Cheney, Rumsfeld may be called in abuse case
US Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are on a list of potential witnesses in the case of Private Lynndie England, the US army reservist facing a court-martial for alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, her lawyers say.
England is seen in some of the photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad that have made the case an international scandal.
Six other soldiers also face military charges in the case.
The list of potential witnesses for a hearing this month includes Cheney, Rumsfeld and 134 others.
“It’s a catchall list of everyone who’s had connections to the investigation,” lead attorney Richard Hernandez said in Denver.
Administration officials have resisted subpoenas in civilian cases in the past. Neither Hernandez nor the three other lawyers on England’s defence team would speculate on the likelihood that Cheney or Rumsfeld would be asked to give evidence.
It will be up to the investigating officer presiding over a June 22 hearing to determine which civilian witnesses should testify, the defence team said.
At the hearing, roughly the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing, a judge will determine if the evidence is strong enough to send the case to trial.
The hearing will be in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where England is stationed. She is performing clerical duties for a military police unit, her lawyers said.
England’s lawyers plan to argue she was ordered to appear in the pictures, which show her pointing at one Iraqi prisoners’ genitals and holding a dog-type leash attached to another inmate, Hernandez said.
“A private first-class does not do anything unless told to do so,” Hernandez said.
England’s lawyers have said the photos were staged and shown to other prisoners to “soften” them for questioning by intelligence officers and civilian contractors.
