Posted on 12/01/2004 8:00:48 AM PST by SmithL
FORT BRAGG, NC -- Lawyers for Pfc. Lynndie England moved Wednesday to throw out statements she made when first questioned about Iraqi prisoner abuse, including that reservists were just "joking around, having some fun."
The motion was one of five taken up by military judge Col. Stephen Henley in a hearing in advance of England's Jan. 18 court-martial on abuse charges stemming from photos of her pointing and smiling at naked detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
Paul Arthur, an Army special investigator, testified that England was aware of her rights, including to have a lawyer present, when she was interviewed for more than four hours early the morning of Jan. 14 -- three months before the photos became public.
Arthur testified that England was brought in for questioning -- without a lawyer present -- because investigators had obtained several pictures of her, including the now-infamous shot of her holding a naked detainee by a leash.
He said England was cooperative and did not appear fearful, and if she had asked for a lawyer he would have ended the interview. At the end of the questioning, he said, she wrote and signed a statement detailing her actions.
In a hearing this summer, Arthur said England told him the reservists took the photos while "they were joking around, having some fun, during the night shift."
Arthur said he believed the reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company were responding to the stress of being in a war zone. But when asked if that assessment applied to England, Arthur replied: "She never mentioned that she was frustrated. She said it was more for fun."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"Please ignore me when I was telling the truth and accept my legally contrived 'defense statements' now"
"England has said she and the others were following orders from military intelligence operatives to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations. The defense sought unsuccessfully to call Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an attempt to show that those directives came from or were known to the highest echelons of the Bush administration. "
I suppose England got her orders directly from Cheney or Rumsfeld.
I'd have less of a problem with this if it were a concerted effort to extract information from terrorist prisoners. But it appears to have been simply a lack of command discipline. Surely England's superiors have some culpability for the events resulting from the lack of discipline of those in their charge.
It seems the defense they are attempting is that someone told them to do it, rather than, no one told them not to.
It seems like in the USA, instead of a lawyer being brought in to bring forth those facts which will not be helpful to and not mentioned by the prosecution, the defense's task is to come up with some unlikely scenario of lies and guesses which could provide you with "reasonable doubt". I would think that a reasonable doubt which can only be provided with false assertions, false "expert" witnesses, and unsupported conjecture is not truly reasonable.
I still say they should be stripped of rank, pension and benefits, tried and convicted then turned over to the new Iraqi government for swift sentencing. These BASTARDS are traitors for shaming their nation in a time or war!
Here is one statement that you won't see Dan Rather report on the evening news. To put it bluntly, if the U.S. wanted to exert pressure on these prisoners they wouldn't leave it up to a group of idiots like these.
When officers and NCOs see "soldiers" like England and her buddies show up at their unit only one thought comes to mind. The recruiter was having trouble making his quota.
I had a sailor that worked for me for a while that couldn't help but break the rules and several federal laws. We were trying to get him processed out for "a pattern of misconduct", but we had trouble keeping him out of trouble long enough to get rid of him. We eventually began to refer to him as Keyser Soze, the Master Criminal.
she was interviewed for more than four hours early the morning of Jan. 14
About one week before she got herself pregnant.
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