Abu Ghraib Scandal Haunts U.S. Soldier

Two Years After Serving Prison Time For Her Role In Iraq Abuse, Lynndie England Is Still Confined By Notoriety

(AP)  More than two years since leaving her prison cell, the woman who became the grinning face of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal spends most of her days confined to the four walls of her home.

Former Army reservist Lynndie England hasn't landed a job in numerous tries: When one restaurant manager considered hiring her, other employees threatened to quit.

She doesn't like to travel: Strangers point and whisper, "That's her!"

In fact, she doesn't leave the house much at all, limiting her outings mostly to grocery runs.

"I don't have a social life," she says. " ... I sit at home all day."

She's tried dyeing her dark brown hair, wearing sunglasses and ball caps. She even thought about changing her name. But "it's my face that's always recognized," she says, "and I can't really change that."

England hopes a biography released this month and a book tour starting in July will help rehabilitate an image indelibly associated with the plight of the mistreated prisoners.

It's difficult to forget the pictures that shocked millions in 2004: In one, she holds a restraint around a man's neck; in another, she's giving a thumbs-up and pointing at the genitals of naked, hooded men, a cigarette dangling from her mouth.

"They think that I was like this evil torturer. ... I wasn't," she says. "People don't realize I was just in a photo for a split second in time."

In an interview with The Associated Press to promote her biography, "Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World" (Bad Apple Books), the 26-year-old England said she's paid her dues and repeatedly apologized.

While admitting she made some bad decisions, England says it wasn't her place to question the "softening-up" treatments sanctioned long before she arrived.

"We were just pawns," said England, who's appealing her conviction and has her next hearing in July. "People were just playing us."

A jury of five Army officers, however, rejected England's claims that she was only following orders and trying to please the father of her child, former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., who's currently imprisoned for his role.

Christopher Graveline, the lead prosecutor at her trial and now an assistant federal prosecutor in Michigan, said England and the other defendants are free to present their side to the media.

"But they presented the same facts to the jury, and the jury rejected them," he said.

England was convicted of conspiracy, mistreating detainees and committing an indecent act, one of 11 soldiers found guilty of wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib.

Since April, when newly-released memos revealed the Bush administration had sanctioned certain so-called "enhanced interrogation" tactics, some have called for pardons of soldiers like England - or at least acknowledgment that they were scapegoats for higher-ups.

Graveline rejects such calls. He and investigator Michael Clemens have their own book coming out in January, "The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed: American Soldiers on Trial" (Potomac Books), which they say aims to correct misunderstanding and misinformation.

The detainees in the photos involving England, for example, were not suspected terrorists, Graveline says, but some of the thousands of "Iraqi-on-Iraqi criminals" at the massive prison. None of the men in the England photos was ever interrogated.

"The idea that she and her colleagues were working somehow for military intelligence is not supported by fact," he says.

After serving half of a three-year sentence, England returned to the cocoon of a few friends and family in Fort Ashby, a quiet town of about 1,300 in West Virginia, about 150 miles west of Washington, D.C.

Biographer Gary Winkler, a local author who spent countless hours with England and her family, says England's family has closed ranks, hoping to protect her - and themselves. He said he has mixed feelings about her.

"Some days I liked her. Some days I hated her," he says. "Some days I thought she should be in prison still, and some days I felt sorry for her."

England, who's put on a little weight and let her hair grow since mugging for the camera, says she struggles with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Antidepressants help, and she has learned to deal with personal insults much as she dealt with the horrors of war: She just got used to it.

England says the most painful jab came in a note from a stranger who suggested her mother "shoot herself for raising somebody like me, and that I should kill my baby and kill myself, or give up my child for adoption, because the way I was raised they didn't want him to turn into some evil monster, too.

"... and then at the end of it they were like, 'Oh, God bless you,'" she adds with a wry laugh.

As a teenager, England hunted squirrels and fantasized about becoming a storm chaser. As a woman, she has more worries than dreams.

She worries about whether she's a good mother to her 4-year-old son Carter.

"Normal moms have jobs. They get up, they take their kids to school, they go to work, they come home, they cook, they clean, they do all that," she says. "I'm home all day."

She says she submitted hundreds of resumes for all kinds of jobs, but no one would give her a chance. She stopped trying months ago and depends on welfare and her parents to get by.

She also fears for her life, though she's 4,000 miles from Iraq: "I'm paranoid about that one guy who still hates me."

Even if she could go back and change something, England says she wouldn't. If she hadn't met Graner, she says, she wouldn't have her son, the one bright spot from an otherwise dark time.

"I couldn't have Carter exactly as he is without anybody else except Graner," she says, "so to me that's the whole reason for me meeting him."

What she wants most now is what most mothers want, to give her child a good life.

And as for herself? "I don't think beyond day to day."

[koko98-2009]

What's next? Boo Hoo Alberto Gonzales can't get a job either. I wonder why?

