Posted on 05/12/2004 7:21:05 AM PDT by NYC Republican
Army Pfc. Lynndie England, seen worldwide in photographs that show her smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, said she was ordered to pose for the photos, and felt "kind of weird" in doing so.
In an exclusive interview with Brian Maass of Denver CBS station KCNC-TV, England also confirmed that abuses worse than those depicted in the photos were carried out at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, but she declined to discuss them.
England, 21, repeatedly insisted that her actions were dictated by "persons in my higher chain of command."
In the photos, England is seen smiling, cigarette in her mouth, as she leans forward and points at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqis. Another photo taken at Abu Ghraib shows her holding a leash that encircles the neck of a naked Iraqi man lying on his side.
"I was instructed by persons in higher rank to stand there and hold this leash and look at the camera," she said.
England said the actions depicted in the photos were intended to put psychological pressure on the Iraqi prisoners.
"Well, I mean, they [the photos] were for psy-op reasons," she said "And the reasons worked. I mean, so to us, we were doing our job, which meant we were doing what we were told, and the outcome was what they wanted. They'd come back and they'd look at the pictures, and they'd state, 'Oh, that's a good tactic, keep it up. That's working. This is working. Keep doing it. It's getting what we need.'"
England, an Army reservist from West Virginia who is four months pregnant, is now stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The interview was taped Tuesday at Fort Bragg.
England is among seven soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company who face charges for allegedly degrading and humiliating Iraqi prisoners. One soldier, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., will face a court-martial in Baghdad next week.
"To all of us who have been charged, we all agree that we don't feel like we were doing things that we weren't supposed to, because we were told to do them. We think everything was justified, because we were instructed to do this and to do that," England said.
She told KCNC she was looking forward to having her baby and hopefully one day putting the abuse scandal behind her.
Sloppy thinking is a requirement to get in such situation.
I was Sergeant of the Guard in my Armored Cav unit in Bad Kissingen, Germany back in 1971-72 era. I had this guy on my guard detail, a Private Moose. Ole Moose was a total dud. Had been in trouble countless times.
This one night Moose and another guy were on guard at the air field where the choppers were parked. The other guy wanted to sit down and go to sleep. Moose told him to do what he wanted to do, he was going to continue to walk his post, that he had been in trouble enough times and did not want to end up in jail.
Moose was walking the post on the other side of the field when he saw a VW pull up. Some guy in an Army uniform getting out. Moose started to trot across the air strip to see who it was, when he saw the guy walk up to the sleeping guard and reach down and pick up his M-16!!! Moose started running, pulled out his .45 and yelled to the VW driver to drop the weapon and back away. The sleeping guy started waking up, seeing this guy standing near him with an M-16 and freaked out. The VW driver started to get into his VW with the M16 and Moose ran harder to get there. He was probably 400 yards away. He got there just as the VW driver started to drive away. He yelled stop or I will shoot. The guy laughed and kept driving. Moose leveled his pistol and shot through the door of the VW, hitting the guy in the left side of his butt!!! The VW drove away fast. Moose got on the phone and called me at the guard house, which was about 8 miles away. I called down to the officer who was on duty that night and he and I ran out to the jeep to go to the air field when this VW pulls up. The guy says the guard at the air field shot him. I asked him if he took the M16 and he said yes, and gave it to me, and told me he was going to bring it to the guard house and tell me that he caught my guard sleeping on duty. We had him shipped to the local German hospital for treatment.
The LT and I then drove to the air strip and soon the battalion commander and command sergeant major arrived. Our company commander also came out there. Moose told me what happened, that he though the guy was stealing the M16. I told him he did right!!!
Later, the VW driver wanted to get Moose court-martialed for shooting him. Our company commander was going to do that, but my platoon sergeant, the first sergeant and me all told the commander he was wrong, that Moose did his job. The other guy, from another Troop (company) was wrong and sleeping on guard, not Moose. The battalion commander also backed up what Moose did and instead of getting a court-martial for shooting the VW driver, Moose got a letter of commendation from the battalion commander for doing his job!
So, the moral of the story is, do your job, do what is right, do it right everytime, and you will not get into trouble. Just do your stinking job!
She is a liar because she wasn't even assigned to this prison wing; she was there visiting her boy friend; she wasn't ordered to do anything, because she wasn't suppose to be there.
And why on earth would you take the word of somebody trying to save their sorry A$$ by blaming everybody else for actions she clearly participated in willingly -- and apparently had a damn good time while she was doing it.
Now, I have given you evidence; want to tell ME to STFU?
I guess she was asleep in basic training where they explain that you don't have to follow an illegal order and also outline what an illegal order consists of.
In the pics it doesn't appear she is under duress.
I saw that you're getting some heat for saying that, but I agree with you. Of course Leash Girl is a lying disgrace. For one thing, she was a clerk who had no reason to be in the prison in the first place, other than to visit her boyfriend, so her claims of being ordered to do this don't pass the smell test.
For another thing, Little Miss Innocent, who claims she was just following orders, obviously didn't follow the official orders from the military not to have sex over there (and that order goes for sex with a fellow soldier, CPA employee, or Iraqi civilian). Notice how she not only flagrantly disobeyed that one by getting pregnant, but she is said to have had these trysts taped!
What makes you think she's got spunk? She sounds like every other whiny crybaby who gets caught and blames everybody else but themselves.
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