- NEW DELHI -- The dramatic
rescue of US soldier Jessica Lynch on April 2 from an Iraqi hospital made
headlines everywhere, including in this newspaper.
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- The whole world saw dramatic footage - conveniently filmed
by US Army night vision cameras - of helicopter-borne American special
forces kicking down doors and firing their guns, apparently at Iraqi soldiers.
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- The rescue of the young POW boosted morale on the US
home front at a time when the invasion of Iraq had appeared to run aground.
"It was a classic operation done by some of our nation's finest warriors,
who are dedicated to never leaving a comrade behind", US brigadier
general Vincent Brooks declared. And the entire media breathlessly retailed
this story.
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- There was only one problem: the story simply wasn't true.
The dramatic rescue was a well-prepared 'infowar' operation staged for
the cameras. The purpose being to shift media focus away from the killing
of civilians by the US bombardment of Iraq and on to the 'heroism' of US
forces.
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- Interviews conducted by the Toronto Star and BBC at the
hospital in Nasiriya where Lynch was being treated have revealed the following
facts about the entire affair:
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- All Iraqi troops and fidayeen had withdrawn from the
area two days before the 'daring' rescue.
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- The hospital staff had driven Lynch to a US checkpost
in an ambulance a day earlier in an attempt to hand her over but were fired
upon.
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- US soldiers involved in the rescue fired blanks to create
the impression that they had to fight their way in.
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- "It was like a Hollywood film", Dr Ammar Uday
told the BBC, "They cried 'go, go, go', with guns and blanks without
bullets and the sound of explosions. They made a show...".
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- "The most important thing to know", Dr Harith
Houssona told the Toronto Star, "is that Iraqi soldiers and commanders
had left the hospital almost two days earlier".
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- He said that the night they left, his colleagues moved
Jessica Lynch out of intensive care and into an ambulance. "We began
to drive to the Americans, who were just 1 km away. But when the ambulance
got within 300 metres, they began to shoot".
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- The BBC, whose documentary on the stage-managed 'rescue'
will be telecast on Sunday, said the Pentagon "had been influenced
by Hollywood producers of reality TV and action movies, notably the man
behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer," whose advice "was
taken on and developed on the field of battle in Iraq".
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- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=46688937
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