THE RECENT FLURRY of media attention surrounding Jessica Lynch–the NBC movie “Saving Jessica Lynch” aired this past Sunday and the former POW’s “Primetime” interview with Diane Sawyer aired Tuesday–has many viewers wondering what really happened in the days leading up to April 1, 2003, when a U.S. Special Operations team rescued the 19-year-old supply clerk from Saddam Hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, the 33-year-old Iraqi attorney responsible for informing the Marines of Lynch’s whereabouts, recounted his story to an audience of reporters at a National Press Club conference Monday afternoon. Dressed in a handsome olive suit, with an American flag pin shining on his left lapel, al-Rehaief began his speech humbly: “I know my English is broken, but I hope you enjoy my story.” And what a story it is.

Al-Rehaief’s life changed on March 23, the day Lynch’s Army convoy was ambushed. Some of the surviving convoy members were brought to the local Baath party headquarters near al-Rehaief’s home for processing. Al-Rehaief saw the surviving POWs beaten by a crowd and later that day saw the dead bodies of several members of the convoy paraded in a roundabout a block from his house. Pfc. Lori Piestewa, who’d been driving the Humvee in which Jessica Lynch had been a passenger, was among the dead. On March 26, a refugee who’d witnessed the actual convoy attack told al-Rehaief he had seen a soldier (determined later to be Lynch) being pulled from the Humvee and stomped upon. The next day, al-Rehaief went to visit his wife at Saddam Hospital, where she worked as a nurse. He learned from her that a POW was being held in the cardiac unit and later, from his sister-in-law (a doctor at the hospital) that this POW was a woman. After sneaking into the unit, al-Rehaief saw, through a glass panel, a young woman being interrogated and slapped by a fedayeen officer.