Jessica Lynch snubs Iraqi who helped to
free her
By Marcus Warren, London Telegraph
October 29 |
A journey to
the home town of Jessica Lynch by the Iraqi lawyer who helped
to free the young American soldier ended in embarrassment for
all concerned when she snubbed him.
Miss Lynch,
portrayed as a heroine of our times for her courage while a
prisoner of war, was too busy to receive the visitor, her
family's lawyer said. Her savior, Mohammed al-Rehaief, was
outwardly understanding of her failure to appear during his
trip. "I know she had a very difficult time in Iraq and she
takes rest," he said.
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'Heroine': Jessica Lynch
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However, Mr.
al-Rehaief, who has been granted asylum in the United States
for fear of revenge attacks in Iraq, was reported to be
disappointed by her failure to meet him on his visit to
Palestine, West Virginia.
The Lynchs'
lawyer, Stephen Goodwin, denied that rivalry between the
20-year-old former soldier and her Iraqi benefactor over
competing media projects was to blame for her absence.
"Absolutely not," he said.
Miss Lynch's
book, I Am a Soldier, Too, the fruit of a $1 million
publishing deal, will be released next month and the countdown
to her first television interview in two weeks' time has
already begun.
But she has
been beaten into print by Mr. al-Rehaief, whose own work,
Because Each Life is Precious, was published earlier this
month. In it he describes how he braved bullets to reach the
advancing American military and tip them off about the young
female private lying wounded in a hospital in the city of
Nasiriyah.
She was rescued
by Special Forces a week after being injured and captured in
an ambush. Her ordeal briefly overshadowed the army's march on
Baghdad as the story of the war.
Mr. al-Rehaief
was given a hero's welcome during his trip to Palestine and
named an honorary West Virginian.
But the
misunderstandings were not confined to Miss Lynch's refusal to
attend any of the ceremonies. Local people laid on an
impressive spread at a reception to greet the al-Rehaiefs,
only to discover that the family was fasting for Ramadan.
Even if the
guests had been hungry they would have been unlikely, as
Muslims, to tuck into the ham sandwiches on offer.
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