So let me get this straight - The resque team went in with BLANKS? Let's pretend this is true. Imagine the outcry if there was a firefight and some US soldiers were killed because they were armed with blanks. You have to be incredibly gullible to believe that the US would risk such a PR disaster. If anything, they could have just shot some live rounds into the wall if they wanted some special effects.

Secondly, the reporter wants the reader to believe that the US lied about her bullet wounds. Surely this idiot must know that Jessica Lynch will at some point be released from hospital and that the truth would immediately be known. Why would the US knowingly lie about something they know is going to be impossible to cover up later on?

Then there's the thing about the ambulance. Who knows if this is true, but I'm sure Jessica will in time be able to confirm or deny that story.

Lastly, the entire article reeks of the work of a guy who thinks he has THE story of the war, even though his entire story is full of wild assumptions stated as fact. The poor asshole seems hung up on the fact that he isn't getting what he wants when he snaps his fingers. Everything he has is based on interviews with some doctors at the hospital who may be trying to paint as pretty a picture as possible so they won't be charged with war crimes.

Tony Blair should execute these people for treason right away for publishing such filth. They have shown whose side they're on, now let them take the consequences.

This is nothing but a smear. For the sake of argument, let's stipulate to the truth of all of the alleged facts concerning the supposed great medical care and lack of danger surrounding Lynch. Any rescue team in the wartime circumstances prevailing at the time would be idiotic to undertake a recovery mission without assuming hostile conditions. Whether those conditions were present or not does not affect the skill or heroism of the recovery team based on the assumptions they necessarily had to make. They treated it, properly, as a wartime rescue operation.

The Guardian snidely implies that the rescue/recovery was not important news and was therefore overhyped. That is a subjective matter of perception. For the Guardian, it obviously wasn't. For the American people with their soldiers in battle, it clearly was and logically would be. Ironically, the Guardian thinks its one-sided condescending presentation of its version does constitute news.

The least credible part of the entire piece is the Guardian's suggestion that the entire episode was staged by Hollywood producers and Rambo actor soldiers. The article reflects more poorly on the news standards of the Guardian than those of the U.S. military public relations system it is attacking.

Disgusting.

The Guardian is just upset that the Daily Mirror outbid them for Peter Arnett.

NBC has announced that they are going to make a TV movie based on the story of Jessica Lynch who was "rescued in a daring operation."
Well, although I understand that they have found a very sexy and fine script of a "heroic and dramatic rescue mission"; however, it turns out that there were "no Iraqi soldiers or militiamen at the hospital that night"; with one of her doctors, who was present there, saying "They made a big show. It was just a drama. A big, dramatic show." Welcome to Hollywood pal!!!

Open your eyes. This is the third time I have read this story. Washington Post published the same thing, the real thing, one month ago!! The Lynch story was part of American-made prapaganda to show how heroic their soldiers are. "Toronto Star" newspaper in Canada explored it more in detail as well. It is amazing how easily American media can lie.

Washington Past April 15th:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26714-2003Apr14?language=printer

Toronto Star May 5th:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1051643375850&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

... Here is BBC Link As Well:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm

US Army wiith a little help of Fox, CNN, and CBS made a real good Hollywood movie!!!

So what is this article saying?

- The rescue mission wasn´t dangerous enough for the author´s taste.
- US cameramen shot a cool video during the raid.
- They used it to get good PR - the infamy!
- There was an 'uncritical' documentary about American soldiers on American TV once.
- John Kampfner doesn´t like any of that.

No big story. Maybe Jessica Lynch wasn´t mistreated at the hospital. No reason to leave her there.

And the quote from the Iraqi doctor about blanks probably refers to stun grenades.

So the hospital was undefended at the time? And of course our guys KNEW that.

Nonsense. Combat situation, you go in hard. Standard OP.

As to the film, pardon me but combat teams do bring cameras with them. They may not be able to use them all the time, but if the area is secure, they will.

This is just a bunch of whining by people who supported Saddam and hate Americans. Who cares what they think. They lost, we won. ...and they'll continue to lose. That is SO sad.

Well, the US Command in Doha and at the Pentagon certainly did extract maximum mileage from Jessica Lynch's rescue, and were guilty of "talking up" the drama (she had no bullet wounds and there were apparently no actual fedayeen at the hospital itself).

