Post by RPankn on May 7, 2004 4:42:38 GMT -5
The baffling turnabout of a small-town soldier seen in the Iraqi prison-abuse photos
BY JOE HABERSTROH
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
May 6, 2004
FORT ASHBY, W.Va. -- The front license plate holder on Kenneth England's Chevrolet pickup truck holds a card: "Proud Parents of a U.S. soldier." The family's porch on their single-wide trailer is festooned with ribbons - yellow ribbons, and also red, white and blue ones in honor of their daughter's service in Iraq.
The patriotic scene stands in stark contrast to the graphic photographs of their daughter, Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, posing with naked and hooded Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.
That soldier is somehow not the same Lynndie the England family knows. Their cat-loving, hard-headed Lynndie, who sent money from her Army pay for her two sisters' newborn babies? It can't be.
"This is not the person the media has made her out to be," said Terrie England, 44, who stood on her front porch behind a small cattle farm in this hill town about five miles south of the Cresaptown, Md., headquarters of Pfc. England's reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Command.
Lynndie England apparently is being detained at Fort Bragg, N.C., and unlike her boyfriend in the 372nd, Spc. Charles Graner, 35, of Uniontown, Pa., she has not been criminally charged with maltreatment and indecent acts.
Terrie England said her daughter told her by telephone that Lynndie's superiors had urged her to pose in the photos because they would be used to threaten Iraqis under interrogation but also because the snapshots would make good souvenirs. [You can tell Lynndie and/or mom has been talking with a lawyer because this is the same claim Graner's lawyer made yesterday.]
"She said they were posed shots, and she said, 'That's all I can say,'" added Lynndie's sister, Jessica, 24. [Yep, Lynndie was told by the lawyer to keep her trap shut; most likely so that any statements she makes won't hurt Graner, who is under indictment.]
Lynndie's family says she is in a restricted area at Fort Bragg. They cannot call her, but she can call them, and she does - to chat about anything other than her apparent detention in the prison-photo case.
According to a report in yesterday's Baltimore Sun, military officials confirmed that England is pregnant.
To their frustration, the Englands have remained in the dark about the legal status of their daughter, whom they call "Lynn." One clue came in January when she told them she had been demoted from specialist to private first class. And they said she had not been allowed representation from an Army attorney.
"To me, one of the few good things is that she has not been charged with anything," said Kenneth England, 44, who works for the CSX railroad.
The town of Fort Ashby, population 1,354, has a close connection to the 372nd because it is a reserve unit whose members work and live in the community.
Lynndie England shared in this patriotism, her family said. She joined the Army to see the world and pay for college. She wants to study to be a meteorologist. She signed up for the Army at 17 - even before she had graduated from high school. She handled administrative work for the 372nd, which was activated and reported to Fort Lee, Va.
"Lynndie was real quiet, reserved," said former Staff Sgt. Tanya Vargas, who served several years with the unit before leaving the Army in April 2003. "But once we got to Fort Lee, I felt I could see she was getting her first taste of freedom. This deployment was her break from rural Fort Ashby, W. Va."
At Fort Lee, Lynndie became romantically linked to Graner, who also appears in some of the photos from Abu Ghraib. "She said she liked him," Vargas said.
Graner and England both are mentioned prominently in the U.S. Army's official report on the abuse allegations. In one section of the report, Graner is described as forcing a group of prisoners to strip naked, slither around on the prison floor, and then get into a pile. The report also states that Graner hit prisoners, and it quotes another soldier as saying it was Graner's job to get prisoners to talk for military intelligence officers. [This is probably why England hasn't been charged yet; the military prosecutor is probably trying to cut her a deal for flipping on Graner, under threat of indictment]
Graner faces a possible court martial, according to his civilian attorney, Guy Womack [Yep, this is the lawyer pushing the story that the pics were "staged psychological initimidation" and where Lynndie and her mother got that story from.]. His Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, has been completed, Womack said. Graner was a state prison guard in Greene County, Pa., for seven years. He has a 13-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, who live in Pennsylvania with his former wife, according to news reports.
England was home for two weeks in December, and her family said her seven months in Iraq to that point had been difficult. She had lost 15 or 20 pounds ("The pack she had weighed more than her!" said Kenneth England). She was weary of the Iraqi detainees and their complaints that she was taking down their names surname-first, in violation of their local custom.
One night in December, a thunderstorm swept over the area and she woke up agitated.
"She jumped off the couch and started talking about taking shelter because she thought we were being bombed," said a family friend, Destiny Goin.
Lynndie's family admits to some bitterness. To them, the apparent humiliations inflicted on the Iraqi prisoners pale when compared to the burning and mutilation of four U.S. contractors last month. Kenneth and Terrie England say the activities shown on the notorious picture would be justified if they resulted in intelligence that saved American lives.
"The way this is going, they're looking for scapegoats," Kenneth England said. "And where do they go? To the PFCs."
