November 11, 2003 09:01am
Flynt Changes Mind, Won't Publish Lynch Pics
Source: AP
by: Sara Kugler
(NEW YORK, NY) -- Pornographer Larry Flynt claims he bought nude photos of former prisoner of war Pte. 1st Class Jessica Lynch last month to publish in Hustler magazine, but changed his mind because she is a "good kid ... and a victim of the Bush administration."
The photos, which Flynt's publicist says show the undressed army supply clerk posing with male soldiers, were sold to Flynt last month, according to a statement from Flynt that was read to the Associated Press on Tuesday by his publicist.
The publicist, who would not give her name, said Flynt "Has no plans to use the photos."
"Jessica Lynch is a good kid, she's not a hypocrite or out to fool anyone," Flynt's statement said. "She's just a victim of the Bush administration, who is using her to justify the war in Iraq and force-feed us a Joan of Arc."
In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Lynch declined to comment on any aspect of the matter, including whether such photos exist.
The interview was scheduled to publicize her biography, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, which was released Tuesday. It covers the days between March 23, when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and April 1, when she was evacuated from a hospital by U.S. commandos.
The young soldier from Palestine, West VA., was celebrated in the United States as a heroic prisoner of war.
Published reports Tuesday said the photos showed Lynch topless, but Flynt's publicist claimed the former soldier is nude in the pictures.
"At this point Mr. Flynt has no comment as to the content of the photographs except to say Jessica Lynch is not wearing any clothes in them," she said.
Flynt's publicist would not say how much the publisher paid for the pictures, or who sold them.
Flynt has been in a wheelchair since an assassination attempt in 1978. His magazine won a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1988 that held that even pornographic spoofs enjoy freedom of speech protection.
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