Soldier abused Iraqi prisoners 'for fun'
Prosecutors have portrayed US soldier Lynndie England as an out-of-control servicewoman who mocked Iraqi prisoners in photos “just for fun”.
A hearing in North Carolina was told that prosecutors aimed to discredit claims that she was following orders when she abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
The hearing is determining whether England should be court-martialled for her actions at the prison.
Witnesses testified that the naked detainees shown with her in human pyramids and tethered to a leash were common criminals of little or no value to interrogators, abused only for sport.
US army investigator Paul Arthur testified that when he interviewed England about the photos three months before they became public, she told him they were taken while “they were joking around, having some fun, during the night shift”.
Arthur said he believed the reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company, based in Maryland, were responding to the stress of being in a war zone.
Just before the pictures were taken in October 2003, there had been a prison riot and some soldiers had been injured.
“It was just for fun, kind of venting their frustration,” Arthur testified.
But when asked if that assessment applied to England, Arthur replied: “She never mentioned that she was frustrated. She said it was more for fun.”
Defence lawyers have said that the 21-year-old US army reservist from Fort Ashby, West Virginia, was following orders and that the US government had made her a scapegoat for an incident that caused outrage.
Arthur said that England initially told him military intelligence officers allowed the reservists to take the photographs for use in interrogating other prisoners, but there was no indication that ever happened.
A second US army investigator, Warren Worth, testified that England never indicated she was an unwilling participant in the photos, and that she even took some of the pictures herself.
He added that her job was in another part of the prison complex, and she had been warned that she didn’t belong in the area where the pictures were taken.
Worth also described other photos that show England engaging in “oral sodomy” with a soldier, posing nude on a beach or pool, and waving her breasts in the face of a sleeping soldier.
When asked whether England ever expressed unease at doing these things, Worth responded: “At no time did she say that.”
One of the prison photos shows England smiling, cigarette in her mouth, as she leans forward and points at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi.
Another photo shows her holding a leash that encircles the neck of a naked Iraqi man lying on his side on a cellblock floor, his face contorted.
England is charged with 13 counts of abusing detainees and six counts stemming from possession of sexually explicit photos which the US army has said do not depict Iraqis. The maximum possible sentence is 38 years in prison.
England is one of seven reservists from the 372nd who have been charged in the scandal. Jeremy C Sivits has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to a year in prison.
Charles A Graner Jr, aged 35, another soldier in England’s unit, has also been charged with abuses.
He was involved in a relationship with England and faces adultery charges for allegedly having sex with England last October. England’s lawyers have said she is pregnant with Graner’s child.
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