August 13, 2009 - In an interview set to air this evening on BBC Two's Newsnight, Lynndie England defends the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison as being "nothing ... compared to what they would do to us" and not much worse than hazing at U.S. colleges.

"If it helps get whatever information they might have, sure," England says of the tactics that included stripping prisoners, forcing them into piles, putting leashes on some and other abuses.

England, who Army Times has called "one of the most recognizable figures of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq" because of her appearance in graphic photos, was among 11 soldiers convicted of crimes for actions taken at the Iraqi prison in the early months of the war there. She served about 18 months of a 36-month sentence.

England last month told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the way prisoners were treated "was just normal everyday activity to us there. ... When we got there we just took over. That stuff was happening before we got there and after we left. It was like the passing of the baton. That's just the stuff that was going on there. We were told to continue on with it, to keep doing it."

Click here to listen to that report.

NPR