and pulling her in every direction...it's a shame...

[IndianaGreen]

17. Lynch has behaved honorably all along, unlike...

Rumsfeld's PR team, or those scumbags that allegedly have nude pictures of Lynch. The rape took place in the USA, not in Iraq!

[fshrink]

16. Sex:

the usual unspoken, hidden, repressed, encrypted, but always so "pregnant" component of human motivation. The sexual symbolism of this whole mess, starting with the cut-off towers, will remain prudely veiled.

[The Stranger]

21. Rape was commonly used as a pretext for a lynching of African-Americans,

Jews, and others (other "Others") in the United States.

I wonder if this is the same story, different (very different) verse.

[TrueStory]

22. Summing Up

- Jessica doesn't remember any rape or misstreatment
- US doctors medical records indicate a rape (at least according to Bragg)
- Iraqi doctors didn't observed any signs of rape

However there is a significant difference between the US and Iraqi doctors: the NAME.

The Iraqi doctors name:
- Dr. Jamal Kadhim Shwail (he examined first Jessica)
- Dr. Mahdi Khafazji (he operated Jessica)
- Dr. Khudair al-Hazbar (the deputy director of the hospital)

The U.S. doctors are cheap, "noname" doctors, they only have an interface - called Bragg

Guess who's wrong and who's right