Shortly afterwards Lynch was transferred to Saddam Hospital in Nassiriya, now renamed Nassiriya General. There, Dr Mahdi Khafazji operated on her fractured right femur when her condition had stabilized. He said he cleaned her body before surgery and found no signs of a sexual assault.

"I examined her very carefully," he said at his private clinic in the center of Nassiriya. "I cleaned her body including her genitalia. She had no sign of raping or sodomizing."

What makes us most skeptical about the rape claim is the extent of her other injuries. Like the doctor below, we doubt she would have survived a rape:

[Dr Mahdi Khafazji ] said Lynch's injuries were so severe she would have died had she been sexually assaulted after she was wounded. "If she had been raped there is no way she could have survived it. She was fighting for her life, her body was broken.

Bragg's publisher responded:

"A doctor who treated Lynch (at a U.S. military base) and who was privy to all her medical records has reported that some of her injuries are consistent with an assault. What more verification do you need?" a spokesman said.

Well, for starters, how about the name and position of the lone doctor making the claim and verification of the supporting material in the hospital records?