Lynndie England: "This guy was like screaming bloody murder"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqprisoners

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US soldier convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners said, in remarks recently made public, she knew of "worse things" happening at Abu Ghraib and insisted military commanders were fully aware of what was going on in Iraq's infamous jail. The comments, made by Private First Class Lynndie England in her first post-court-martial interview, contradicted assertions by top Pentagon officials that a small group of out-of-control soldiers were responsible for abuse at Abu Ghraib, and that no matter how repulsive that mistreatment was, it did not amount to torture.

England, who became the face of the scandal because of a photograph of her holding a naked prisoner by a leash, was sentenced last Tuesday to three years in prison and ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the Army after a military jury found her guilty of maltreating prisoners and committing an indecent act.

The trial capped a damaging scandal that erupted in 2004, following publication of pictures that showed Abu Ghraib inmates piled up naked on the floor in front of US soldiers, cowering in front of snarling military dogs, chained to beds in stress positions and forced to stand naked in front of female guards.

But England, appearing on NBC's "Dateline" program, said the pictures did not convey the full extent of the abuse that took place in the cell block. "I know worse things were happening over there," admitted the 22-year-old convict. She said one night she heard blood-curdling screams coming from the block's shower room, where non-military interrogators had taken an Arab detainee. "They had the shower on to muffle it, but it wasn't helping," she recalled. "They never screamed like that when we were humiliating. But this guy was like screaming bloody murder. I mean it still haunts me I can still hear it just like it happened yesterday."

[Lautremont]

1. Lotta fruit salad on the chipmunk lady's uniform.

Is that what you get for "humiliating" these days?

[HawkerHurricane]

2. Most of it's the 'freebies'

She's got a national defense (serving in the military after 9/11), a southwest asia (serving in the middle east), a reservist deployment (serving as a member of the reserve overseas), the army's graduating bootcamp award...

Pretty standard post ww2 wartime excess. "Give me enough colored ribbon, and I'll give you a army of heroes" - Napoleon

[Steely_Dan]

3. Does Anyone Else...

...see her as a little bit "slow." Is it just me or is she a bit dim?

-Paige

[KoKo]

4. She supposedly did have "learning disabilities."

There were articles on her back when she was first indicted and she comes from a very poor family and did have ADD or AHD...I can't remember which..but some kind of learning disability.

Doesn't excuse anything she did...but in a way one has to feel sorry that she got caught up in Charles Graner's dreams of sadistic glory and she's only 22.. We know it went higher up that her and that it went on everywhere. She was the one who got caught.

It's sad..whatever it is. But, those pictures kind of also make one feel she deserved some punishment. :shrug: It's a hard one to deal with...and make sense of morally, I guess. Did she really know what she was doing? I kind of feel she had to know something of it.

[mzmolly]

5. Horrible story.

Just horrible.