News Quickies

• Former Iraq POW Jessica Lynch is pregnant.  She and her boyfriend, Wes Robinson, are expecting their first child in January. (CNN.com)
• 43% of Americans believe the United States is now safer from terrorism than it was before September 11, 2001.  25% believe it is less safe.  Over half believe that an act of terrorism will likely happen in the US in the next few weeks, over half believe that the federal government is unprepared for any terrorist attack targeting any U.S. town or city, and over half believe that the federal government is unprepared to deal with the damage from a terrorist attack.  Plus, over 50% believe that the U.S.-led war in Iraq has made the country less safe from terrorism and almost 60% believe that the U.S.-led war in Iraq has made the world less safe from terrorism. (CNN.com)
• British budget airline Ryanair filed a £3m compensation claim against the British government yesterday due to losses from the new airport security restrictions incorporated two weeks ago that still are resulting in lines so long that they have “spillover tents” outside of two of the terminals. (Guardian Unlimited)
• “Research in 56 countries found that rates of asthma, hayfever and eczema increased more often than they decreased between 1991 and 2003.” (Guardian Unlimited)
• A geography teacher was placed on paid administrative on the second day of school for hanging several flags from other countries in his classroom.  Apparently, a Colorado law that makes it illegal to display foreign flags permanently in schools.  How stupid is that?  Why is that law even necessary? (TheDenverChannel.com)

Tags: Jessica Lynch, 9/11, terrorism, Iraq, Ryanair, airport security, stupid laws

Recommended Reading - 08/25/06

• ‘Liquid Bombers’ - The Impossible Bomb — A lot of websites have been linking to this explanation as to why the most recent terror plot from the UK could not have worked and why all of the fearmongering and passenger harrassment by the UK and American governments in the airports is unnecessary. I say, read it for yourself and decide for yourself.
• Homeland insecurity 2.0 — Pam @ Pam’s House Blend wrote one of the best reports of what travelling immediately after the latest terrorist plot scare was like that I’ve read.
  

  Again, the PA came on, this time it was for another flight — on Continental — that was boarding. This announcer, I’m not kidding you, went on for about 2-3 minutes warning people about taking on liquids and gels (”liquid” chapstick is a no-no, solid is OK), no coffee or soda will make it on board. Random checks at the gate would be performed. If they find contraband on you, you will be asked to give it up. If you don’t give it up, you’ll not be able to board, he boomed, and you would have to go on a later flight. “Not later today,” he warned, “maybe not even this week…maybe not for a couple of weeks.” OK, at this point, people are laughing, including the two of us. This is ludicrous.

  Our flight is finally called and we board. The plane is about to close up and a couple of late arrivals get on. This time we have a woman taking her sweet time, coming down the aisle with a steaming hot cup of Cinnabon coffee, which she proceeds to balance on an armrest as she casually loads her bag in the overhead bin, blocking the aisle as a couple of people wait behind her.

  Clearly, my friends, US Airways has let on the Cinnabomber.

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Tags: liquid bombers, airport security, Continental, U.S. Airways, crime rate, terrorism, morning-after pill, women soldiers, American soldiers, pharmacists, JonBenet Ramsey, Abeer al-Janabi, Jessica Lynch, Jim Bensman, Army Corps of Engineers, FBI, Duarris Perez, Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, Cuba, Homeland Security, Bosnia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hurricane Katrina, pink food coloring, food industry

1 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, The Middle East

Jessica Lynch’s Heroic Rescue — Another Fabrication?

Earlier, I posted about Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh’s version of Saddam’s capture and how he claims the army re-enacted the capture to alter the details a bit.

Now, I’ve been made aware of yet another discrepency in the televised “truths” we’ve come to rely on in the War in Iraq. Apparently, the version of the Jessica Lynch capture and rescue that we’ve been told isn’t the only version.

In an article in mid-May of this year, The Guardian printed an article about Jessica Lynch’s rescue that suggests that facts of her situation were embellished to provide the American public with a patriotic effort to rally around.

