War Spin: The Truth About Jessica

I wonder what's the average American tolerance level for hearing lies from our government.
"Iraq possess WMD that they can deploy within 45 minutes..." "Iraq will use chemical weapons on us..." "Iraq has closed link to Al Quesda" "Iraq possess nuclear weapons..." "Iraq possess drone airplance that can be used to disperse chemical/biological agents" "This war is to liberate Iraq and not for oil" "Our U.S. intellegence was solely responsible for finding Jessica..." "Jesscia suffer from amnesia..." "Our special forces fought bravely and rescued Jessica under intense Iraqi fire..."

"Saddam killed his own people, we also kill Iraqis BUT they are NOT our own people....". OK. At least there's some truth here. Good job, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest. Damn proud to be Ameri....

It is too bad that little Jessica became a poster girl for the American liberation front. Why do you think she developed amnesia. She probably was ordered to forget the truth.
As to the wapons of mass destruction, there right here all along. Saddam moved them to the US. Darn how did our intelligence agencies miss that one?

The only thing Jessica's father said on TV was "Jessica never had amnesia". He looks like an honest person. I believe him. Looks like the crooks and liers (and evils, I almost forgot to say) are the high ranking U.S. military officials and the White House thugs.

Fool me once....

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly reporting from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching us tonight. Did the Pentagon fake the Jessica Lynch story? That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

On April 1, Army Private Jessica Lynch was rescued by U.S. Special Forces from an Iraqi hospital. The Pentagon used a video to illustrate the dramatic operation, and millions of us sat riveted watching the rescue of this POW. But a few weeks later, the BBC and The Toronto Star newspaper reported that the rescue was bogus. And Los Angeles Times columnist, Robert Scheer, said, "Where the manipulation of this saga really gets ugly is in the premeditated manufacture of the reduce itself."

The far left Scheer accused the Pentagon of staging the entire operation. The Military in turn called Scheer a liar, and Talking Points criticized him for buying propaganda without doing original reporting.

Enter the Associated Press. It is now reporting the following, that Iraqi doctors and nurses wanted to turn over Private Lynch to the Americans but quote, "made no attempt to notify U.S. troops of that effort", that Iraqi troops had left the hospital shortly before U.S. commandos arrived, that Private Lynch was not wounded by gunfire during her original capture.

Talking Points believes all of that is true. The Pentagon continues to say it did not know Iraqi soldiers had fled the hospital and insists that U.S. forces were fired upon outside the medical compound. Testimony from U.S. soldiers involved in the rescue seems to verify that. The Pentagon also denies staging anything and says the operation was planned with the expectation of resistance. Talking Points believes that assertion.

But, of course, radicals like Robert Scheer will never believe anything the Bush administration says, and Scheer writes quote, "If the movies, books, and other renditions of 'Saving Private Lynch' were to be honestly presented, it would expose this caper as merely one is a series of egregious lies marketed to us by the Bush administration."

Now, I will let you decide about Robert Scheer, but there's no question that the Pentagon made some mistakes here. One, it hyped the rescue of Private Lynch when it was a rather routine operation. Two, the Pentagon refuses to allow military witnesses to tell us exactly what happened, thereby giving critics like Scheer ammunition. Three, some military people did tell the press Private Lynch was shot in a fire fight. That did not happen. But on April 4, a U.S. military doctor said it didn't happen. So any cover-up accusation is pure garbage.

Talking Points would really like to know when the military and Bush administration are going to wise up and stop with all of the secrecy nonsense? If mistakes were made, tell the folks. Most Americans are not fanatics like Scheer. Mistakes always happen, but by refusing to outline exactly what went down in the Lynch rescue months after it happened, the military allows the crazy conspiracy people to run wild, and this hurts the USA because millions of people believe that stuff, especially overseas. The BBC couldn't be happier with the U.S. military running away from the story.

Summing up, I believe this Talking Points Memo is 100 percent accurate. The military thought things might get hot. They rescued Private Lynch. They did their job. It's the aftermath that should have been handled differently.

Robert Scheer: Saving Pvt. Jessica Lynch, Take 2
Robert Scheer

Published May 23, 2003 SCHE23

In the 1998 film "Wag the Dog," political operatives employ special editing techniques to create phony footage that will engender public sympathy for a manufactured war. Now we find that in 2003 the real-life Pentagon's ability and willingness to manipulate the facts make Hollywood's story lines look tame.

After a thorough investigation, the British Broadcasting Corp. has presented a shocking dissection of the "heroic" rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, as reported by the U.S. military and breathless American media.

