PFC Lynndie England's defense team has submitted a list of 100 witnesses it wants to call at her Article 32 hearing on charges of abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners. The list includes Vice President Cheney.

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.

Don't hold your breath. It's the military investigating officer in charge of the hearing who gets to decide which witnesses are relevant enough to call. Since the hearing is the equivalent of a probable cause hearing, to decide whether there is enough evidence to initiate a court-martial, it's unlikely such higher-ups will be called. Who else is on the wish list?

....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.