A Soldier's Tale

[CatWoman]

Lynndie England smells like soap. She rubs her hands constantly, and her cuticles are raw and bleeding. Her hair is pulled back in four tortoiseshell clips, and it's streaked with premature gray. She is no longer the waiflike girl with a devilish grin who appeared in the infamous Abu Ghraib photos. On this warm fall afternoon, England, 23, now 30 pounds heavier, wears short-sleeve Army fatigues and black, waffle-soled boots. Her name is stitched across her chest. Dangling from her waist is a yellow-and-white badge that reads, "PRISONER."

This is England's 332nd day of a 36-month sentence. She's serving time in a flat, sandy-colored building surrounded by a 13'4" fence topped with concertina wire at the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego. Since her arrival, she hasn't had a single visitor — not even from her family.

Not that people haven't tried. England receives requests every week, according to her lawyer, Roy T. Hardy, who says that she doesn't give interviews. If she did, though, the first step would be reaching out to her family, with whom she is extremely close.

-snip-

One thing, though, is certain. England was a small-town girl, not even of legal drinking age, when she found herself halfway around the world, in an amoral place, surrounded by violence and infatuated with a volatile, manipulative man.

"You have to understand that it builds into a crescendo," says Karpinski. "Lynndie is away from the flagpole, in Abu Ghraib — the most terrible place. You're being mortared every night. You are breathing dust and broken concrete. It's hot. You feel dehumanized. You're drained of every bit of compassion that you have. She did it because she wanted to come back from this godforsaken war and be able to say, 'We did this for the government.' She was made to believe that this was of such importance to national security. It was, you know, 'You stick with me, kid, and you might even win a medal.'"

"Graner was her protector," Karpinski continues. "She wanted to please him, and she'd do anything he told her to do. She's thinking, 'Graner would never tell me the wrong thing. I'm sleeping with him. I trust him.'"

Now England can't take any of it back. She seems resigned. "They're never going to clear my name," she told me earlier. "Everybody knows who I am." These days, she's trying to prepare for a future with her son — learning to repair computer and electronic equipment, so she'll have a trade when she gets out. "Now I can fix anything," she said.

She's been checking on salaries for electricians in Fort Ashby through a software program that prisoners are allowed to use: "Thirty-five thousand a year." England has also been taking a parenting course. She and the other inmates role-play: One person acts like a parent, and another is the child. A third inmate writes down strategies the "parent" uses.

"Although," she said as our last prison visit came to an end, "after spending time with Carter this weekend, I went back to my cell last night and was like, 'You can throw all the stuff I've learned in my parenting class out the window.'"

Finishing up a cup of black coffee at McDonald's, Terrie shares her own perspective on how hard it is to be a mother. "People say they understand what I'm going through," she says, keeping an eye on Carter as he bats at his McNuggets.

"I want to say, 'You have no idea what it's like to have your daughter be the cause of a worldwide scandal.'"

http://magazines.ivillage.com/marieclaire/print/0,,703130,00.html

[saracat]

1. I can't feel sorry for her. As the author notes there are

contradictions in her actions.An animal lover who tolerated the disgusting treatment of animals? And with a wistful smile yet? And doesn't know "why" she regrets her behavior? This is one sick girl.And she might not have been old enough to order a drink but old she was able to be married and trying for a divorce. No wonder she doesn't give interviews.She doesn't come off well at all.My impression is that she is a big liar, fully participated in the atrocities and enjoyed them.

[Canuckistanian]

2. "We were told we were supposed to do those things..."

Abuses like forcing naked prisoners into a human pyramid was encouraged: "We were told we were supposed to do those things. They said, 'Good job. Keep it up.'"

~

England says "she was told" that prisoners were hung in their cells with their arms tied behind their backs and that an American contractor sexually abused Iraqi boys held in the prison.

~

England doesn't disclaim responsibility in the article, exactly, but she (and her lawyer) present a situation in which she was under the thumb of a much more powerful man in a world in which authority is not questioned. Yet England recognizes that her name is synonymous with Abu Ghraib: "They're never going to clear my name... Everybody knows who I am."

K&R... I have no idea why this has been ignored.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/2006/10/19/marie-claire-nab_e_32051.html

[Toots]

3. All I can say about this is.... FUCK Bush* and all his cronies.

Bush* deserves far worse than what this girl has to endure....