But the paper is guilty of an equally deceptive piece of bias: it is accepting as fact what the 'doctors' say. One must bear in mind that to get these coveted hospital posts, they had to be
Baathists. And any ill-treatment of PoWs was going to be very bad for their future.

Lynch does not have amnesia about the rescue or the hospital stay, so I assume she can confirm the facts about her treatment. It is a fact, though, that the bodies of the dead American soldiers were found buried in the hospital grounds. There are reasons to believe they were executed.

In view of the mass grave recently dug up near Hillah in the south, of thousands apparently executed with their hands tied, journalists should not be so ready to believe what officials of the old regime tell them.

Give me a break. And anybody who reads the Toronto Star for information on American Military Action is beyond hope. That rag is so full of lies, and conclusions drawn on selected facts, as to be useless. Next you will be saying that you saw it in an Oliver Stone movie, or a Michael Moore "documentary".

Jessica Lynch may indeed tell everyone what happened, but then again - maybe she won't. Why? She may not remember. As in PTSD, memory is very selective. We all heard from those very reliable mainstream sources how she was stabbed, beaten, raped, ravaged, AND shot. None of that has either been confirmed or denied, excepting the abuse she suffered which the Iraqi attorney/rescuer (now living in Virginia) witnessed. The military won't tell anyone, and Jessica can't, as I understand it, because she has no memory of it. Where does that leave this useless piece of 'mainstream' information? Where it belongs - in a sewage lagoon. It will stink for awhile, but if you aren't downwind, you won't smell it. This STORY gives new meaning to the phrase "All the news that's fit to print". My advice is to flush it.

It is a fact that

a) Jessica was captured and taken as a POW.
b) Jessica was successfully rescued.

Why can't everyone be happy with just that? What is it that drives some people to look for deep, dark conspiracies in everything?

I believe this same crap was in a Canadian paper last week.

We know she wasn't stabbed or shot. The initial reports said she had been. Initial reports have a tendency to be incorrect, which is why the Bush Administration is sometimes slow about making statements. They, like us, try to deal in facts.

I'm sure we sent a big cargo plane full of BLANKS to Iraq so we could stage big fake fire fights. I'm sure all the actors involved can keep the secret. The 'teams' we sent in weeks before the war, were actually Hollywood film crews, sent in to set up props. Actually this whole 'staged' war took place in the desert somewhere near Roswell. 'Hollywood' is always ready to help conservatives pull the wool over everyones eyes. I thought I recognized one of the 'so called' soldiers as Martin Sheen.

Hey, maybe I could get a job with one of those phony ass British publications...........on second thought, I'd rather die from a sharp stick in the eye.

That's right Jeff.

All the casualties we're suffering in the war are actually complex U.S. Marshall operations to provide key witnesses the ultimate witness protection cover. Nobody actually died. They're all living peacefully in a motel in Virginia, with new passports and a new lease on life.

so did they Ever say what heppened to Jessica ?
The Doctors who treated her didn't know if she
was shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, got whip lash, or
triped on her bunk in Kuait. Since she Conviently
lost her memory Anyone can believe what they want.
Maybe her high heels got caught in the...

>All the casualties we're suffering in the war are
>actually complex U.S. Marshall operations to
>provide key witnesses the ultimate witness
>protection cover. Nobody actually died. They're all
>living peacefully in a motel in Virginia, with new
>passports and a new lease on life.

That's actually kind of clever. If I were in the WPP, and saw a war with Iraq coming, I'd encourage my key witnesses to "enlist".

Obviously I don't think it was all the casualties, but darn if I wouldn't be tempted to slip one or two onto the rosters.

Blanks!

Of course, THAT'S why there were so few Iraqi casualties! It's all been blanks!

In fact, there've really been NO casualties. This is really a real-life version of "Wag the Dog"!

Uh, except, who would benefit from this? Could it be, I mean, blow yer mind, could it really be that we're living in THE MATRIX?!??

I expect Agent Smith and company to be arriving at the Guardian momentarily to have a little chat w/ some of the editors......

Just another jab at the USA.

