CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Wearing a white-striped shirt over a brown T-shirt and her hair in a ponytail, Lynndie England looked more like a customer of the small bookstore on Capitol Street than the face of the Iraqi prison scandal.

England spoke to about 15 people at Taylor Books in Charleston Saturday to promote her book: "Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World."

England, 26, fiddled with a pen and candidly answered questions from the audience during an hour-long event.

"I don't hate the Army or the military, I hate the government," she said. "I ask myself all the time why I was the only one whose picture was out there."

The widely publicized photographs show her holding a restraint around a man's neck, giving a thumbs-up and pointing at the genitals of naked, hooded men while a cigarette dangled from her mouth.

About 1,300 photos were taken between October and December 2003, she said. The photos were leaked to the press in April 2004.

"One of the reasons for the photos was to document, so we could say, 'here this is what's going on,'" England said.

England is one of 11 soldiers found guilty of wrongdoing related to the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. She spent 15 months in a military prison.

Last year, a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee concluded that, contrary to the government's original assertion that a few "bad apples" were to blame for abuses at the prison, responsibility ultimately lay with Bush administration policies that "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees."

England said she wrote the book, to tell the story behind the infamous photographs. But she's had some trouble getting her message out.

Last month, a lecture by England planned for the Library of Congress in Washington was canceled after threatening phone calls caused concerns about safety.

England said speaking at the Library of Congress would have put her in the middle of a "hornet's nest."

"I was really scared," she said. "Then it was canceled because of threats, and I said 'See there, that's why I didn't want to go.'"

England said she has been asked to come back, and she would probably "be forced to do it."

Christy Hardy, the wife of England's longtime attorney-turned-agent Roy Hardy, stopped the question-and-answer session after about an hour. She told members of the media there would be no interviews with England, because of a "gag order."

England has sued the biographer of the book, Gary S. Winkler. In her suit, England claims Winkler seized control of what was intended to be a shared copyright.

Today, England lives with her 4-year-old son and her parents in her hometown of Fort Ashby in Mineral County.

She says no one will hire her, and her dishonorable discharge prevents her from collecting veterans benefits.

She made a brief plug to one of the local TV stations in attendance saying, "If you're listening out there, I really am a hard worker."

England now receives food stamps from the state and said, "If it wasn't for my parents I would be living on the street."

She said, "The only thing I look to the future for is my son. Right now, it's him, nothing else. He's about the only good thing I got out of this whole deal."

The father of her son is Charles Graner, the ringleader in the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Graner was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for aggravated assault, maltreatment and conspiracy.

England joined the military when she was 17 years old, and went to basic training the summer between her junior and senior year of high school.

"When I was little I always wanted to be in the military," she said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Wearing a white-striped shirt over a brown T-shirt and her hair in a ponytail, Lynndie England looked more like a customer of the small bookstore on Capitol Street than the face of the Iraqi prison scandal.

England spoke to about 15 people at Taylor Books in Charleston Saturday to promote her book: "Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World."

England, 26, fiddled with a pen and candidly answered questions from the audience during an hour-long event.

"I don't hate the Army or the military, I hate the government," she said. "I ask myself all the time why I was the only one whose picture was out there."

The widely publicized photographs show her holding a restraint around a man's neck, giving a thumbs-up and pointing at the genitals of naked, hooded men while a cigarette dangled from her mouth.

About 1,300 photos were taken between October and December 2003, she said. The photos were leaked to the press in April 2004.

"One of the reasons for the photos was to document, so we could say, 'here this is what's going on,'" England said.

England is one of 11 soldiers found guilty of wrongdoing related to the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. She spent 15 months in a military prison.

Last year, a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee concluded that, contrary to the government's original assertion that a few "bad apples" were to blame for abuses at the prison, responsibility ultimately lay with Bush administration policies that "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees."

England said she wrote the book, to tell the story behind the infamous photographs. But she's had some trouble getting her message out.

Last month, a lecture by England planned for the Library of Congress in Washington was canceled after threatening phone calls caused concerns about safety.

England said speaking at the Library of Congress would have put her in the middle of a "hornet's nest."

"I was really scared," she said. "Then it was canceled because of threats, and I said 'See there, that's why I didn't want to go.'"

England said she has been asked to come back, and she would probably "be forced to do it."

Christy Hardy, the wife of England's longtime attorney-turned-agent Roy Hardy, stopped the question-and-answer session after about an hour. She told members of the media there would be no interviews with England, because of a "gag order."

England has sued the biographer of the book, Gary S. Winkler. In her suit, England claims Winkler seized control of what was intended to be a shared copyright.

Today, England lives with her 4-year-old son and her parents in her hometown of Fort Ashby in Mineral County.

She says no one will hire her, and her dishonorable discharge prevents her from collecting veterans benefits.

She made a brief plug to one of the local TV stations in attendance saying, "If you're listening out there, I really am a hard worker."

England now receives food stamps from the state and said, "If it wasn't for my parents I would be living on the street."

She said, "The only thing I look to the future for is my son. Right now, it's him, nothing else. He's about the only good thing I got out of this whole deal."

The father of her son is Charles Graner, the ringleader in the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Graner was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for aggravated assault, maltreatment and conspiracy.

England joined the military when she was 17 years old, and went to basic training the summer between her junior and senior year of high school.

"When I was little I always wanted to be in the military," she said.

Soon she was sent to Iraq, and was assigned to help process detainees at Abu Ghraib. She scanned prisoners' fingerprints and irises and took down their personal information.

"We saw them all as people, but when it came down to the interrogation...," she said, then trailed off.

"When we first got there, we felt uncomfortable with everything that was going on, and we vocalized it," she said.

But she said nobody cared, "and it got to the point that we got used to it."

She said she and other members of her unit felt uncomfortable with some of their actions, "but we would have been court-martialed if we didn't do it."

Those who spoke out were reprimanded and "We never [saw] them again in the prison. They would be out in the guard towers doing 24-hour shifts," she said.

From the start, she said, it was clear detainees were being mistreated and some tortured.

She said members of the CIA and the NSA routinely came through the prison with detainees and asked that they not be processed.

At least a handful of prisoners died, and she questioned whether the correct reason for their deaths was documented.

One man supposedly died of a cardiac arrest, but he had a "stab wound to his eye, and was beaten to a pulp," she said.

No one knew the names of the CIA and NSA agents who came to the prison.

She said they wore civilian clothes, and if they wore a uniform they would remove their name badge or put duct tape over it. Some told guards their name was "Bob" and "would sign the log-in with a smiley face."

England also said Abu Ghraib was far too crowded for soldiers to control.

The prison was designed to hold 5,000 people, but during England's time it housed at least 7,000, she said.

"We had way too many people for us; we couldn't handle it," she said. "That's why we had so many riots and escapes.

"There really was no order," she said.

England is ambivalent about the military. On one hand, she feels like she was unfairly singled out for a harsher punishment because of the photos.

"I think I was hung out to dry by the government and the military," she said.

On the other hand, she says Abu Ghraib cut short what she wanted to be a long Army career.

"Technically, I'm still in [the military], I'm still waiting for my discharge papers," she said.

Right now she is on "excess leave" and receives no pay or benefits from the military, except medical insurance. Once she receives her discharge papers, England said, she will lose that, too.

England said she originally wanted to join the Navy, but her mother encouraged her to join the Army instead. Her mom had to sign the papers allowing England to join the military because she was 17 at the time.

"She really regrets it, but I don't," England said. "I wanted to serve, to be a patriot and to get money for college."

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com">veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.