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'Soldier just a scapegoat'
11/05/2004 09:25 - (SA)
Denver - An attorney for an Army reservist shown in photographs smiling at naked, tied-up Iraqi prisoners said "the 20-year-old farm girl from West Virginia" is taking the fall for military shortcomings that include a lack of troops.
Lynndie England, 21, of Fort Ashby, West Virginia, was charged on Friday with mistreating prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in a scandal that has drawn worldwide outrage.
Six other soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company are also charged and one of them, Jeremy Sivits, will face a court-martial in Baghdad next week.
One of England's Denver-based attorneys, Giorgio Ra'Shadd, said on Monday the military was so short of troops in Iraq that untrained people were being used as guards.
"Because there was a shortage of personnel the commander on the scene took people who had no idea how to be MPs (military police) and cut them off at the neck from their leadership," he said. "That is crazy."
He said his client was being offered up as a scapegoat for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
"What is offensive to me is that we have generals and the secretary of defence hiding behind a 20-year-old farm girl from West Virginia who lives in a trailer park," Ra'Shadd said.
Asked if his client considered refusing to obey unlawful orders from jail commanders, he said her rank meant she took orders from most other ranks.
Ra'Shadd plans to ask for a change of venue because he does not believe England can get a fair court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she is now assigned, said Rose Mary Zapor, another defence attorney.
No attorney in the Fort Bragg area would return England's phone calls, another defence lawyer, Carl McGuire, said at a news conference in Denver on Monday night. Ra'Shadd was en route to Fort Bragg late on Monday to meet with England.
England faces military charges including conspiracy to maltreat prisoners and assault consummated by battery, and could face punishments ranging from a reprimand to more than 15 years in prison, McGuire said.
Ra'Shadd, part of a group of attorneys in the Denver area with experience in military cases, and three other lawyers have agreed to take England's case for free, Zapor said.
In photographs that have been shown in news reports, England is seen smiling, cigarette in mouth, as she leans forward and points at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi. Another photo shows her holding a leash that encircles the neck of a naked Iraqi man lying on his side, his face contorted.
Ra'Shadd said intelligence operatives staged many of the scenes depicted in the photographs to frighten prisoners into talking.
"That is a standard psychological war method," he said. But when it comes to defending his client, he said: "The spooks from the CIA, Defence Intelligence Agency and State Department won't show up when we subpoena them. They will go into hiding."
- AP
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