Notice they never say anything about the maytered palistinian boy who kept falling out of the streacher, then getting up, getting back in, not only once, but twice. That was a french film crew I believe.
Nor do they say anything about the staged shooting of a father and son, executed by palistinians themselves for dramatic effect, with a photographer convieniantly in place.

Nor does anyone say anything about micheal moore fabrications, one that stands out in mind is when he made a doccumentry showing this missle factory, making weapons of mass destruction, which was actualy a rocket factory that made rockets for lauching stuff into space.

The Toronto star? LMAO That LIBERAL slanted rag? who would read that?

it sure would be nice to clean up the press, toss them in jail for publishing bullshit stories.
Freedom of the press is one thing, Blatant lies is another.

While this story has been repeated elsewhere, its all from the same single Iraqi source. And has been pointed out, it doesn't make sense. The core of the claim was that there weren't any iraqi opposition at the hospital. No one in Central Command claimed that there was. And if Central Command had planned the rescue of Lynch as if there was no opposition, they would be as incompetent at the morons who wrote this article in Al Guardian.

Memory rusty on this, but I recall the initial reports stating there was no resistance in the hospital, but they did enounter enemy fire IN the town or from some building in the vicinity the hospital. A half mile away would be "near" enough for me.

I think the real blame in many of the inaccuracies about this should fall on the media for reporting everything as "facts" in order to scoop the story. the facts were no more then rumors and heresay. Instead, media like El'Guardian, point fingers at the military, Lynch, and the US instead of themselves.

I would like to thank people like Jeff B., Ted, and Dean for their entertaining comments, and I dearly hope that Mr. Self is reading these comments. That way, the next time he makes an attempt at sarcastic humour, he'll have a guideline of sorts and won't fail so miserably (I thought the British were supposed to be good at that!!)
As well, being a Canadian and all, I'd like to say "Hey Bubba, good call!" The Toronto Star is a Liberal "rag mag" like you said. If you believe whats written in the papers you'll be as dumb as those who believed that Jean Chretien would make a good Prime Minister.
Bye the bye, who could blame President Bush for cancelling his trip to Canada a while back? Would you enjoy coming to Canada only to spend all your time with Chretien?
Anyway, I'll close with this:
Jessica Lynch is a strong woman. The people who had to grow up and live in Iraq are strong people. Men and women who serve in the military and live in varied degrees of terror while we watch from the living room are strong men and women. People like Mr. Self Who sit back and critique these people, searching for ways to bring them down a notch or two, are WEAK people.

It's not about a freakin movie, it's not about propaganda wars, or Bush's government. It's supposed to be about the people.

Why is that so hard to remember Mr. Self??

Good question, Janet. Would the answer be HISSELF?

It was widely reported that a large feint attack was launched on another part of the city before and during the rescue. It's purpose was to cause the forces at the hospital to either leave to defend, or at least to be distracted.

I suspect the people who publish the story story (all left wing rags) also believe that Hollywood faked the Apollo landings on the moon.

Once again it proves that the left is composed of idiots.

Excuse me, but who is "Mr. Self?"

"it's not about propaganda wars."

Doh!

Yes it is.

Why did the Americans parachute into Kurdistan, when they could have flown in by choppers?

Why did Bush fly to a plane to a carrier, in a flight suit?

Why does Dr Uday tell the Guardian that our soldiers were firing blamks...when their guns won't fire blanks without adapters. Anyone see these adapters in the tape?

Pass - Notice how everyone is REALLY curious about YOU? Did you think she was actually goin' to give you credit for earning a name, you veggie you?

Is it 1984 already?

you guys need to cool down on your blind patriotism and maybe start to think a little, thumbs up to the BBC for at least attempting to extract some truth, its a shame none of our main news corporations put the same effort.
P.S, i dont want any dumbass patriotic backlash, i deal with that everyday and i always seem to end on top. I love freedom of speech, cos the stupid always end up 2nd best :)

just the fools beleve this fool history of a teen soldier, victim of evil dictator, taked back by american's special's forces...

but shit...

bush is a lier, and is wasting you'r taxes in lies
R Mc Leod is a tv nerd and that is realy SO sad, and Americans just win a deb.

¿What's going on with US economy Winners?

¿How many dead are US ready to get for leave Iraq?