Lynndie England was probably not the ringleader at Abu Ghraib—she says prisoners were being degraded before she even arrived—but she will forever be the face most linked with the abuse. England is out of prison now, but she doesn’t feel sorry, she says. She feels persecuted. “What happens in war, happens,” she tells Emma Brockes of the Guardian. “It just happened to be photographed and come out.”
“They were the enemy. I don’t want to say they deserved what they got but…” Her voice trails off. “This is my problem. I can’t think of words.” A man from the bar stumbled over to congratulate England. “When you were in Abu Ghraib, you shoulda cut ‘em all off,” he says, miming a castration. “Thanks,” she replies, grinning awkwardly. “I want that in the interview,” her lawyer tells Brockes. “She gets that all the time.” (More Lynndie England stories.)