Posted on 08/14/2009 3:24:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Five years after the infamous Abu Ghraib torture photos came to light, Lynndie England says the government's "softening up tactics" are acceptable ways to get information from prisoners.
In an interview with the BBC, England defends herself and fellow soldiers who posed Iraqi prisoners in degrading positions for photographs in 2004.
"Compared to what they do to us, that's like nothing," England says in the BBC video, referring to instances where Americans were decapitated, burned, dragged through the streets or hung from a bridge by insurgents. She likens the physical degradation that appears in the Abu Ghraib photos to the kinds of hazing that go on in American colleges and boot camps.
(AP/Washington Post) "Similar humiliation tactics and physical exertion, you know, everybody goes through that stuff in boot camp in the military," she says.
England, whose biography was published in May, has popped up in the media several times in recent months. In June, she admitted to the Associated Press that she made some bad decisions, but says she was only following orders.
"We were just pawns," she told AP. "People were just playing us."
In April, the government released Bush administration documents sanctioning "enhanced interrogation techniques," causing some to sympathize with England's claim. But Christopher Graveline, who prosecuted England, says the Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib photos were common criminals, not terrorists.
"The idea that she and her colleagues were working somehow for military intelligence is not supported by fact," he says.
Today, England spends most of her days in seclusion, rarely leaving her West Virginia house except for short trips to the grocery store. She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and anxiety and worries most about being a good mother to her 4-year-old son Carter, whose father, Charles Graner, took the Abu Ghraib photos.
Her life is trashed. She doesn’t care.
“Lynndie England says the government’s “softening up tactics” are acceptable ways...”
OH! It was the *government* that I saw in those pictures.
She's right, they do much worse to us. It doesn't excuse it but they aren't victims.
From what I saw reported, it was more like frat house antics and nothing close to “torture”.
Cue the folks who will defend lil' Lynndie in every imaginable way... *shrugs*
In a matter of fact way, it was presented that, yes, it is acceptable to use humiliation, sexual degradation, fear, etc, to soften up a prisoner.
So I have little doubt that pranks such as she and her friend engaged in were not only tolerated but encouraged. where they went wrong was in photographing their fun.
They shouldn’t have been in charge of that prison but crap happens in war. She deserved to be punished but the left is the only reason we know who she is.
What she did was stupid, what the media and certain govt officials by using these pictures to hurt America was treason.
Ah, the good old Nuremberg Defense.
The lefties who screamed the loudest went home and did far worse to their “partners” and enjoyed it.
I’m still trying to reconcile “reclusive” with “biography published in May”.
Wasn't General Janet TIG Karpinsky, Obama supporter, in charge of that prison?
"Compared to what they do to us, that's like nothing," England says in the BBC video, referring to instances where Americans were decapitated, burned, dragged through the streets or hung from a bridge by insurgents. She likens the physical degradation that appears in the Abu Ghraib photos to the kinds of hazing that go on in American colleges and boot camps.
Well, as a matter of fact, she's absolutely right. I couldn't put it better myself. Would you rather have panties put on your head, or be "decapitated, burned, dragged through the streets or hung from a bridge"? I don't think most of us would hesitate which option to choose.
Is the BBC unable to distinguish between the comparative severity of these modes of torture and, perhaps, admit that Muslim terrorists are meaner than American soldiers, even rather foolish ones?
I was going to make that a photo link, but you seem like a nice person, so I'll spare you.
+1000
She ruined General Ricardo Sanchez’s career which I will never forgive or forget.
P.S.
I also remember reading at the time that this Lynndie has quite a low IQ.
***She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, ****
probably because of the jerks in the MSM.
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