Thursday, July 8, 2010

Lynndie England

Lynndie England, the pixieish, leash-holding mascot of the Abu Graib torture scandal, graduated from Franfort High School in Ridgely, West Virginia in 2001. During her junior year at Frankfort, she joined the U.S. Army Reserves. After a post-high school stint working in a chicken processing plant, she was called up for service in Iraq and was assigned to the 372nd Military Police Company at the soon-to-be notorious Abu Ghraib Prison (now known as Baghdad Central Prison).



In 2004, leaked photographs of England humiliating Iraqi prisoners (particularly shots of her holding an inmate by a leash and pointing at a stripped prisoner's genatalia) put an American face on the torture outrage. England was among eleven people--including the father of her son (Charles Graner)--convicted of various charges of mistreatment of prisoners. She was sentenced to three years and served 531 days at the Naval Consolidated Brig at Miramar. After her parole was completed in September of 2008, England was dishonorably discharged.

In the poorly received book, Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World, England maintains that she was just following orders at the prison.

     

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