Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Saving Private Lynch

Aired May 19, 2003 - 11:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Jessica Lynch rescue story, one of the most inspiring and dramatic stories to come out of the Iraq war. That told of Army Rangers and Navy SEALS storming a Nasiriyah hospital to go inside and save the Army clerk. But was that rescue real, or was it Hollywood hype? That is the question being raised by BBC documentary that aired this weekend. The documentary coming very close to saying that the whole thing was staged.
John Kampener is the veteran BBC correspondent behind the documentary, and his reporting is based on interviews he conducted in Nasiriyah after the regime fell.

Kampener joins us from our London bureau this morning. Thank you very much for coming in and talking to us this morning, John.

Is it your belief right now based upon your investigation that this rescue of Jessica Lynch was in any way a staged event and not real?

JOHN KAMPENER, BBC CORRESPONDENT: No. First thing's first. Credit where it is due. The Americans had a legitimate interest in -- a legitimate right in getting Jessica Lynch out of the hospital in Nasiriyah. They had no way of knowing what her fate was, whether she was being well or badly treated.

So, it is entirely legitimate for any country to want to get its own out as quickly and as safely as possible.

Where we took issue with the official version as put out by Central Command, in Doha, to the world's press, was the way the Americans did it. They went in, all guns blazing, helicopters, a great heroic rescue mission. The contention of the Iraqi doctors we spoke to was, well, actually they didn't need to do that, they could have come and got her. And in fact, one of the doctors said the day before the Americans conducted this very elaborate rescue mission, they had actually tried to get Jessica Lynch to the Americans, by putting her in an ambulance, taking her to the front line. In the course of that journey, according to the doctors, that ambulance came under fire from American forces, and they had to take her back to the hospital.

HARRIS: Our own reporters have actually reported that story itself. John Vause, the our reporter who was over there embedded for a while there with the troops, he actually did file a report on that incident with the ambulance. And we've also seen that report elsewhere as well. We've also gone to the Pentagon to get a response to your documentary last night. They're saying they're sticking by the information they provided out of CENTCOM.

What I'm very interested in is a couple of things that were in your report. You got a quote here from some of the doctors that were there at the hospital. I'm going to read the transcript of it. "It says like a film in Hollywood, they cried go, go, go. They shot with guns, and blanks with bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions, and break the door. We were very scared." Are you saying that you believe a doctor, an Iraqi doctor's assessment that the U.S. troops there were using blanks?

KAMPENER: Well, that is his contention. What we did, what I did when I went to the Pentagon and spoke to its number two there, Brian Whitman, we said, OK, we have one story, two different versions. Let's cross-check the information that the Iraqi doctors have given against the official U.S. version. For example, what kind of injuries did Jessica Lynch sustain in the hospital? Was it true that she received bullet and stab wounds as a result of the Iraqis. He said, well, the truth will come out at some point in the future. In other words, he didn't engage in that.

Second question was, did the Americans come under fire from the Iraqis during the rescue mission? Again, that's the kind of holding answer we got from him.

The main point we said to them was, OK, there are two versions. There are several different allegations, several different interpretations of this story. Instead of all of us relying on your five minute very professional, very carefully edited film, which was immediately transmitted from Central Command to the world's broadcasters, why don't you give everybody what's known in the profession as "the rushes." Give everybody all the unedited film, the real-time film, as shot by the U.S. military cameraman who was with the rescue mission, and that will put everybody out of all questions of doubt? They declined to do that.

HARRIS: Let me ask you something else, you spoke with a number of British authorities and officials there, who were raising questions of their own about the way the U.S. briefings actually presented information there. What have you learned at all, if anything at all, from the office of Prime Minister Blair about what he thinks happened during this incident? Is there any concern in British officialdom whether or not what we saw was something that was not necessarily what we exactly saw?

KAMPENER: Well, I mean, must be said the British are no more angels than the Americans when it comes to putting out certain messages in the war. The British were worried about the Jessica Lynch episode, but they saw this more in general terms. They were worried about the entire U.S. media operation. The man behind the scene, a man by the name of Simon Rhen (ph), sent along a letter to Tony Blair's head of strategy, Alice DeCampbell (ph), setting out in quite considerable detail his misgivings about the way the Americans conducted the whole media operation from Doha.

At the same time, in our film, the British military spokesman, a man by the name of Al Lockward (ph), who figured very much in BBC, and CNN and all international broadcaster's coverage of the war, told us on camera that he was deeply unhappy with the American media handling, and he said to us, there were two different styles of media management. There was the American one and the British one, and I was pleased to be part of the British one.

And that to me, that's a pretty damning indictment.

HARRIS: It remains to be seen whether it will be seen that way here on this side of the pond.

