Abuse Hearing Halted for Female U.S. Soldier

[cal04]

A U.S. military court on Saturday temporarily halted a hearing to decide if Pfc. Lynndie England, the soldier photographed holding a naked Iraqi prisoner on a leash, should stand trial for abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.


Lawyers for England renewed a request for top U.S. government and military officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to be called to testify at the hearing into prisoner abuse that shocked the Arab world and harmed u.s. efforts to halt a bloody insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) last spring. England, 21, is charged with 19 counts of prisoner abuse, committing indecent acts and disobeying orders.

She became the symbol of the abuse scandal with the release of dozens of photographs taken at Abu Ghraib, including ones showing her holding a naked prisoner on a leash and pointing gleefully at the genitals of another naked inmate. She faces up to 38 years in prison if convicted on all charges. England's lawyers asked the hearing officer, Col. Denise Arn, for permission to call more than 50 additional witnesses. The court has heard from 25 in the five days of hearings at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which started Tuesday.

Arn said she would rule on the additional witnesses and resume the hearing as soon as possible but gave no indication when that might be. A Fort Bragg spokesman said it could be several weeks before the hearing, which is called an Article 32 investigation, restarts.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040807/ts_nm/iraq_abuse_england_dc

[soothsayer]

1. drag their sorry asses into court to testify under oath

Let's start this impeachment ball rolling...!

[Karenina]

3. GOOD!

Pfc. England, as contemptible as she is, should NOT be scapegoated.

[burrowowl]

2. Impeach and prosecute the

fucktards!
Yes, make the fucktards testify!
Orange suits for them all!

[Southsideirish]

4. She's a wicked, wicked girl but I still feel sorry for her.

I think the mood and atmosphere at Abu Graib was total insanity and that lunacy was encouraged by those in charge.

[Eloriel]

11. I don't find her a particularly sympathetic character in most ways

However, that she's being used as a scapegoat is undeniable IMO. Let's make a big, big show of the Linndie England case and let off the REAL evildoers (the systemic evildoers with their evil policies that caused this) in the process.

To be honest, I think she's trash. It's impossible for me to put myself in her place and imagine doing even half of what she did. If she is sexually deviant (the abuse itself, the rumors of her sexual exploits and exhibitionism, etc.), that points to someone who was probably sexually abused as a child. People don't grow up to be sexual predators on their own. Put another way: sexual deviants like child molestors and sexual torturers are born, not made. So on that score I can be sympathetic towards her but only in a real clinical way. Nor do I mean that that excuses her behavior or acts.

But she didn't act alone!! That's the key to me. So far she and General Karpinski are front and center on this abuse scandal, and most of the men are hiding behind their skirts. You can imagine that pisses me off to the max. I can't decide for myself what fate England should face -- but she shouldn't do a single additional day of time than any of those alllllllllll along that long chain of command (including the damned civilian mercenary thugs and criminals working at the prison) right on up to Rumsfeld, Bush and all the lawyers who put their little stamps of approval on the whole idea of those kinds of torture.

And THAT, my friends and foes, will never, ever happen. It'll be England and maybe Graner, and possibly Karpinski who twist in the wind and America will feel sated by their punishment(s), whatever they are. The real perps will go scott fucking free. Damn them all to hell.

[daleo]

5. They need a couple of weeks to figure out how to dodge this request

Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. will never testify. They must either be bribing or threatening Ms. England behind the scenes.

"In addition to Cheney and Rumsfeld, England's lawyers want to call Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the former U.S. commander of Abu Ghraib."

[TheWraith]

6. Go Lynndie.

I'd like to see your ass in Leavenworth, you crazy bitch, but not before you screw the Bush administration.

[90-percent]

8. lyndie

Its so unfair to scapegoat this one poor young woman when she was only doing what everybody did in abu grabe! It was pretty official from higher ups that this behavior was condoned and sanctioned all the way up to Bush and Alberto gonsalves who advised him if the President OK's it, its not really torture.

Not too many of us would have the courage to defy our superiors and peers in her situation, although thats the right thing to do. In a War situation, most of us would follow along with our peers for our very survival.

-85%

[JNelson6563]

7. haha When I first saw headline I thought

"Oh? Did the little lady swoon?" <snarf>

I have no sympathy for this woman or any of her fellow offenders up the chain of command all the way to the idiot usurper. They are all war criminals.

Julie

[Born Free]

9. She represented America

"I have no sympathy for this woman or any of her fellow offenders up the chain of command all the way to the idiot usurper. They are all war criminals."

She wore the uniform that represented America, she needs to pay for her crime toward America, there should be no sympathy for this woman, America needs to send a strong message to the world that Americans do not accept this type of behavior. There is no excuse for her actions. Likewise, all that are involved, all the way to the white house, should be punished in order to save face with the world.

[mourningdove92]

10. They DO NOT want Karpinsky to testify.

Their whole house could fall down on them.

[Eloriel]

12. Don't forget to vote on this story n/t