Katrina Vanden Heuvel: The Whole Truth–and Nothing But

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/04/972/

The Whole Truth–and Nothing But
by Katrina Vanden Heuvel

“It is time for the truth, the whole truth, versus misinformation and hype.” Those were Jessica Lynch’s words as she testified before Congress April 24– along with the brother and mother of the late Army Ranger Specialist Pat Tillman–to set the record straight on her service in Iraq.

On April 2, 2003, Army Private Lynch was carried from an Iraqi hospital and whisked away on a Black Hawk helicopter. It was a great PR opportunity for the Bush administration, and with the help of too many in the mainstream media, they spun it for all that it was worth.

Lynch’s testimony last week was timely, coming just one day before the premiere of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, a 90-minute report entitled Buying the War. “Four years after shock and awe,” Moyers observed, “the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush administration to go to war on false pretenses.”

“I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend….” Lynch said.

As Daphne Eviatar reported in The Nation in 2003, media outlets across the country ran with Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks’ initial account of a daring rescue of Lynch by Special Ops forces, complete with firefights upon entering and exiting the “location of danger.” The story snowballed into a “daring raid in hostile territory,” and anonymous US officials told reporters of Lynch fighting “fiercely” and shooting “several enemy soldiers.” She had been shot and stabbed, according to these accounts.

“The whole Rambo story, that I went down fighting. It just wasn’t the truth. I didn’t even get a shot off. My weapon had jammed. And I didn’t even get to fire,” Lynch told Newsweek.

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