No wonder Jessica Lynch has amnesia (Newsday)

posted by ewing2001 on Sunday May 18, @08:47AM

Newsday (NYC)

'Next rescue: Uncovering the truth about Jessica Lynch'

Sunday, May 18

By Ellis Henican, Newsday

"...No wonder Jessica Lynch has amnesia.

The story of her dramatic capture and rescue has just gotten a whole lot weirder, even for a 19-year-old Army private who says she can't remember a thing.

And she may not be the only one with memory problems about the war in Iraq. The Pentagon is also having trouble recalling what happened over there...

..."Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived," said John Kampfner, a British journalist who has taken a hard second look at the case for the BBC and the Guardian newspaper. His documentary, "Saving Private Jessica: Fact or Fiction?" airs in Britain on Sunday night..."

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Was Jessica shot?

Was she stabbed?

Was she slapped around by brutal Iraqi interrogators?

Was she freed in a daring rescue by Army Rangers and Navy Seals, who braved enemy fire as they stormed a heavily guarded hospital in Nasiriyah and choppered young Jessica away?

That's the way Pentagon officials told the story back in early April, an account that turned a sweet-faced clerk from Palestine, W. Va., into America's plucky poster girl for the war with Iraq. The story made front-page news across America and the cover of Newsweek. No war-obsessed TV producer could resist night-vision video of the American commando raid, conveniently supplied by Central Command.

But now, some uncomfortable questions are being asked about what really happened to Pvt. Jessica Lynch.

Clearly, she was captured and hurt. But in what order? And how? And how exactly was she freed?

The gripping narrative provided six weeks ago by the Pentagon is suddenly looking about as solid as Saddam's Republican Guard. And a deeper issue now has to be raised: Was this another manufactured moment in America's first made-for-TV war.

..."Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived," said John Kampfner, a British journalist who has taken a hard second look at the case for the BBC and the Guardian newspaper. His documentary, "Saving Private Jessica: Fact or Fiction?" airs in Britain on Sunday night..."

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