Private Lynch's Rescue 'Hugely Overblown'

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The dramatic rescue of Private Jessica Lynch became one of the big moments of the war, but her Iraqi doctors say the rescue was staged. "We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital," said Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital. "It was like a Hollywood film. They cried 'go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - action movies like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan." And there was "one more twist," notes John Kampfner. "Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Harith had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance." British spin doctors are critical of how their U.S. counterparts handled communications during the war. Kampfner reports that Simon Wren, a top UK spokesman, "wrote a confidential five-page letter to [Downing Street's] Alastair Campbell complaining that the American briefers weren't up to the job. He described the Lynch presentation as embarrassing." According to Wren, the Lynch incident was 'hugely overblown' and symptomatic of a bigger problem. "The Americans never got out there and explained what was going on in the war," he said. "All they needed to be was open and honest. They were too vague, too scared of engaging with the media."