Lynndie England: I Wasn't Ordered to Abuse Detainees

The female GI who is at the center of the storm over allegations of mistreatment at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has told military investigators that she received no specific orders to abuse detainees.

A transcript of her May 5 military interview obtained by the New York Times shows England was asked, "Did anyone ever give specific orders of how to 'break' detainees?"

"No," England answered point blank. Instead she told probers that military intelligence merely encouraged them to keep doing whatever they were doing to soften prisoners up - "that we were doing a good job."

If true, England's admission suggests that the idea to use sexual humiliation to break Iraqi prisoners originated with the accused MPs - and not with higher-ups on site or at the Pentagon.

A lawyer for Spc. Charles Graner seemed to echo England's comments, telling the Times that the orders his client was following were usually general in nature.

"Most are not specific. Some are pretty clear. The exact wording, it's hard to say," attorney Gary Womack told the paper.

Neal Puckett, the lawyer for Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who oversaw Abu Ghraib, said the testimony by England and others would complicate any legal defense attempting to pin blame on higher-ups.

"I think they are going to have a hard time demonstrating that they were instructed, that they were to specifically to strip these guys naked and pile them up on the floor," Puckett told the Times.

Court records of interviews with other suspects in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal show that military intelligence officers might have authorized interrogation tactics that included sleep and food deprivation and intimidation with muzzled dogs.

But the same witnesses said none of the orders sanctioned hitting Iraqi detainees, building naked pyramids or having them photographed while simulating sex acts.

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