Officer awaits sentence

Service record could lighten penalty in Iraqi general's death

Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, January 23, 2006

COLORADO SPRINGS - Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer's 19 years of Army service could weigh in his favor today as the 43-year-old career soldier, husband and father of three is sentenced in the death of a captured Iraqi general.

A six-member court-martial board acquitted Welshofer Saturday of the original charge of murder, but found him guilty of the lesser offenses of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty. He faces 39 months in prison.

Welshofer, an Army interrogator, was accused of binding suspected insurgent leader Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush in a sleeping bag during an interrogation session, sitting on him, and placing his hand over Mowhoush's mouth and nose, causing him to suffocate.

Murder charges against three other soldiers in the room with Welshofer during the interrogation were dropped.

Two reached plea agreements and testified against Welshofer in exchange for reductions in their charges.

A murder charge against the third was determined to be unwarranted after an evidentiary hearing last March.

Now, the same six officers who convicted Welshofer will hear testimony from his family, friends and fellow soldiers about his character before deciding on his sentence.

There could be clues in the board's verdict to its feelings about Welshofer's actions on and before the Nov. 26, 2003, interrogation in a Qaim, Iraq, detention facility operated by Fort Carson's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

In handing down the verdict of negligent homicide rather than murder, the panel seemed to side with Welshofer, who testified about the confusion and lack of command guidance on interrogation techniques for enemy captives.

Welshofer admitted only to "straddling" the sleeping bag on his knees, not pressing his full weight on the general, and covering his mouth to keep him from talking but never cutting off his air supply.

Testimony by prosecution witnesses implied that Welshofer intentionally caused Mowhoush's death and knowingly disregarded Army memoranda on interrogation regulations, which did not include the sleeping bag technique.

The panel's decision also discounted testimony from a secret witness from the CIA who said that Welshofer admitted knowledge of interrogation rules the day before Mowhoush's death and told him he was "pretty sure they were breaking the rules every day."

Welshofer testified that no such interview ever took place.

He testified that the only guidance he received in Iraq was a Sept. 10 e-mail memorandum from Iraq theater commander Lt. Gen. Roberto Sanchez allowing "stress positions" during interrogations.

But he said he never saw two later memos, on Sept. 14 and Oct. 12, 2003, introduced by the prosecution, that more clearly defined stress positions and restricted their use to prior permission of the commanding general.

Prosecutors also said Welshofer allowed eight Iraqi civilians into an interrogation to beat Mowhoush two days before he died, but Welshofer said the Iraqis were authorized to conduct their own interview and he had no authority to stop them when the beating occurred.

Welshofer is not the first Fort Carson soldier to be charged with illegally killing Iraqis during the 2003-04 deployment by more than 12,000 Fort Carson troops.

First Lt. Jack Saville and Staff Sgt. Tracy Perkins of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were charged with manslaughter after 19-year- old Zaidoun Fadel Hassoun allegedly drowned when the soldiers ordered him and his cousin to jump into the Tigris River after stopping them on a curfew violation in Samarra.

Hassoun's family recovered his body and buried him a few days later, but Army investigators never exhumed or positively identified the body to provide evidence that a death actually occurred.

Saville pleaded guilty to assault last March and was sentenced to 45 days in prison. Perkins was acquitted of the manslaughter charge last January.

Another Fort Carson soldier, Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, was charged with murdering Naser Ismail during a house search for insurgents and weapons in Balad in January 2004.

Werst argued that he shot Ismail in self-defense after Ismail lunged at the weapon of one of his soldiers. He was acquitted in a court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, last May.

fosterd@RockyMountainNews.com or 719-633-4442