Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent

WASHINGTON, 12 November 2003 — Mohammed Odah Al-Rahaief is a very careful man. The Iraqi lawyer who risked his life to help the US Marines and Army Rangers rescue wounded Pvt. Jessica Lynch. After the successful rescue operation, the US showed its gratitude by offering him, and his family, asylum in the US.

Speaking to members of the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, a visibly cautious Al-Rahaief was careful not to bite the hand that rescued him. Which means he stuck to the details of her rescue.

“My story starts when I went to Saddam Hospital (in Nassiriyah) to visit my wife who worked as a nurse there. What I saw there changed my life forever,” he said.

Al-Rahaief’s story is remarkable, and a heartwarming one when so much of the news in Iraq is disturbing and discouraging.

Dictionaries define “a hero” as: “A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his life...” Al-Rahaief certainly is a hero.

When he saw Saddam’s Fedayeen slapping the gravely wounded Army supply clerk, he said he decided to risk his life, and that of his family, to help rescue her.

“I felt she was my responsibility, she was just a young lady and was in real danger. She was with the Fedayeen Saddam. They are very dangerous.”

He managed to tell Lynch “she didn’t need to worry. But she didn’t understand my thick accent. I told her three times and I think she finally understood because she smiled slightly.”

Oddly, it was the embedded media that enabled him to find the Marines. “The news media is very important in my life because of them I knew the Americans had come to Nassiriyah,” he said.

Twice he had to fight Iraqi Fedayeen. Once in the hospital when he was found coming out of Lynch’s room, and once in his house when a neighbor, a member of Saddam’s Baath Party, came looking for him.

Since childhood he had mastered in the martial art of Kung Fu, and now used it both times. “Look at me, I’m small and not built well, I had to learn it to defend myself as a child.” As an adult, it saved his life. But he lost his eye in a car chase that ensued. Saddam had put a bounty of 15 million Iraqi dinars for anyone who helped an American, and it hung over his head.

“The Fedayeen Saddam stopped following me at the bridge in Nassiriyah, and started shelling us. They hit a car behind me, the exploded shells wounded my face, and I lost my eye, but I kept going to the Marines. My eye hurt me a lot, but we worked hard for two days, they asked me to draw many maps, and asked for many details about her location.”His information enabled a near perfect rescue operation of Lynch on April 1.

Trained as an international lawyer, Al-Rehaief now works as a consultant in a lobbying firm in the Washington area.

“I’ll tell you the truth,” he said. “They gave me a job because I helped the Americans, not because I can bring big business to them. I work as a consultant, sometimes I’m able to give them information about families and companies who want to do business with them. ”