A New Life Shadowed With Fear ~~Iraqi Led Marines To Jessica Lynch
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 27, 2003; Page A01
It was just after sunrise last month when two men in dark glasses knocked on the door of a middle-class home in Northeast Washington. When a child answered, the men asked in Arabic for the family of Mohammed Rehaief. Rehaief, an Iraqi exile, promptly went to the door. But the callers had vanished.
Rehaief was struck with fear. How had they found his family?
He had reason to worry. Rehaief wasn't just any refugee; he was the lawyer who had crossed enemy lines during the U.S. invasion of Iraq to provide information to Marines about Jessica Lynch, the prisoner of war. Fearing for their lives, Rehaief and his family were later whisked to the United States.
But the visit by the mysterious strangers on Sept. 4 -- the first of several unusual incidents -- shattered the calm of the family's new life. U.S. law enforcement officers urged them to pack their belongings.
Hours later, the family fled into the night.
"Before I used to think I was safe here in the U.S.," Rehaief said in an interview. But no more.
This was supposed to be the victory lap for Mohammed Odeh Rehaief. His book, "Because Each Life is Precious," (HarperCollins) was issued Oct. 17. A made-for-TV movie based in part on his story will be broadcast on NBC on Nov. 9. Since Rehaief was granted political asylum in April, Americans have clamored to honor him.
But if Rehaief has escaped Iraq, he is still trapped in his own republic of fear. Worried about security, he is pursuing a low-key book tour. He doesn't allow journalists to photograph his wife and 6-year-old daughter. He discloses no details about where he is living. When he gave a speech Friday at the University of Charleston, he was protected by swarms of federal and local law enforcement officers. A bulletproof vest bulged under his black suit jacket. "I am in danger. My family is in danger," he said.
Still, Rehaief, after months of near-silence, is providing new details about his role in the Lynch saga, and he is seeking to explain another seeming mystery: why a middle-class Iraqi would risk his life for a young enemy soldier.
Speaking to a rapt audience of more than 100 at the University of Charleston, Rehaief described himself as a person who had suffered quietly under Saddam Hussein's government for years.
But on March 27, his life was transformed. Rehaief, 33, said he was visiting his wife, Iman, a nurse, at a hospital in the southern city of Nasariyah during the fighting. Peering into the room where he'd been told a prisoner of war was lying, he glimpsed Lynch, a 20-year-old Army private from West Virginia.
"She is little girl," he recalled in broken English.
Then, he told the audience, he saw an Iraqi interrogator slap the young woman. Rehaief swung his arm, hard, reenacting the blow. His listeners gasped.
"My heart is broken," Rehaief recalled. He said he felt obliged to act.
So began a two-day saga in which Rehaief repeatedly crossed enemy lines to provide information to the Marines about Lynch and her surroundings. His book tells a tale of danger and ingenuity. Rehaief said he endured gunfire, a bomb blast that partially blinded him and a brief detention by Iraqi troops. He gave up his gold wedding ring as a bribe. He says he fended off attackers with the kicks he had mastered as a kung fu champion.
Early stories of Lynch's heroics and rescue buoyed a worried nation. Those stories have since been criticized as inaccurate and exaggerated. Initial reports, including those in The Washington Post, had described Lynch being wounded as she battled attackers. The U.S. military later said she was injured in a vehicle crash when her Army maintenance unit was ambushed. While the U.S. military first described her rescue as a daring nighttime raid, it later emerged that Iraqi soldiers had vacated the hospital hours earlier.
Rehaief's story also has been questioned. The head nurse at Saddam Hospital, where Lynch was treated, has told The Post that the hospital didn't employ any nurse named Iman.
And the Iraqi interrogator slapping the POW? "That's some Hollywood crap you'd tell the Americans," Harith Hassona, a physician who treated Lynch, said after the war. Still, the hospital staff said they believed that Rehaief did tell the Marines about Lynch. And the lawyer has produced his wife's work identification card to prove her employment at the hospital. The Marines have corroborated that Rehaief assisted them. Rehaief shrugs off the skeptics.
