[Peace-discuss] This is an outrage

[Karen Medina]

How could this happen! This guy is barely getting a slap on 
the paycheck. I thought it was horrible when he was going to 
get 3 years instead of life. He brutally killed a man with 
his own hands and didn't even notice that the man was dead at 
first. 

-karen medina

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:42:12 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] This is an outrage  
>To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>  Jury Orders Reprimand, No Jail for Soldier
>  Jan 23, 11:09 PM (ET)
>  By JON SARCHE
>
>FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - A military jury on Monday ordered a
>reprimand but no jail time for an Army interrogator convicted
>of killing an Iraqi general by stuffing him headfirst into a
>sleeping bag and sitting on his chest.
>
>Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. also was ordered to
>forfeit $6,000 salary and was largely restricted to his
>barracks and workplace for 60 days.
>
>Welshofer, 43, had originally been charged with murder and
>faced up to life in prison. But on Saturday he was convicted
>instead of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of 
duty...
>
>Prosecutors described Welshofer as a rogue interrogator who
>became frustrated with Mowhoush's refusal to answer questions
>and escalated his techniques from simple interviews to
>beatings to simulating drowning, and finally, to death.
>
>***
>
>  Brutality in a U.S. uniform
>  Sleeping-bag trick killed Iraqi general
>  By Jim Spencer, Denver Post
>
>Fort Carson, Colo. -- Every American should be forced to see
>the autopsy pictures of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush on
>display at the trial of Chief Warrant Officer Lewis 
Welshofer Jr.
>
>Welshofer is charged with killing the Iraqi general during a
>November 2003 interrogation. But what's playing out in a Fort
>Carson courtroom is a nation's shame, not just an 
individual's.
>
>The autopsy photos of Mowhoush make the now-infamous images
>from Abu Ghraib prison look like a costume party. Bruises and
>welts cover Mowhoush's dead body.
>
>Doctors ruled that Mowhoush was smothered. Officials charge
>that Welshofer stuffed him inside a sleeping bag, bound him
>with an electric cord, sat on his chest and covered his 
mouth.
>Still, there is no question that Mowhoush was also savagely
>beaten.
>
>The prosecution and defense in Welshofer's trial continue to
>argue about who bears responsibility. Capt. Elana Matt, a
>prosecutor, claimed Welshofer "abandoned the moral high
>ground" in his handling of Mowhoush.
>
>Welshofer deserves punishment for killing Mowhoush. But the
>presidential administration and Army chain of command that
>lets military prisoners be stuffed in sleeping bags or wall
>lockers or held down to have water poured down their mouths
>and noses won't get their due. The "nonmilitary" folks (read
>CIA) whom a witness said beat Mowhoush two days before he 
died
>have not even been charged.
>
>Welshofer's company commander knew he was using the so-called
>"sleeping-bag technique."
>
>Mowhoush probably was a "high-value facilitator of the
>insurgency in western Iraq," to use the intelligence-speak of
>the chief prosecution witness, Chief Warrant Officer 
Jefferson
>Williams. But, as military judge Col. Mark Toole reminded
>everyone, "The victim is not on trial."
>
>Williams testified after prosecutors dropped his murder 
charge
>in Mowhoush's death. Testifying, as Williams did, under a
>grant of immunity, Sgt. Justin Lamb, the 3rd Armored Calvary
>Regiment's chief interrogator, talked about "fear up"
>inquisitions. That's why he invented the sleeping-bag trick.
>Along with packing prisoners in wall lockers, he used it to
>induce claustrophobia.
>
>You slip the end of a sleeping bag over the prisoner's head
>and tie the bag in place, Lamb explained. Then you roll the
>prisoner back and forth while asking questions.
>
>And, allegedly, if you're Lewis Welshofer, when the prisoner
>doesn't give you what you want, you also sit on his chest and
>cover his mouth.
>
>Prosecutors claimed this was not business as usual, that it
>was the cowboy misbehavior of a lone outlaw. Then their star
>witness, Williams, took the stand and described how the
>sleeping-bag technique was no more extreme than many other
>interrogation techniques he had witnessed.
>
>Williams also said he walked away from the eight to 10
>"spooks" as they started to clobber Mowhoush with rubber 
hoses
>two days before the general died. Williams admitted to 
hearing
>screams after he left. He also said he saw "four to five men"
>carrying the general back to his "cage" afterward.
>
>When Welshofer invited Williams to be part of the eventually
>fatal interrogation of Mowhoush, Williams agreed, but said he
>had to get a cup of coffee first. Williams went for a second
>cup of Joe as Welshofer lowered the sleeping bag over
>Mowhoush's head.
>
>It was, apparently, no big thing.
>
>For as long as it isn't, this question about the humane
>treatment of military prisoners remains open for all
>Americans: If the sleeping-bag technique was used against 
your
>soldiers, would you consider it wrong?
>
>Jim Spencer is a columnist for the Denver Post
>
>  ###
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