[Sunlight18]

Mrs. England was a young American Soldier in a war in Iraq. No matter what she did there was always an enemy surrounding her. She should not have to be surrounded by an enemy in the United States. She is an American mother.

[janeyre-2009]

What a stupid statement. In Iraq, she was the enemy. They didn't invade this country. This country invaded their country, how does this make them the enemy. She wasn't surrounded by an enemy. She was the enemy. She is an American Criminal...

[juste-me]

she is a criminal mother!!!shame on her!! she doesn't deserve to be alive after what she did but i really feel sorry for her son cuz he's innocent from all this...

[mecury69]

BTW, please correct me if I'm wrong...but aren't 2 of the 3 photos of another woman and not Lynndie?


I'm not defending England or condoning any actions of her part but it is
just wrong to post pictures that are not of Lynndie who is the subject of the article.

If so, CBS is grossly negligent in their report and should remove those pictures immediately.

[dillweed1]

There are thousands of pictures still out there. Lynndie was in maybe 10. Why is it that when a woman is in a picture with a naked man, it makes the news, but a picture of that same man with his head shot off, does not? Do you know how many men were murdered at the hands of the CIA, MI, and civilian contracters? Why are they allowed to walk free while a grunt from WV, who literally "jumped" into a few shots for her boyfriend are made the center of the scandal. Don't you folks who condemn her see what the military did? Look at the Jessica Lynch story - that was fabricated, too. She testified to Congress about this.

[juste-me]

you people just keep on making excuses for the murders who killed human beings...and why remove the pictures?? do u want to stay in the darkness without knowing the truth??

[wyodutch]

Well, maybe Cheney or Rumsfeld can use her intelligence, expertise and experience. She ought to fit right in.

[Yeah-Me]

Whether under orders or not... Just seeing the smile on her face as she see seemed to be taking pleasure in the torture of these men, tells alot about her.

I really don't buy her excuse of needing to smile because of a camera being there. At that time... she had a CHOICE. Smile or don't smile. Instead she made a mockery of their internment, by doing some kind of sick, prepubescent "Vanna White" poses of them for their amusement.

She has shown no real remorse for what she was a party to.

It's sickening... so, until she can start truely appologizing for her actions, and ask the public for their forgiveness, I really don't see her moving forward.

[dillweed1]

Read the book - she does smile and laugh, inappropriately, but not because she is a sadist. SHE HAS APOLOGIZED - how many times do you want her to apologize? Read the book - by the way, it can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble carries it, as well as any independent bookstore. If you want an autographed copy go to:

http://www.badapplebooks.com

[TDforTruth]

The Stamford prison guard experiment makes it very clear what prison guards will do without any intervention from above. It has been shown to be a corrupting environment.

The responsibility to know this and to take steps to avoid these types of incidents and embarassments is senior command's. It is more troubling than surprising that no officer or administration official is the public face of this scandal. George Bush said he could not think of a single thing he had done wrong or would have done differently during the height of a multi year insurgency. An insurgency which was fueled or completely the result of his administrations bungling.

I feel sorry for our country that no one in the prior administration may ever be held accountable for the harm they've done to this country's standing in the world.

I feel very sorry for Lindy England. That you are the public face of this scandal is unfortunate.

Go out and have some fun Lindy. There will still be sunrises and sunsets long after we're all gone. And very few of the mean spirited people are up for the sunrises.

[hower4]

Good! I'm very glad that she's unhappy. I think she should still be in jail now. She is a violent, bigoted, arrogant, stupid woman who deserves far more punishment than she received.

She was interviewed on BBC radio recently and she didn't utter a single word of remorse, and the interviewer gave her plenty of opportunities.

[aldon61]

Regardless of her position now and your desire for on-going punishment, this soldier is the scape goat for others that should have been tried for ordering it or allowing it. Rumsfeld, can you even sleep at night?

[hower4]

I agree. There are also many others who should be in jail right now, including Bush and Blair and in the command chain between them and the likes of Lynndie England.

[dillweed1]

Why must she continually apologize 5 YEARS after doing so at her trial AND serving time for STANDING IN A PICTURE? She did NOT touch or torture anyone! She was NOT a guard - she had the misfortune of falling in love with a manipulative sociopath who followed the orders of the Bush/Cheney torture policy. Get real. Open you eyes!

[hower4]

Of course she ****ing apologized at her trial!!!!! Are you REALLY so stupid that you don't understand why? She hasn't apologized since, has she?

Are you also trying to claim that because she was sleeping with somebody then she wasn't responsible for her actions?

[janeyre-2009]

Hower4, your comments are excellent. No remorse huh? That doesn't surprise me. She should have done hard time and it should have been long time. To think she has a child by that guy and both of them are violent. Poor child...

[juste-me]

she is not sorry cuz she thinks that she had the right to do that since they weren't americans!! she's forgetting that they are human beings