"When I have the truth, I don't care about what they say," he said.
Is Rehaief in danger in the United States?
Or is he suffering the effects of decades of living under a brutal dictatorship?
Khalil Hassan, a psychologist who works with the Washington-based Iraq Foundation, which has a program to assist exiles, said many Iraqis arrive terrorized by their experiences with Hussein's government.
"You cannot imagine the fear he created," he said. Even though exiles have reached safety in the United States, "the fear is still there; it exists in their conscience."
Authorities are treating the Sept. 4 visit by the Arab duo as a possible threat. Law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Washington area's Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating and is concerned. FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman declined to comment.
The Post agreed to withhold the family's former address and other details because of their concerns.
Rehaief said he is grateful to the U.S. government for granting him asylum. But he is haunted by the two unexplained callers, who asked for family members by name.
"If they were friends or good people who came to help us, why didn't they stay? Nobody knows about my address," Rehaief said.
And it was just the first scare.
Later that morning, a champagne-colored BMW with no license plates stopped in front of the house where Rehaief was staying, he said. A man hopped out and headed toward the house with a small package but turned around as cars stuck behind his vehicle started honking. He sped off without delivering the parcel.
The account was confirmed by two witnesses interviewed by The Post, as well as law enforcement officials, who said investigators regarded the incident as less serious than the earlier visit. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
Then about a month ago, a third incident occurred. Rehaief said his brother living in Jordan was attacked by knife-wielding assailants who yelled that they wanted to take revenge on the man who had helped the U.S. military in Iraq. The brother has recovered and left his home, Rehaief said.
Rehaief said he doesn't worry about himself but about his family. "It's a danger to be with me," he said with a rueful smile.
This is hardly the calm new life Rehaief expected. When he arrived in the United States in the spring, he was showered with awards and offers. He got a book contract that paid him $150,000, a TV movie deal and a job with the Livingston Group, a Washington lobbying group headed by a former Republican congressman, Bob Livingston. Rehaief helps vet Iraqi firms seeking the lobbying group's assistance landing U.S. contracts.
To be sure, he has had many happy moments in the United States. He has been reunited with members of his extended family who also were flown from Iraq. And he has reveled in new experiences, such as riding a Metro train, sampling McDonald's food and visiting the Lincoln Memorial. But he is struggling, he said, to balance the competing demands of celebrity and security.
Some institutions have kept his appearances unpublicized, such as Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, which awarded him its presidential medal last May. "He didn't want word to get out he was going to be there. It kind of made my job a little difficult," said university Public Affairs Director Duffy Ross. He said Rehaief "received the loudest, most vocal standing ovation of anybody at the commencement."
Perhaps nowhere is the hero worship greater than in West Virginia. In recent days, Rehaief has been touring Lynch's home state at the invitation of a citizens group called Friends of Mohammed, which has planted a garden, held a march and organized receptions to honor him.
"We're just showing an expression of gratitude for a humanitarian act. It would be particularly inappropriate for West Virginia not to do that," said the group's founder, James Thibeault, who runs an assisted-living facility in the Charleston suburbs.
Rehaief is scheduled to visit Lynch's small mountain hometown of Palestine today. It is not clear whether he will meet her.
At Friday's forum at the University of Charleston, citizens broke down as they thanked Rehaief. One was Joe Sims, 61, a man with a gray beard wearing a blue-checked flannel shirt who stood up during the question-and-answer period. "I'm from Palestine," the retired factory worker announced and informed Rehaief that he had just visited the Lynch family. Then he choked up.
"Thank you. Thank you so much," he sobbed. He walked over and wrapped Rehaief in a bear hug.
Later in the day, Rehaief visited the Islamic Center of Charleston, where he attended prayers and was honored at a reception.
The imam, Mohammad Jamal Daoudi, told Rehaief he hoped to visit him in the Washington area. But he added with a grin, he hoped for a laid-back visit -- "not so much security."
Rehaief glanced at the police officer standing in a nearby doorway. "I feel more comfortable with security," he said softly.
Staff writer Allan Lengel contributed to this report.
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