Abu Ghraib’s unapologetic abuser

The former Army specialist thinks the Abu Ghraib prisoners got what they deserved.

Lynndie England isn’t repentant, said M.L. Nestel in The Daily. The former Army specialist sprang to global infamy eight years ago after she was photographed abusing inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. In one shot, she held a detainee on a dog leash. In another, she was shown grinning from behind a pile of naked bodies. England, 29, thinks the prisoners got what they deserved. “[They were] trying to kill us,” she says. “You want me to apologize to them? It’s like saying sorry to the enemy.” England has struggled to find work after a stint in prison and a dishonorable discharge from the military. “I put out applications everywhere. I can’t get McDonald’s, Burger King. It’s the felony.” Charles Graner, her former lover and the ringleader of the Abu Ghraib abuses, refuses to recognize their 7-year-old son, Carter. “You could say I did love Graner. Now, I can’t stand the thought of him.” She’s still haunted by the idea that the photos might have caused American casualties in Iraq. “I think about it all the time—losing people on our side because of me coming out on a picture.” But England has few regrets about what happened at Abu Ghraib. “If going through that whole ordeal is what was supposed to happen to me to have Carter then that’s how some things are.”

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