Link: www.newsday.com/news/yahoo/ny-uscumb063789512may06,0,4405773.story?coll=ny-newsaol-headlines
BY JOE HABERSTROH
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
May 6, 2004
FORT ASHBY, W.Va. -- The front license plate holder on Kenneth England's Chevrolet pickup truck holds a card: "Proud Parents of a U.S. soldier." The family's porch on their single-wide trailer is festooned with ribbons - yellow ribbons, and also red, white and blue ones in honor of their daughter's service in Iraq.
The patriotic scene stands in stark contrast to the graphic photographs of their daughter, Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, posing with naked and hooded Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.
That soldier is somehow not the same Lynndie the England family knows. Their cat-loving, hard-headed Lynndie, who sent money from her Army pay for her two sisters' newborn babies? It can't be.
"This is not the person the media has made her out to be," said Terrie England, 44, who stood on her front porch behind a small cattle farm in this hill town about five miles south of the Cresaptown, Md., headquarters of Pfc. England's reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Command.
Lynndie England apparently is being detained at Fort Bragg, N.C., and unlike her boyfriend in the 372nd, Spc. Charles Graner, 35, of Uniontown, Pa., she has not been criminally charged with maltreatment and indecent acts.
Terrie England said her daughter told her by telephone that Lynndie's superiors had urged her to pose in the photos because they would be used to threaten Iraqis under interrogation but also because the snapshots would make good souvenirs. [You can tell Lynndie and/or mom has been talking with a lawyer because this is the same claim Graner's lawyer made yesterday.]
"She said they were posed shots, and she said, 'That's all I can say,'" added Lynndie's sister, Jessica, 24. [Yep, Lynndie was told by the lawyer to keep her trap shut; most likely so that any statements she makes won't hurt Graner, who is under indictment.]
Lynndie's family says she is in a restricted area at Fort Bragg. They cannot call her, but she can call them, and she does - to chat about anything other than her apparent detention in the prison-photo case.
According to a report in yesterday's Baltimore Sun, military officials confirmed that England is pregnant.
To their frustration, the Englands have remained in the dark about the legal status of their daughter, whom they call "Lynn." One clue came in January when she told them she had been demoted from specialist to private first class. And they said she had not been allowed representation from an Army attorney.
"To me, one of the few good things is that she has not been charged with anything," said Kenneth England, 44, who works for the CSX railroad.
The town of Fort Ashby, population 1,354, has a close connection to the 372nd because it is a reserve unit whose members work and live in the community.
Lynndie England shared in this patriotism, her family said. She joined the Army to see the world and pay for college. She wants to study to be a meteorologist. She signed up for the Army at 17 - even before she had graduated from high school. She handled administrative work for the 372nd, which was activated and reported to Fort Lee, Va.
"Lynndie was real quiet, reserved," said former Staff Sgt. Tanya Vargas, who served several years with the unit before leaving the Army in April 2003. "But once we got to Fort Lee, I felt I could see she was getting her first taste of freedom. This deployment was her break from rural Fort Ashby, W. Va."
At Fort Lee, Lynndie became romantically linked to Graner, who also appears in some of the photos from Abu Ghraib. "She said she liked him," Vargas said.
Graner and England both are mentioned prominently in the U.S. Army's official report on the abuse allegations. In one section of the report, Graner is described as forcing a group of prisoners to strip naked, slither around on the prison floor, and then get into a pile. The report also states that Graner hit prisoners, and it quotes another soldier as saying it was Graner's job to get prisoners to talk for military intelligence officers. [This is probably why England hasn't been charged yet; the military prosecutor is probably trying to cut her a deal for flipping on Graner, under threat of indictment]
Graner faces a possible court martial, according to his civilian attorney, Guy Womack [Yep, this is the lawyer pushing the story that the pics were "staged psychological initimidation" and where Lynndie and her mother got that story from.]. His Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, has been completed, Womack said. Graner was a state prison guard in Greene County, Pa., for seven years. He has a 13-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, who live in Pennsylvania with his former wife, according to news reports.
England was home for two weeks in December, and her family said her seven months in Iraq to that point had been difficult. She had lost 15 or 20 pounds ("The pack she had weighed more than her!" said Kenneth England). She was weary of the Iraqi detainees and their complaints that she was taking down their names surname-first, in violation of their local custom.
One night in December, a thunderstorm swept over the area and she woke up agitated.
"She jumped off the couch and started talking about taking shelter because she thought we were being bombed," said a family friend, Destiny Goin.
Lynndie's family admits to some bitterness. To them, the apparent humiliations inflicted on the Iraqi prisoners pale when compared to the burning and mutilation of four U.S. contractors last month. Kenneth and Terrie England say the activities shown on the notorious picture would be justified if they resulted in intelligence that saved American lives.
"The way this is going, they're looking for scapegoats," Kenneth England said. "And where do they go? To the PFCs."
Link: www.newsday.com/news/yahoo/ny-uscumb063789512may06,0,4405773.story?coll=ny-newsaol-headlines
