WAR SPIN
Sunday, May 25 2003
repeating Monday, September 22 2003

Some stories are just too good to be true.  The BBC's Correspondent program examines the United States' propaganda machine during the Iraq war and questions its version of the daring rescue of Private Jessica Lynch who lay trapped behind enemy lines.  THE PASSIONATE EYE, hosted by Michaëlle Jean, features the North American television première of the documentary War Spin:  The Truth About Jessica, Sunday, May 25 at 10 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT) on CBC Newsworld.

Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US Special Forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict.  But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.

BBC reporter John Kampfner exposes inconsistencies in the official version of the rescue in Iraq of Private Lynch. War Spin: The Truth About Jessica challenges the Pentagon's version of a story that boosted American morale during a sticky point in the Iraq War as part of its investigation into allied propaganda.

Private Lynch, a 19-year-old clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was captured when her company took a wrong turn just outside Nasiriya and was ambushed. Nine of her comrades were killed and Lynch was taken to the local hospital, which at the time was swarming with Iraqi soldiers.  Eight days later, US Special Forces stormed the hospital, capturing the dramatic Hollywood-style rescue on a night vision camera.  But doctors interviewed by Kampfner claim Iraqi forces had left the hospital well before this happened.

Reports claimed that she had stab and bullet wounds and that she had been slapped about on her
hospital bed and interrogated.  But Iraqi doctors in Nasiriya say they provided the best treatment they
could for the soldier in the midst of war.  "I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle," said Dr. Harith a-Houssona, who looked after her.  "There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only road traffic accident.  They want to distort the picture.  I don't know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury."

Witnesses told the filmmakers that the special forces knew that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they swooped on the hospital.  The aim was to capture images that would swing public opinion behind the war here and in the US and encourage Iraqis to believe Saddam's grip had loosened before it actually had.

Kampfner also traces the roots of the controversial tactic of embedding cameras and reporters with military units to the Hollywood blockbusters Pearl Harbour and Black Hawk Down.