Lawyer: interrogation techniques approved (suffocation death of Iraqi gen)

[sabra]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3411033

Lawyer: interrogation techniques approved

Fort Carson - An Army officer charged with murder in the suffocation death of an Iraqi general was using an interrogation technique approved by his commander and was under intense pressure to extract information, his lawyer said today.

Defense attorney Frank Spinner also said Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush did not suffocate, as an autopsy report said, but died from an irregular heart rhythm caused by heart disease and the stress of interrogation.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. is accused of killing Mowhoush in 2003 in Iraq. Prosecution documents say Mowhoush had been placed headfirst in a sleeping bag and bound, and that he died with one officer sitting on him. The documents say an electrical cord may also have been involved but did not say how.

In his opening statement, Spinner said Welshofer's company commander had approved the use of the sleeping bag on Mowhoush, who helped finance the Iraqi insurgency and had information that could have saved U.S. soldiers' lives.

[David Dunham]

1. Nuremberg established that "following orders" is not an excuse.

[Richard D]

2. Yet another . . .

. . . what the fuck have we become.

[UpInArms]

3. an initial Pentagon press release attributed the death to natural causes

http://www.gazette.com/war/0625xwar.html

excerpt:

Two Fort Carson warrant officers and two other soldiers will be charged in the prison death of an Iraqi general, a Pentagon document confirms.

The document says “two warrant officers will be charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide, and two enlisted soldiers present during the interrogation will be charged with dereliction of duty.”

Army sources, including Fort Carson commander Maj. Gen. Robert Wilson, wouldn’t comment on the disclosure about soldiers in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, saying the investigation is ongoing.

The investigation summary, released by Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., says Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush died while he was being interrogated and possibly tortured at a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment base in Western Iraq.

<snip>

Mowhoush died Nov. 26, and an initial Pentagon press release attributed the death to natural causes.

...more...

and

Army charges 4 in death

excerpt:

Army officials have accused two chief warrant officers, Lewis E. Welshofer Jr. and Jeff L. Williams, of suffocating Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush with a sleeping bag and an electrical cord during a Nov. 26 interrogation at the Qaim detention facility northwest of Baghdad.

Also charged are Sgt. 1st Class William J. Sommer and Spec. Jerry L. Loper. All four soldiers, who were assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment unit at Fort Carson when Mowhoush died, also face dereliction-of-duty charges. They could receive a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Welshofer, who has denied wrongdoing, hung up the phone without comment Monday. Williams and the other soldiers could not be reached.

The Mowhoush interrogation case caught the interest of Congress in May after The Denver Post disclosed that the key interrogators, Welshofer and Williams, had only been reprimanded after placing Mowhoush inside a sleeping bag, sitting on him and rolling him across the floor before he was pronounced dead, according to investigative documents.

...more...


Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, shown with his grandson in an undated family photo, died last November in American custody in Iraq.

[Bandit]

7. Do you think his grandson loves America?

What a tragedy....

[Village Idiot]

4. "an irregular heart rhythm caused by heart disease "

Sure. And Biko died as a result of a hunger strike, rather than severe head trauma and brain damage.

"The documents say an electrical cord may also have been involved but did not say how."

Ummmm...let me guess - around his neck?

[HuffleClaw]

5. "died from... ...the stress of interrogation."

funny how the higher ups, who ordered this stuff, are never the ones charged. i wonder if there were any guys who refused to do this crap and got punished for it.

[jayfish]

6. "who helped finance the Iraqi insurgency...

and had information that could have saved U.S. soldiers' lives." That's either really poor English or the paper is stating that as fact. Was the Major General ever put on trial for these alleged crimes?

Jay

[IndianaGreen]

8. Reads like a dispatch from Nazi occupied Europe

And the friendly population cheered on as our glorious troops assisted the Jews into the train that was to relocate them to their new homes to the East.

[PSPS]

9. I'll bet this "interrogation technique" gives Bartcop a woody!

[donkeyotay]

10. So, he COULD have had information that COULD have saved US lives

So he was beaten repeatedly. There was a "rooftop incident," which I imagine involved threatening to throw the man off. And then, as approved by the commander, he was stuffed into a sleeping bag. What happens when you do this to a man who cannot tell you what you think he should be able to? Judge, jury and executioner.

He died.
No lives were saved.
America is shamed.
We are not safer.