April 30, 2005

'Leash Lady' to Plead Guilty of Iraq Abuses

Lynndie England, the U.S. soldier pictured holding a naked Iraqi detainee on a leash in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that damaged U.S. credibility around the world,
[Thank you, MSM, for creating and disseminating this "scandal" in wartime when many battles for hearts and minds are being fought in the press.--Jen]
will plead guilty next week to most charges against her, her lawyer said on Friday.
[...]
The Abu Ghraib photos, many of which were taken on a single night in November 2003,
[Remember how the howling Dimocrats said that the "abuse" at Abu Ghraib was "systemic?"--J.T.]
shocked the world and badly damaged America's reputation in a world already skeptical about the U.S.-led invasion earlier that year.
[What it really hurt was the way Americans (especially our soldiers) were perceived by the Iraqis.--J.T.]
[...]

More senior officers have been exonerated of blame by the U.S. military despite concern that a drive to squeeze information out of detainees initiated at a high level created the atmosphere in which such abuses could occur.
[To Al-Reuters and the MSM's dismay, this hasn't been proved to be the case and never will be.]
[...]
"Monday she's going plead to two specifications of conspiracy, four specifications of cruelty and maltreatment and one specification of indecent acts," he said. "They are dismissing two of the charges."

The most serious of the dropped charges alleged she engaged in a sex act with her then boyfriend Charles Graner -- who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the abuses -- as another sergeant took a picture.

Poor Lynndie--she's not real bright and probably had never been out of her little hometown until she joined the Army and got sent to Baghdad.
She was trying to impress and amuse her boyfriend (probably her first and only boyfriend) and to make herself feel important and powerful.
Pathetic, really, but she's gonna pay the price and so will the father of her child with some hard time in prison.
In the meantime, over in our nation's capital, Sen. Ted Kennedy wants to commemorate Abu Ghraib day every year--can we give it a rest, Senator Oldsmobile?
At least Lynndie's victims weren't injured or killed by her pointing to their genitals while she smoked a cigarette, which is more than you can say for Mary Jo Kopeckni's evening with Captain Ted.