The Lynndie Englands and Jessica Lynchs of this
country are going to lead the sacking of the Bush
abomination...There is an Electoral Uprising coming in
November 2004...
Cindi Lash and Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette: By putting top government officials like
Vice President Dick Cheney on their witness list,
England's attorneys are serving notice that in
defending their client, they will attempt to put on
trial the Bush administration's policies on
intelligence gathering from detainees. Like most other
military police reservists charged in the abuse
scandal, England has claimed military intelligence
officers ordered the MPs to "soften up" the detainees
prior to interrogations.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04165/331166.stm
Soldier's defense team wants 100 witnesses from Cheney on down for Abu Ghraib case
Sunday, June 13, 2004
By Cindi Lash and Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
Defense attorneys preparing for Pfc. Lynndie England's
upcoming hearing on charges she abused detainees at
Abu Ghraib prison have compiled a list of 100
potential witnesses stretching from the halls of power
in Washington, D.C., to the sand-swept vistas of Iraq.
KCNC-TV via AP
Army Pfc. Lynndie England during an interview with
KCNC-TV on May 11.
By putting top government officials like Vice
President Dick Cheney on their witness list, England's
attorneys are serving notice that in defending their
client, they will attempt to put on trial the Bush
administration's policies on intelligence gathering
from detainees. Like most other military police
reservists charged in the abuse scandal, England has
claimed military intelligence officers ordered the MPs
to "soften up" the detainees prior to interrogations.
However, just because her attorneys want those
witnesses doesn't mean that many of them will be on
the stand later this month at England's Article 32
hearing in Fort Bragg, N.C. That's because a military
investigating officer, the presiding authority at the
Article 32 hearing, will decide which witnesses are
most relevant.
The goal at this stage of the military justice system
is to determine whether there is sufficient probable
cause to believe a crime was committed and whether
England committed it. If the investigating officer
determines there is enough evidence to proceed to a
court-martial, he will make that recommendation to a
higher-ranking officer, who will make the final
determination.
Given that, it would seem highly unlikely that the
most prominent names listed will be asked to take the
witness stand at England's hearing, tentatively
scheduled for June 22.
Related article
Top general approved tough grilling tactics
The wished-for witness list, obtained by the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, includes, in addition to
Cheney, other high-ranking officials such as Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz and Defense Undersecretary for
Intelligence Stephen Cambone; Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and other
high-ranking Army officers; White House General
Counsel Alberto Gonzales; and Justice Department
officials.
An Army spokeswoman said last week that any military
personnel chosen as witnesses by the investigating
officer will be ordered to appear. Spokesmen for
Cheney and the Defense Department did not return calls
seeking comment.
England, 21, of Fort Ashby, W.Va., has become perhaps
the most recognized of the seven soldiers from the
372nd MP Company who were charged in the prison abuse
scandal. She provoked international ire for her
exuberant smile and thumbs-up sign while posing with
naked, hooded prisoners in widely published
photographs. In one, she holds a leash attached to the
neck of a naked Iraqi who is on the ground.
The witness list includes 16 members of the 372nd,
headquartered in Cresaptown, Md., many of whose names
will be familiar to those who have followed the abuse
scandal.
Among the group are Spc. Joseph M. Darby, the Somerset
County native who turned in the others and is not
facing charges, and Spc. Jeremy Sivits of Hyndman,
Bedford County, who pleaded guilty May 19 at a special
court-martial in a plea bargain with prosecutors in
which he promised to testify against England and the
six other MPs charged thus far.
The five other charged MPs -- Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip"
Frederick II, Sgt. Javal S. Davis, Spc. Charles Graner
Jr., Spc. Sabrina Harman and Spc. Megan Ambuhl --
remain in Iraq where they are performing tasks other
than jail guard duty. They are not expected to be
ordered to testify because they almost certainly would
invoke their Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination if ordered to do so.
Frederick, Davis and Graner have already had their
Article 32 hearings and have had charges referred to
general court-martial. A military judge set June 21
for pre-trial hearings in their cases, where pleas and
motions must be entered.