John Kampener, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 19, 2003 - 11:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Jessica Lynch rescue story, one of the most inspiring and dramatic stories to come out of the Iraq war. That told of Army Rangers and Navy SEALS storming a Nasiriyah hospital to go inside and save the Army clerk. But was that rescue real, or was it Hollywood hype? That is the question being raised by BBC documentary that aired this weekend. The documentary coming very close to saying that the whole thing was staged.
John Kampener is the veteran BBC correspondent behind the documentary, and his reporting is based on interviews he conducted in Nasiriyah after the regime fell.

Kampener joins us from our London bureau this morning. Thank you very much for coming in and talking to us this morning, John.

Is it your belief right now based upon your investigation that this rescue of Jessica Lynch was in any way a staged event and not real?

JOHN KAMPENER, BBC CORRESPONDENT: No. First thing's first. Credit where it is due. The Americans had a legitimate interest in -- a legitimate right in getting Jessica Lynch out of the hospital in Nasiriyah. They had no way of knowing what her fate was, whether she was being well or badly treated.

So, it is entirely legitimate for any country to want to get its own out as quickly and as safely as possible.

Where we took issue with the official version as put out by Central Command, in Doha, to the world's press, was the way the Americans did it. They went in, all guns blazing, helicopters, a great heroic rescue mission. The contention of the Iraqi doctors we spoke to was, well, actually they didn't need to do that, they could have come and got her. And in fact, one of the doctors said the day before the Americans conducted this very elaborate rescue mission, they had actually tried to get Jessica Lynch to the Americans, by putting her in an ambulance, taking her to the front line. In the course of that journey, according to the doctors, that ambulance came under fire from American forces, and they had to take her back to the hospital.

HARRIS: Our own reporters have actually reported that story itself. John Vause, the our reporter who was over there embedded for a while there with the troops, he actually did file a report on that incident with the ambulance. And we've also seen that report elsewhere as well. We've also gone to the Pentagon to get a response to your documentary last night. They're saying they're sticking by the information they provided out of CENTCOM.

What I'm very interested in is a couple of things that were in your report. You got a quote here from some of the doctors that were there at the hospital. I'm going to read the transcript of it. "It says like a film in Hollywood, they cried go, go, go. They shot with guns, and blanks with bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions, and break the door. We were very scared." Are you saying that you believe a doctor, an Iraqi doctor's assessment that the U.S. troops there were using blanks?

KAMPENER: Well, that is his contention. What we did, what I did when I went to the Pentagon and spoke to its number two there, Brian Whitman, we said, OK, we have one story, two different versions. Let's cross-check the information that the Iraqi doctors have given against the official U.S. version. For example, what kind of injuries did Jessica Lynch sustain in the hospital? Was it true that she received bullet and stab wounds as a result of the Iraqis. He said, well, the truth will come out at some point in the future. In other words, he didn't engage in that.

Second question was, did the Americans come under fire from the Iraqis during the rescue mission? Again, that's the kind of holding answer we got from him.

The main point we said to them was, OK, there are two versions. There are several different allegations, several different interpretations of this story. Instead of all of us relying on your five minute very professional, very carefully edited film, which was immediately transmitted from Central Command to the world's broadcasters, why don't you give everybody what's known in the profession as "the rushes." Give everybody all the unedited film, the real-time film, as shot by the U.S. military cameraman who was with the rescue mission, and that will put everybody out of all questions of doubt? They declined to do that.

HARRIS: Let me ask you something else, you spoke with a number of British authorities and officials there, who were raising questions of their own about the way the U.S. briefings actually presented information there. What have you learned at all, if anything at all, from the office of Prime Minister Blair about what he thinks happened during this incident? Is there any concern in British officialdom whether or not what we saw was something that was not necessarily what we exactly saw?

KAMPENER: Well, I mean, must be said the British are no more angels than the Americans when it comes to putting out certain messages in the war. The British were worried about the Jessica Lynch episode, but they saw this more in general terms. They were worried about the entire U.S. media operation. The man behind the scene, a man by the name of Simon Rhen (ph), sent along a letter to Tony Blair's head of strategy, Alice DeCampbell (ph), setting out in quite considerable detail his misgivings about the way the Americans conducted the whole media operation from Doha.

At the same time, in our film, the British military spokesman, a man by the name of Al Lockward (ph), who figured very much in BBC, and CNN and all international broadcaster's coverage of the war, told us on camera that he was deeply unhappy with the American media handling, and he said to us, there were two different styles of media management. There was the American one and the British one, and I was pleased to be part of the British one.

And that to me, that's a pretty damning indictment.

HARRIS: It remains to be seen whether it will be seen that way here on this side of the pond.

John Kampener, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com