Female GI In Abuse Photos Talks

CBSNEWS ^ | 5/12/04 | CBSNEWS.com

[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.

[MamaLucci]

It may indeed have been staged, but the woman hardly looked like she found it distasteful.

[churchillbuff]

It make no sense that our greatest enemies were born here and live here.

you calling England -- a girl who went over to fight -- one of our "greatest enemies"?

[Riley]

Of course not. I have no doubt whatsoever that it will come out. There is no way in the world her defense counsel isn't going to start naming names.

[Catphish]

The people in the guys town knows him so well they can identify him with a hood on his head?

[Beckwith]

When you are a PFC, higher up the chain of command is a corporal or a specialist. It's not the Secretary of Defense or the President, as the liberals and dems would like you to believe.

She did what she did, all the while laughing (look at the pictures). She danced and now that it's time to pay the fiddler she is blaming others.

This woman makes me sick.

By the way, all this talk about poor training is crap. Every GI knows what is correct and what is incorrect.

[NYC Republican]

Exactly... Apologists like FReeper Monday don't help. They've disgraced the 99.995% of the soldiers in Iraq that are doing a phenomenal job.

[savedbygrace]

They must've ordered her to get pregnant, too. Sheesh.

[eleni121]

I would rather shoot them too but that is pie in the sky. To aomehow assume that what the US military is doing somehow is comparable to the Nazis is OUT OF LINE!

You have jumped to an illogically reached conlusion based upon the reported words of one 21 year old female caught up in a surreal self inflicted scandal. It is nothing more than that no matter what the BBC and NPR and CBS says.

[Rider on the Rain]

I believe she was told to do it, but I doubt if it was an order. If an NCO or junior officer told her to do it, she should have politely declined. If a field grade officer told her to do it, she should have gone up the chain of command. I hope the truth comes out.

At any rate this whole thing is overblown in my judgment. I think it's time to kill those murdering insurgent bastards and crush this rebellion.

[NYC Republican]

Another Clinton legacy.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Read what I'm responding to before you take a quantum leap into that conclusion.

Regards

[wolficatZ]

She's got spunk. Chases tornadoes.

[monday]

"Methinks the outrage is a tad overdone."

Me too. Even though I thought the pictures and those responsible for taking them are totally gay and perverted, those prisoners got off light. They are alive. It's more than you can say for a lot of soldiers that went over there and gave their lives to give these stupid SOB's freedom.

[elfman2]

" If you believe in such things, there was a woman who described herself as a "transmedium" on talk radio this morning "

I simply think that the reservist general in charge was way over her head. The interrogators exceeded their authority to apply some “intelligent” mistreatment and were poorly supervised. The prison was an zoo.

I believe whoever set up this scenario should be court-martialed for incompetence. I don’t believe in psychics.

[Beckwith]

Camerican - what the hell is that a Canadian who couldn't make a living in Canada so came down here to work?

[NYC Republican]

Methinks the outrage is a tad overdone

Absolutely, but it still doesn't dismiss the acts, even if they were just hazing incidents... It created this firestorm of negative publicicy, and helped tarnish our other awesome soldiers. They couldn't have been too stupid to anticipate the effects if this had gotten out... and to tape/photograph it, what idiots!

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

England, 21, repeatedly insisted that her actions were dictated by "persons in my higher chain of command."

A US soldier is required to obey lawful orders. All US soldiers receive training as to what constitutes a lawful order.

[A. Pole]

She's a lying disgrace.

How do you know?

[NYC Republican]

On another thread, she already started blaming President Bush and his administration for everything.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Figure it out yet?