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Family: GI in Iraq Photos Followed Orders
Friday, May 07, 2004
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FOUNTAIN, W.Va. — Family members of an Army reservist shown in photographs humiliating Iraqi prisoners insist she was following orders when she pointed at naked inmates and held a leash attached to a man's neck.
Pfc. Lynndie England (search), 21, is seen smiling for the camera in one picture, cigarette in her 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 on a cellblock floor, his face contorted.
"I don't believe my sister did what was in those photos," her sister Jessica Kleinstiver said at a news conference in this West Virginia community, about 240 miles northeast of Charleston.
"Certain people told her what to do. I believe they were posed," Kleinstiver said.
England has not been charged. She has transferred to Fort Bragg, N.C., where England has declined to leave the base because she does not want media attention, her sister said.
After photos from the Abu Ghraib (search) prison were beamed around the globe, reporters flocked to Fort Ashby, a town of 1,300 people where England's extended family lives in a trailer park. England's parents left town Thursday to escape the attention.
The family's lawyer, Roy Hardy, said he arranged the news conference to relieve family members from constant media pressure.
"No one has the full story of what was going on in those pictures," Hardy said. "They don't show what was behind her, beside her or what was going on behind the scenes.
"When all this comes to light, she will not be depicted the way she's being depicted right now," he said.
England's family has said she was a "paper pusher" in Iraq who processed inmates and only went to the prison to visit friends who worked there.
England was described as a kind young woman who loves athletics and the outdoors and is unafraid to speak her mind. She joined the Army Reserve (search) as a high school junior to earn money for college.
"I think she's being picked on and being used as a scapegoat," Klinestiver said. "I don't know why they're showing her so much when she hasn't been charged."
England is four months' pregnant with the child of Spc. Charles Graner (search), another member of the 372nd Military Police Company, based in Cumberland, Md.
Graner faces a possible court-martial on criminal charges of maltreatment and indecent acts, according to his attorney, Guy Womack.
Family and friends showed reporters a half-dozen photos of England, including images from her senior prom and high school graduation in 2001.
"I just wanted to make sure you guys knew she was a human being," Hardy told reporters.
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