Ambuhl has had her Article 32 hearing, at which two of
four charges lodged against her were dropped. A
decision is expected by early summer on whether she
should face a court-martial.
Harman's Article 32 hearing is scheduled for June 24.
An Army spokesman in Iraq said the hearing is
tentatively set to be held at the Victory Base
Courthouse outside of Baghdad but it may be moved to
the Green Zone, the heavily guarded area in central
Baghdad, to provide for additional seating.
Unlike the other charged MPs, England was transferred
to the United States because she is pregnant. She told
investigators that Graner is the father.
At this stage, prosecutors are likely to draw much of
their case against England from her own words, found
in the signed, sworn statement she gave agents from
the Army's Criminal Investigation Division at Fort
Bragg on May 5. Her attorneys, who did not return
calls last week, have in the past argued that England
was pressured into giving that statement and they will
try to have it suppressed.
In that statement, obtained by the Post-Gazette,
England implicates herself and five other members of
the 372nd in varying types of abuse at Abu Ghraib. She
maintains they committed no crimes because they were
following orders from superior officers and that what
occurred there was widely known and, in some cases,
"funny."
England acknowledged in her statement that the MPs
were not given specific orders on how to "break''
detainees for interrogation by military intelligence
officers or other government agents. But she said
those officers praised the MPs and told them to "keep
it up'' with their treatment of detainees.
England's witness list also includes White House
counsel Gonzales and Justice Department officials who
were involved in a controversial Bush administration
decision two years ago to deny Geneva Conventions
protections to captured Taliban and Al-Qaida
combatants detained in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo,
Cuba. That paved the way for U.S. agents to employ a
new, more aggressive set of interrogation rules that
included stress and duress while they attempted to
extract information from detainees at Guantanamo and
other sites.
Attorneys for England and other charged MPs, as well
as administration critics, contend that policy was
gradually expanded to also cover Iraqi detainees,
creating conditions where military and civilian
intelligence officers used MP guards at Abu Ghraib to
intimidate detainees before interrogations.
Also on the witness list are 12 Abu Ghraib detainees,
although what assistance they could provide in
England's defense is unclear, other than if they would
say she wasn't involved in any incidents involving
them.
One of them, Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, is identified
in CID documents obtained by the Post-Gazette as the
inmate in the iconic photo of the abuse scandal --
hooded, standing on a box and with wires attached to
his fingers, toes and penis -- after MPs told him he
would be electrocuted if he stepped off.
Another detainee on the witness list, Abd Alwhab
Youss, told CID investigators that after he was
mistakenly identified as the owner of a broken
toothbrush that could be used as a weapon, he was
stripped and six unnamed guards poured cold water on
him and "forced me to put my head in someone's urine,"
beat him with a broom, stepped on his head, spit on
him and yelled at him with a loudspeaker for three
hours.
The witness list also includes:
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who supervised
operations at the U.S. Detention Center in Guantanamo
before he was sent to Iraq to improve intelligence
gathering in summer 2003. In November, Sanchez
transferred control of Abu Ghraib to military
intelligence and other agencies.
Maj Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who headed a military
investigation that produced a report detailing abuses
at Abu Ghraib. His report includes MPs' contentions
that their controversial treatment of prisoners was
directed by military intelligence and other government
officials.
Maj. Gen. George Fay, the Army's deputy chief of
staff for intelligence, who was appointed after
Taguba's report to investigate the conduct of military
intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib. Fay, however, may
be replaced by a higher-ranking general because, as a
two-star general, he lacks authority to question
officers of greater rank.
Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who as commander of
the 800th Military Police Brigade oversaw military
prisons in Iraq, and other Army officials who worked
in the prison. Karpinski and other officers have been
reprimanded.
Col. Thomas M. Pappas, who as commander of the 205th
Military Intelligence Brigade oversaw interrogations
at Abu Ghraib.
Other soldiers who were witnesses to abuse, according
to CID documents obtained by the Post-Gazette.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com
or 412-263-1973. Michael A. Fuoco can be reached at
mfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1968.)