The two version makes one wonder how much of what we’re being told is truth and how much is being fabricated or at least manipulated. More and more I wonder who we can trust to give us the truth and the facts. Certainly the American media itself seems to be behaving as if it’s been intimidated into tiptoeing on the eggshells the Bush Administration seems to have scattered about.

The story the U.S. saw:

Releasing its five-minute film to the networks, the Pentagon claimed that Lynch had stab and bullet wounds, and that she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated. It was only thanks to a courageous Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, that she was saved. According to the Pentagon, Al-Rehaief risked his life to alert the Americans that Lynch was being held.

Just after midnight, Army Rangers and Navy Seals stormed the Nassiriya hospital. Their “daring” assault on enemy territory was captured by the military’s night-vision camera. They were said to have come under fire, but they made it to Lynch and whisked her away by helicopter. That was the message beamed back to viewers within hours of the rescue. [“The Truth About Jessica” (The Guardian, May 15, 2005)]

And the U.K.’s version of what happened:

The doctors in Nassiriya say they provided the best treatment they could for Lynch in the midst of war. She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital, and one of only two nurses on the floor. “I was like a mother to her and she was like a daughter,”says Khalida Shinah.

“We gave her three bottles of blood, two of them from the medical staff because there was no blood at this time,”said Dr Harith al-Houssona, who looked after her throughout her ordeal. “I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle. Then I did another examination. There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only RTA, road traffic accident,” he recalled. “They want to distort the picture. I don’t know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury.”

The doctors told us that the day before the special forces swooped on the hospital the Iraqi military had fled. Hassam Hamoud, a waiter at a local restaurant, said he saw the American advance party land in the town. He said the team’s Arabic interpreter asked him where the hospital was. “He asked: ‘Are there any Fedayeen over there?’ and I said, ‘No’.” All the same, the next day “America’s finest warriors” descended on the building.

“We heard the noise of helicopters,” says Dr Anmar Uday. He says that they must have known there would be no resistance. “We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital.

“It was like a Hollywood film. They cried, ‘Go, go, go’, with guns and blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show - an action movie like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan, with jumping and shouting, breaking down doors.” All the time with the camera rolling. The Americans took no chances, restraining doctors and a patient who was handcuffed to a bed frame.

There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Al-Houssona had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance. “I told her I will try and help you escape to the American Army but I will do this very secretly because I could lose my life.” He put her in an ambulance and instructed the driver to go to the American checkpoint. When he was approaching it, the Americans opened fire. They fled just in time back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch.

A military cameraman had shot footage of the rescue. It was a race against time for the video to be edited. The video presentation was ready a few hours after the first brief announcement. When it was shown, General Vincent Brooks, the US spokesman in Doha, declared: “Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen, loyal to a creed that they know that they’ll never leave a fallen comrade.”

None of the details that the doctors provided Correspondent with made it to the video or to any subsequent explanations or clarifications by US authorities. I asked the Pentagon spokesman in Washington, Bryan Whitman, to release the full tape of the rescue, rather than its edited version, to clear up any discrepancies. He declined. Whitman would not talk about what kind of Iraqi resistance the American forces faced. Nor would he comment on the injuries Lynch actually sustained. “I understand there is some conflicting information out there and in due time the full story will be told, I’m sure,” he told me. [“The Truth About Jessica” (The Guardian, May 15, 2005)]

Having read the U.K.’s version, don’t you feel like maybe the whole Jessica Lynch thing was way overblown? Feels like they brought a cannon to kill an ant. Reminds me a little of Wag the Dog. There’s just so many conflicting stories out there these days; so many mistruths.

Oh, and one more thing… Jessica Lynch doesn’t recall any of it.

Trouble is that doctors now say she has no recollection of the whole episode and probably never will. Her memory loss means that “researchers” have been called in to fill in the gaps. [“The Truth About Jessica” (The Guardian, May 15, 2005)]

Hat tip to Monkeypup.

Tags: Jessica Lynch, Conspiracy Theories, Iraq, lie, UK