Reporters descend on prison abuse suspect's town

FORT ASHBY, W.Va. -- Two weeks ago, this was a friendly town where folks were more likely to smile than scowl at a stranger.

Now, the words "reporter" and "Lynndie England" are enough to send people scurrying.

"They trashed us," says a woman at the pharmacy, smile fading as she backs away. "Just look at the Internet."

"Nobody's going to talk to you because they don't think the media's going to tell the truth," says barber Joe Godlewski.

Pfc. England's leering poses with Iraqi inmates have become the most notorious images of the prison-abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. She is among seven soldiers from the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company charged with mistreating Iraqis at the prison.

Privately, many people here support the 21-year-old reservist who used to bag their groceries at the IGA. The infamous leashed-inmate picture, they say, was clearly staged.

"Somebody told her to take those pictures to humiliate those men," Godlewski says. "Everybody I talk to believes that."

People just hope time will erase any stain.

"It's like where Jessica Lynch grew up -- what was it again?" says Larry Rafferty, a track coach at nearby Frankfort High School.

He meant Palestine, the hometown of the war's most famous ex-prisoner, about 145 miles away.

"A year later, and everybody has forgotten the name," Rafferty says. "People won't remember this place, either."