Abu Ghraib : "Rumsfeld Knew" - Lynndie England interview

international | crime and justice | other press Wednesday March 19, 2008 01:17 by shapeshiftin reptile

"........She is one of the faces symbolizing the Iraq war. Pictures showing her abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Graib prison brought her notorious fame throughout the world. In her first interview in three years Lynndie England talks about Abu Ghraib, about Charles Graner, about guilt, her current life - and the role of the Bush administration........"

The German current affairs magazine "Stern" publishes the Lynndie England interview Wednesday in its European print edition, but online versions are already available. It may be remembered that when the photos and scandal broke, Rumsfeld pleading ignorance asked how was he supposed to know what happened during the night shift in a prison on the other side of the world. As details of the abuse of extreme sexual nature were partially revealed he made a statement which is partially appended below.

........."

Stern Mrs. England, a year ago you were released from jail after serving 521 days of a three-year sentence. How are you feeling now?

England Not great but good.

Stern What does that mean?

England (She sighs) Oh, it's just little things going wrong. I'm just trying to get by. Trying to find a job, trying to find a house. It's been harder than I expected. I went to a couple of interviews, and I thought they went great. I wrote dozens of applications. Nothing came of it. I put in at Wal-Mart, at Staples. I'd do any job. But I never heard from them.

Stern Do you think your name has anything to do with it?

England I am starting to wonder if they realize who I am and they don't want the publicity. I don't want to lie. On my resume I have a brief little paragraph about what I did in the army and about being in prison and that I'm still on parole. I want to be totally honest. I have to find a job by September, that's part of the parole regulations. If you break the rules, then they can bring you back. That would be a big deal because I don't want to leave my son. [it may be remembered she was 4 months pregnant when her court martial was heard.]

The complete interview may be read in English translation here :-
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/614356.html?

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Lynndie England claimed to be following orders. (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/64777 and other articles on Abu Ghraib, its photos, torturers, prisoners & legacy http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78963 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74319
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72285 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72239
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/70030 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/69980
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/68540
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extract from Wikipedia page :-
"U.S. President George W. Bush claimed the acts were in no way indicative of normal or acceptable practices in the United States Army.

The public denunciation of torture of prisoners by the president and other US officials contradicted the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney and his allies, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, created a distinction between forbidden "torture" and the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" methods of questioning which they advanced as permissible. The vice president's office played a central role in eliminating limits on coercion in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration later described as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials. The Geneva Convention, which has been ratified by the U.S. and is therefore the law of the land, is explicit and categorical in banning torture, the use of "violence," "cruel treatment" or "humiliating and degrading treatment" against a detainee "at any time and in any place whatsoever." The War Crimes Act of 1996 made any grave breach of those restrictions a U.S. felony.

On May 7, 2004, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the following statements before the Senate Armed Services Committee:

These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility. It is my obligation to evaluate what happened, to make sure those who have committed wrongdoing are brought to justice, and to make changes as needed to see that it doesn't happen again. I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees. They are human beings. They were in U.S. custody. Our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't do that. That was wrong. To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology. It was un-American. And it was inconsistent with the values of our nation.

He also was quoted:

We're functioning in a — with peacetime restraints, with legal requirements in a wartime situation, in the information age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise, when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon.
– Donald Rumsfeld

c/f wikipedia on Abu Ghraib
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_pri...abuse