World Watch
August 13, 2009 11:48 AM

Abu Ghraib Torture Was "Like Nothing"

By
Dana Chivvis
Topics
World Watch
(AP Photo/Vicki Smith)
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.

Add a Comment See all 107 Comments
by cbsguest August 23, 2009 7:10 AM EDT
It is not about cohorts at the prison!
How is the Joint Chief of Staff Myers?
Myers was for waterboarding and other
enhanced interrogation methodes.
Compare please:
" Captain Dalton said that General
Myers returned from a meeting and advised her that Mr. Haynes wanted her to stop her review,
in part because of concerns that people were going to see the GTMO request and the military
services? analysis of it. Neither General Myers nor Mr. Haynes recalled cutting short the Dalton
review, though neither has challenged Captain Dalton?s recollection. Captain Dalton testified
that this occasion marked the only time she had ever been told to stop analyzing a request that
came to her for review
" "On October 25, 2002, General Hill forwarded the GTMO request from Major General Dunlavey to
General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Days later, the Joint Staff
solicited the views of the military services on the request.
(U) Plans to use aggressive interrogation techniques generated concerns by some at
GTMO. The Deputy Commander of the Department of Defense?s Criminal Investigative Task
Force (CITF) at GTMO told the Committee that SERE techniques were ?developed to better
prepare U.S. military personnel to resist interrogations and not as a means of obtaining reliable
information? and that ?CITF was troubled with the rationale that techniques used to harden
resistance to interrogations would be the basis for the utilization of techniques to obtain
information.?"[SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO THE TREATMENT OF
DETAINEES IN U.S. CUSTODY
].
Reply to this comment
by ksmit2 August 16, 2009 10:21 AM EDT
Obviously, someone who is totally oblivious to reality. Still trying to
justify her actions after five years. True, the monsters who killed and
mutilated Americans probably deserves the same fate. To even the score,
you almost have to become one of "them". This never works out like the
Shwartznager and Van Damn movies. She needs to shut up and move on with
her life, what's left of it.
Reply to this comment
by erb0087 August 15, 2009 11:05 PM EDT
Lynndie England is "Like Nothing"

If she were not such a cowardly little sadist, she wouldn't be spending "most of her days in seclusion, rarely leaving her West Virginia house except for short trips to the grocery store."
Reply to this comment
by erb0087 August 15, 2009 11:01 PM EDT
Lynndie England says the government's "softening up tactics" are "like nothing."

Let her accept the Sean Hannity challenge.

Let her be waterboarded on national TV and lets see how she stands up to it.
Reply to this comment
by erb0087 August 15, 2009 10:55 PM EDT
"Compared to what they do to us..."

That's not the standard, Ms. England. That has never been the standard in America.

The Declaration of Independence does not begin with the words, "Compared to what they do in Russia, the English Monarchy has been pretty nice to us colonists..."
Reply to this comment
by liptonlight1 August 15, 2009 11:39 AM EDT
She is comparing apples to oranges. The people who were decapitated and hung from the bridge were NOT U.S. servicemen (military). They were employees of the rogue mercenary company Blackwater (now Xe). Soldiers of fortune, they got what they deserved. I hope their leader, Erik Prince (now accused of murder) gets what he deserves.
Reply to this comment
by lavallie August 15, 2009 10:52 AM EDT
This entire thing was a railroad job on the soldiers at the prison. Where was command? And why weren't the top officers punished for loosing control of their people.

This woman was a bottom fish in the command structure. How was this allowed to go on? Lazy, sloppy job by the commanders.
Reply to this comment
by brian_axe69 August 15, 2009 10:21 AM EDT
What surprises me is that this lady took so long to seek to make a buck from her reprehensible behavior. What is she quaified to lecture Americans about - how to torture and humiliate? While she was engaged in her sick theater, treating Iraqis like dogs and draping underwear over their heads, real soldiers were out there placing their lives on the line; losing limbs; now permanently disabled. What about them? What about their story?
Reply to this comment
by wyodutch August 15, 2009 9:06 AM EDT
"You Made Them Strong... We'll Make Them Army Strong"

"Be All You Can Be."

"An Army of One."
Reply to this comment
by babooph August 15, 2009 2:21 AM EDT
Does this fool see that torturing & being tortured give you a DIFFERENT view on it ????She feels that torturing is not so impressive,those tortured seem to see it another way.
Reply to this comment
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