CHAINS OF COMMAND

Soldier's lawyers plan to summon top US officials

Attorneys representing Army Pfc. Lynndie England, charged in the torture-and-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, said yesterday they plan to call Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as witnesses in her preliminary hearing this month.
During a news conference in Denver, the defense team said it had assembled a list of 136 people to summon when England, 21, appears June 22 before a military Article 32 hearing in Fort Bragg, N.C. The hearing, similar to a grand jury, will determine whether there is enough evidence to prosecute her. If she is tried and convicted on charges of abuse, conspiracy and discrediting the armed forces, England, who is five months pregnant, faces 15-1/2 years in prison.
Her lawyers acknowledge they can't force Cheney or Rumsfeld to show up, because there is no subpoena power for Article 32 hearings. The best they can hope for is the pair might be required, as public servants, to come if called.
Attorney Rose Mary Zapor said she believes the chain of command ordered England and at least six other prison guards at Abu Ghraib to 'soften up' Iraqi detainees before interrogation. One guard, Army Spc. Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty last month to abusing prisoners and was sentenced to one year in prison.
England is not in custody and is doing clerical work at Fort Bragg.

Excerpt from an interview aired on the Australian ABC Radio network Text in square brackets may contain transcript errors due to poor quality of recording.

ENGLAND: I was instructed by a person in a higher rank to stand there, hold this leash, they took the picture, [first aisle, and that's all I know].
INTERVIEWER: [You had an] intention of using that picture in some type of psychological operation [that they're inmates].

PRESENTER: Private England was asked if she thought there was anything wrong with what she was doing.
ENG: Oh I mean they were for psyop reasons and the reason was ... I mean ... and so ... to us we were doing our job which meant we were doing what we were told and the outcome was what they wanted. They'd come back and they'd look at the pictures and they'd state, "that's a good tactic, keep it up, that's working, this is working. Keep doing it. Gettin' what we need".

PRES: She didn't name names, but said repeatedly that she was acting under orders.
ENG: We don't feel like we were doing thing that we weren't supposed to, because we were told to do ... we think everything was justified because we were instructed to do this and to do that.
INT: Did things happen in this prison to those Iraqi prisoners worse than [garbled] than being photographed.
ENG: Yes
INT: Can you tell me about that.
ENG: No.
PRES: There are still many questions about what that worse treatment may have involved.