Of course she's guilty. She's a soldier and should have known better.
Posted on 09/27/2005 9:42:49 AM PDT by Valin
FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. soldier Lynndie England, convicted of abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, faces a maximum ten-year term when the military jury decides her punishment on Tuesday.
England was found guilty on six counts on Monday, on charges that she "wrongfully posing for a photograph," including images in which she held a naked Iraqi prisoner by a leash and pointed to another inmate's genitals in the Abu Ghraib prison.
The publication of the abuse photos early in 2004 caused major damage to America's image abroad and England came to personify the scandal.
The prosecution had agreed to a plea deal in May this year in which England would serve no more than 30 months in confinement. The judge negated that deal after hearing evidence that suggested England may not have been guilty, thus a second trial began last week.
The military prosecutor said England humiliated prisoners because she enjoyed it and had a sick sense of humor, but her attorneys said she took part in the humiliation because of an overly compliant personality.
The defense said England blindly followed Charles Graner, the abuse ringleader and father of her 11-month-old child. Graner, who has since married another woman and pleaded guilty in the scandal, is serving a 10-year sentence.
England's case was the latest in a series of prosecutions or plea bargains of low-level soldiers who served at Abu Ghraib.
The military has also reprimanded a small number of higher-ranking officers but none has faced criminal charges, although at least one Army captain has said the abuse often occurred under orders or with the consent of superior officers.
The Army captain, along with two sergeants, recounted in a Human Rights Watch report on Friday how Iraqi inmates near Falluja were beaten with a baseball bat, stacked clothed in pyramids, deprived of food and water and put in painful positions until they fainted.
The captain, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the abuse often occurred under orders or with the consent of superior officers. Human Rights Watch identified the captain as a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, who served is now at Special Forces school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The jury in England's sentencing is hearing evidence on Tuesday from Graner, psychologists and others, perhaps including England, as they decide on her punishment.
Maj. David Auch, a doctor who visited once or twice a week in late 2003, described a lack of leadership at the prison and said "confusion existed throughout the time I was there."
"I do not condone what she (England) did but I do not think it is not appropriate to take into account the lack of leadership that this unit received," he told the jury in testimony for the defense.
Graner will speak for the defense next.
how bout a medal, instead.
I'm sorry, is this English?
What for?
Plus I would like to think that as a soldier she would have remembered she was also a lady and representing the United States of America. I don't think this photo exhibits anything resembling a respectful young lady nor the ordiniary solider representing the United States of Amrica.
That being said...if she has to pay then anyone else involved should have to pay as well.
All i can say is that w thing needs a massive makeover
What an ugly little troll she is.... And I don't mean troll like "Internet troll", but like "the trolls that live under bridges".
LQ
She disgraced the uniform, and the sacrifices of every man and woman that has worn a uniform. Her name should be blotted out from US military history.
The defense said England blindly followed Charles Graner, the abuse ringleader and father of her 11-month-old child. Graner, who has since married another woman and pleaded guilty in the scandal, is serving a 10-year sentence.
I believe this. I want to know her IQ score, she looks off somehow, like Fetal Alcohol Effect or something. JMHO. Not that I think she should get off scot free.
I totally agree with you. She DID disgrace the uniform and for that she should be punished. I AGREE with you. However, anyone else involved should be punished as well. That's all I am saying. Everyone involved with it should be punished.
I do not care for England one way or the other. I think she did disgrace the uniform. She did not represent all soldiers. She did not represent all females and she did not look cool or tough or anything else like that. She looked disgraceful, disgusting and happy to participate. All of that, OK?
But...who else was with her? Who else approved of the behavior on camera? They TOO should be punished.
Uh...did you, like, just learn how to use the internet today, or what?
The really BIG question remains unanswered: What about those high ranking officials -- both military and CIA -- that were in charge of Abu Ghraib? They just get a free pass, is that it? There is the right way, the wrong way and the Army way. Pass the buck down the line and the grunts are forced to take responsibility.
Everyone participating trashed the uniform. Karpinski got off light. With respect to her IQ, she obviously was bright enough to be accepted by the military. The intelligence thing is a red herring. If she was so mentally stunted, she should have been a ward of the state somewhere making freakin baskets. Not in uniform. That said, the fact that she was in uniform presumes that she was not so mentally deficient.
This was not a frat-house prank. If it had happened in a frat-house, with all civilians choosing to participate, it would be hilarious.
That it did happen in a US run detention facility, with uniformed military present, made this criminal behavior.
For being dumber than a small pile of rocks.
Unfortunately, that is the way the military is. The punishment for officers and enlisted are completely different. Look at the Air Force JAG who was caught cheating. He had over 20 affairs with enlisted members while married throughout his career. He loses rank, and is forced to retire, (he was retiring at the end of the year anyway) while the enlisted females that he had the affair with received jail time.
It always made me wonder how as officers, we are held to higher standards, are paid more, and are expected to know more, but we are given slaps on the wrist for things that enlisted members would be sent to prison for.
Her facial features in some photos make me think this, too. She's one odd looking gal in some pix.
This pvt. did no more than to follow the lead of her superiors at that place. You make it sound like she was in charge of something, or that no one else was around to observe what was going on.
Speaking as a former enlisted sailor, that may be so in the "Chair Force" but it isn't quite the case in the sea services (USN, USMC and Coast Guard). Here, officers are held accountable for what goes on under them, even if they've had little to do with it; just ask any Navy captain or Marine Colonel who has been relieved because something went wrong on his watch.
Aw, come on...she is a former Kentucky trailer park tramp who joined the Army Guard out of purely selfish rather than patriotic reasons. And, at the very least, she certainly was a substandard soldier as evidenced by her lack of advancement despite her nearly five years in her Guard MOS.
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