If CIA Gets Pass on Torture, Why Not Lynndie?

Among those infuriated at President Obama's decision to "turn the page" rather than prosecute officials who sanctioned torture at CIA prisons, and agents who conducted it, are supporters of Lynndie England, the jailed “face of the Abu Ghraib scandal.” They agree that her abuse of prisoners was wrong, but they see a double standard, NPR reports: What she did was “nothing compared to what President Obama just said we're going to excuse,” says her lawyer.

“If we're not going to prosecute the higher-ups, or even the civilian contractors, how can we prosecute young people caught up in a mess for doing stuff that was mild compared to Bagram?” asks the writer of England’s biography. He and her lawyer would like to see a presidential pardon, but agree it’s unlikely. Still, they hope the agents’ freedom will encourage the military to amend England’s dishonorable discharge.
(More torture stories.)