Searching for POWs in Chaotic Iraq
April 11 -- When Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch was rescued, Claude Johnson took it as a positive sign. But now that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen, he's disturbed that his POW daughter, Spc. Shoshana Johnson, has not been found.
"Its kind of stressful not knowing — not having any information about what's going on — but we deal with it," Johnson said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
"Not knowing not hearing from them, it just keeps the stress up," Johnson said.
As U.S. troops rolled into the heart of Baghdad Wednesday, Johnson hoped they would find his daughter and other POWs from her unit, the the 507th Maintenance Company out of Fort Bliss, Texas.
Johnson, 30, who is the mother of a 2-year-old girl, and four other members of her unit were ambushed and taken as POWs on March 23. They were shown on Iraqi TV shortly after they were captured, but there has been no word of their whereabouts or their condition in more than two weeks. Lynch, who was separated from Johnson and the rest of the group, was rescued from a hospital in Iraq on April 1.
Johnson said he's having trouble finding out who is in charge of information gathering on the POWs and he's not sure where he can turn for help.
"You feel like you're closer to end of the war — but yet with the slow elimination of the regime — there's nobody to talk to," Johnson said. "Nobody, even the Red Cross, can say 'OK I'm going to this guy, and see him and talk to him about releasing the prisoners,'" he said.
Pentagon officials said Thursday they believe the POWs are still alive and being held by what's left of Saddam's regime. On Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers asked their captors to treat them well and to let the Red Cross visit them.
Complicated Search, Bloody Discovery
Meanwhile, the collapse of Saddam's regime has complicated the search for American POWs.
With so many Iraqi troops killed and communications cut off, it's more difficult for soldiers to pin down Iraqis who know where the POWs are.