"Her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived," the BBC concluded -- the polite British way of saying "liar, liar, pants on fire."

Though the Bush administration's shamelessly trumped-up claims about Iraq's alleged ties to Al-Qaida and 9/11 and its weapons of mass destruction take the cake for deceitful propaganda -- grand strategic lies that allow the U.S. seizure of Iraq's oil to appear to be an act of liberation -- the sad case of Lynch's exploitation at the hands of military spinners illustrates that the truth once again was a casualty of war.

Lynch, who says she has no memory of the events in question, has suffered enough in the line of duty without being made a propaganda pawn.

Sadly, almost nothing fed to reporters about Lynch's capture by Iraqi forces or her "rescue" by U.S. forces turns out to be true. Consider the April 3 Washington Post story on her capture headlined "She Was Fighting to the Death," which reported, based on unnamed military sources, that Lynch "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds," adding that she was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in.

It has since emerged that Lynch was neither shot nor stabbed, but rather suffered accident injuries when her vehicle overturned. A medical checkup by U.S. doctors confirmed the account of the Iraqi doctors, who said they had carefully tended her injuries, a broken arm and thigh and a dislocated ankle, in contrast to U.S. media reports that doctors had ignored Lynch.

Another report spread by news organizations nationwide claimed Lynch was slapped by an Iraqi security guard, and the U.S. military later insisted that an Iraqi lawyer witnessed this incident and informed them of Lynch's whereabouts. His credibility as a source, however, is difficult to verify because he and his family were whisked to the United States, where he was immediately granted political asylum and has refused all interview requests. His future was assured with a job with a lobbying firm run by former Republican Rep. Bob Livingston that represents the defense industry and a $500,000 book contract with HarperCollins, a company owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox network did much to hype Lynch's story, as it did the rest of the war.

But where the manipulation of this saga really gets ugly is in the premeditated manufacture of the rescue itself, which stains those who have performed real acts of bravery.

Eight days after her capture, American media trumpeted the military's story that Lynch was saved by Special Forces that stormed the hospital and, in the face of heavy hostile fire, managed to scoop her up and helicopter her out.

However, according to the BBC, which interviewed the hospital's staff, the truth appears to be that not only had Iraqi forces abandoned the area before the rescue effort but that the hospital's staff had informed the United States of this and made arrangements two days before the raid to turn Lynch over to the Americans. "But as the ambulance, with Pvt. Lynch inside, approached the checkpoint, American troops opened fire, forcing it to flee back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch," the BBC reported.

"We were surprised," Dr. Anmar Uday told the BBC about the supposed rescue. "There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital. It was like a Hollywood film. [The U.S. forces] cried 'Go, go, go,' with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions," Uday said. "They made a show for the American attack on the hospital -- [like] action movies [starring] Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan."

The footage from the raid, shot not by journalists but by soldiers with night-vision cameras, was fed in real time to the central command in Qatar. The video was artfully edited by the Pentagon and released as proof that a battle to free Lynch had occurred when it had not.

This fabrication has already been celebrated by an A&E special and will soon be an NBC movie. The Lynch rescue story -- a made-for-TV bit of official propaganda -- will probably survive as the war's most heroic moment, despite proving as fictitious as the stated rationales for the invasion itself.

If the movies, books and other renditions of "saving Private Lynch" were to be honestly presented, they'd expose this caper as merely one in a series of egregious lies marketed to us by the Bush administration.

After the killing innocent civilians, destroying the Iraqi infrastructure, this is what we get - the "saga" of Private Lynch.

It says little, doesn't it, for those who died by friendly fire, and otherwise. Out of the thousands of soldiers in the area of conflict, this is what we get!

One of my friends asked after the first Gulf War "was it a war or was it a movie".

The way the US media behaved in the midst of this current and unjustified tragedy once again reinforces the non-existant ability for the mainstream media to give any honest and objective reports.

I wonder what the UI media would have done if Ms. Lynch had been forty and not in the least attractive?

Only in America, you say? Thank God!

Lynch remembers quite accurately what occured and disputes the administrations lie about what took place.

The administrations version of events is a low budget action flick directed by the mossad.

Lynch's family is barred from discussing all matters relating to their daughter by the media.

They will face legal ramifications by the administration if they leak the truth out.
Poor soldier lynch was caught in the cross hair between the affairs that transpired and the administrations lies!

That's a winning combination. U.S. military definitely topped our beloved Iraqi Information Minister. Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray for our ingenious military gurus!