Woman in Iraq abuse photos ‘obedient,’ court told

By Adam Tanner

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) – U.S. soldier Lynndie England
was so blindly obedient to her boyfriend she gave no thought to
posing in the notorious photos of abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib
prison, a defense psychologist testified on Friday.

“Her compliant personality in the context of her
relationship with Charles Graner explains those pictures,” said
Xavier Amador, a New York clinical psychologist.

Graner, 37, the abuse ringleader with whom she has a child,
had asked her to pose in at least some of the Abu Ghraib images
that incited worldwide condemnation when they were made public
in April 2004.

Members of the five-man jury of officers sought to get to
the heart of the matter and in written questions asked if
England, 22, could tell right from wrong. Judge Col. James Pohl
later told the jury the issue is legally irrelevant because the
defense is not arguing that England was criminally insane and
thus could not tell right from wrong.

“There’s no contemplative process,” Amador said later. “She
doesn’t understand things that are so obvious to us.”

Graner, now serving a 10-year sentence, said on Thursday
that he was acting properly to control prisoners by stacking
them into a naked pyramid and by putting a leash on one
mentally ill Iraqi.

In the pyramid photo, taken in November 2003, England was
viewed smiling in front of piles of naked Iraqi prisoners. “She
was enjoying being with Charles. There was nothing relevant to
her other than Charles,” Amador said. “It’s like a little kid
being overwhelmed by daddy putting a hand around you.”

Amador, who had testified for the defense in the Unabomber
case, is being paid at what he said was a reduced rate for his
services for the defense.

EXPERT TESTIMONY

Faced with photographic evidence of her involvement,
England’s lawyers closes their defense on Friday by calling two
psychologists who said learning disabilities contributed to her
development into an overly compliant person.

“It is my opinion that Lynndie England carries with her an
immense amount of baggage,” said Thomas Denne, a school
psychologist who knew her from age 4. “Lynndie England has a
very complex language-processing dysfunction.

“She is overly compliant in social settings, especially in
the presence of perceived authority.”

The defense is arguing that because of her compliant
personality, England has only “partial mental responsibility”
and thus did not intend to participate in criminal conspiracies
which account for two of the 11 charges.

Amador said England had been beaten as a child and suffered
severe depression after Graner ended their relationship in
December 2003. “She was wishing she were dead,” he said.

Since he became an inmate at the U.S. military prison Fort
Leavenworth early this year, Graner has married another woman
who pleaded guilty in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Prosecution psychiatrist Maj. Jennifer Lange said England,
who had once worked in a chicken factory in civilian life, told
her of depression in February 2004.

“Her answer was she was suicidal once in February (2004)
after the investigation began,” she testified. Then “she found
out she was pregnant and the thought went away.”

England is the last of several low-level American soldiers
accused of abuses at Abu Ghraib, once a site of torture under
Saddam Hussein. Two, including Graner, have been convicted at
military trial, and six have pleaded guilty.