Where are Lynndie England and Charles Garner Now?

The two most prominent faces in the photos of torture and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have served out their punishments in American prisons and are now attempting to regain some kind of normalcy in their lives. Lynndie England was released from prison in 2009 after serving half of a three year sentence and returned to her parent's home in Fort Ashby West Virginia, while Sergeant Charles Graner was released from Ft. Leavenworth Kansas after serving more than six and a half years of his ten year sentence. These two will forever be linked together not only because of the child which they share but because they are the face Abu Ghraib. The release of the photos in 2004 showing England and Graner enjoying the torture inflicted on the detainees at Abu Ghraib sealed their fate. If these photos were never released, they would have returned to America as proud heroes who had served their country and represented what was great about their homeland but instead they are a disgrace and are hated by a majority of the world because of what those photos represent. Graner had exercised a great amount of influence over the young England who was only 21 years old when she found herself in the hells of war. Graner was the ringleader encouraging England and the others seen in photographs to participate in his debauchery. Both Graner and England claim that the practices of stress positions, nudity, and humiliation were already being utilized by Military Intelligence at Abu Ghraib before their arrival in the fall of 2003.

As of 2009 England was desperate to find a job and every interview had ended the same way, she was virtually non-hirable because of the discomfort other potential co-workers expressed concerning her. She struggles daily with the reality of what she has done and the effects of war and her time in Iraq have taken their toll. Anti-depressants were prescribed to her and she takes the medications daily so that she can function with some small sense of normalcy. It is questionable whether or not she is remorseful for any of her actions because of her belief that things like that happen in war and that she was only performing what she was commanded to do from her presiding officers. The reception she receives in her hometown varies from those who despise what she did and the others who tell her that she should have done worse to those enemies that hated America.

During Garner's trial it was revealed that he was involved not only with England but also had a sexual relationship with Megan Ambuhl, who herself was a defendant in the Abu Ghraib cases. Garner and Ambuhl are married and England cares for the child that Garner fathered to her because of their relationship and wishes for him to have no contact with the child. Graner has been described as a manipulative bully who had a bad boy charm about him that drew the attention of younger, more impressionable soldiers in his company. Anonymity seems to be the desire of Graner who has declined interview requests and his location after his release from prison was withheld from the press. Funny how a man who never shied away from the cameras in the prison at Abu Ghraib is now seeking privacy at home. Who can blame him, many believe that Graner was cast as the scapegoat to take the fall for the higher ups of the Bush administration that were complicit in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. This was an ugly and most unfortunate time in the prolific and honored history of the U.S. military and has forever changed that image forever in the minds of the world. England and Graner's images are eternally etched into our minds and those photos will haunt them for the rest of their lives.