Fort Carson – Lawyers for an Army officer charged with murder in the interrogation death of an Iraqi general called two other officers as witnesses today to bolster their argument that commanders offered little guidance on how to treat detainees.
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. is accused of killing Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush in 2003. A military medical examiner said Mowhoush suffocated after Welshofer placed him headfirst in a sleeping bag, bound him with electrical cord and sat on his chest.
Welshofer faces life in prison if convicted.
Capt. Jesse Falk, an intelligence officer who supervised Welshofer and other interrogators in Iraq, testified he had never seen any documents outlining what interrogation techniques were approved and what was forbidden.
Retired intelligence officer James Reese, who also worked with Welshofer in Iraq, said he found guidelines only after searching for three months.
Under cross-examination, both men said they had not seen Welshofer interrogate anyone. Prosecutor Capt. Elana Matt said neither Falk nor Reese was an interrogator but instead assembled information gathered by others.
On Thursday, Welshofer had testified he received an e-mail from his unit’s commanders saying there were no rules for interrogations because officials still had not determined how to classify detainees.
He said the e-mail came during a tense and confusing time as the Iraqi insurgency was growing more lethal.
Welshofer said the e-mail claimed officers were “tired of taking casualties and that the gloves were coming off.” Welshofer testified that he improvised the sleeping bag technique based on his experience as a survival-course instructor for the military.
Defense attorney Frank Spinner asked Welshofer, an Army interrogator for 17 years, why he used it.
“Because of his continued denial of the allegations against him,” Welshofer said, adding that the general was suspected of being the “snake’s head” of the insurgency.
“I had gone through all my experience and all my techniques I thought might be applicable, except for one technique,” he said.
Welshofer said his company commander approved his use of a sleeping bag, but he had not mentioned to her that he might straddle a detainee’s chest, pour water over the detainee’s face or cover the detainee’s mouth while using the sleeping bag.
“Whatever authorization you gained from Maj. Voss did not include the techniques you used with the general,” prosecutor Maj. Tiernan Dolan said.
Earlier Thursday, a forensic expert testified that the general died from a pre-existing heart condition and stress from being detained.
The prosecution rested after questioning Maj. Michael Smith, a forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Mowhoush.
Smith testified that he was certain the general died from being suffocated. He pointed out numerous large bruises on photos of the general’s body and said he had five broken ribs, which would have made walking and breathing difficult and painful.
“But the circumstances of death are very suspicious,” he said.
“The technique that was practiced was an inherently lethal technique.”
