England's Family Deals With Guilty Plea

[Conservativesux]

England's Family Deals With Guilty Plea

by MICHELLE SAXTON

Associated Press

04/30/2005


CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Relatives of Army Reserve Pfc. Lynndie England have accepted her decision to plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, a spokesman said Saturday.

"They are secure in the knowledge that she knows what she's doing," said family attorney Roy Hardy. "They're not happy, but at the same time they've accepted it."

England, who appeared in a photo that showed her holding a hooded, naked Iraqi prisoner on a leash, will plead guilty in a military court Monday to two counts of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of dereliction of duty, her civilian lawyer, Rick Hernandez, said Friday.

England faces a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison as part of the plea deal, which still must be accepted by a military judge, Hernandez said. She had been facing up to 16 years.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050430/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_england;_ylt=Ao2o4yiqCzJ8FROn.OJyXxlG2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[wakeme2008]

1. Well 10 years are not bad

Just think for all the fun she had in Iraq, she will be getting out of jail just in time for her kid to be a teenager. :)

[China_cat]

2. Did I see the new pictures of her right?

Is she pregnant again?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ninkasi]

4. I agree she should be punished

What she did was reprehensible. My main problem is that the further up the chain of command you go, the less the chance of being punished is. It defies reason and common sense to think that a few "bad apples" conspired, and were able to carry out, the torture and abuse that was carried out on an ongoing basis.

Either the top brass ordered it, which means they are guilty, or they were so stupid that everything went on without their suspecting anything, which means they have no business being in charge of other people.

I'd be much more satisfied to see Sanchez doing prison time for his part. The others, too, are to blame. The punishment will be confined to the lowest level people, though...that now seems to be the Republican way. Wiggle out of what you've done, and blame those under you for getting carried away.

[Big_Mike]

6. Frankly, AFAIAC, Karpinski is as high as it should go.

She was the one who set the command conditions. She was utterly unsuitable for command in combat. She and her subordinates were worthless as leaders and models for their troops. Read the reports, some of which were classified and released with out being redacted.

Sanchez, IMO, is not liable for the conditions that Karpinski allowed. He did what he was supposed to do when notified of the problems. He sent BG Taguba, who wrote that outstanding report.

I haven't seen the Platoon Leader charged.
I haven't seen the Company Commander charged.
I haven't seen the Bn Commander charge.
Karpinski hasn't been charged.

All four, along with complicit staff members, should be destroyed in place, and serve nice, long sentences in jail. 5 - 10 years, preferably.

This shit would never have happened had any of them been worth a damn.

[Elidor]

7. Sanchez Approved Extreme Interrogation Methods

"A memo signed by Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez authorised 29 interrogation techniques, including 12 that exceeded limits in the army's own field manual and four that it admitted risked falling foul of international law, the Geneva conventions or accepted standards on the humane treatment of prisoners."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/033005D.shtml

I won't bother acquainting you with the infamous Gonzales memo which supported Sanchez' techniques. Sanchez is also complicit in promoting Gen. Miller to export his Gitmo model prison to Iraq. The rot goes straight to the top.

Further, let's revisit Taguba:

Taguba, in his report, was polite but direct in refuting his fellow-general. “Unfortunately, many of the systemic problems that surfaced during assessment are the very same issues that are the subject of this investigation,” he wrote. “In fact, many of the abuses suffered by detainees occurred during, or near to, the time of that assessment.” The report continued, “Contrary to the findings of MG Ryder’s report, I find that personnel assigned to the 372nd MP Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures to ‘set the conditions’ for MI interrogations.” Army intelligence officers, C.I.A. agents, and private contractors “actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses.”

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact

This was guaranteed to happen no matter who was in charge of Iraqi prisons.

[jmm]

5. If they're not happy about the plea

then how do they feel about this