4.1.1 Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict and members of militias of such armed forces
"No Jail Time for Officer Convicted of Killing Iraqi General
By JON SARCHE, AP
FORT CARSON, Colo. (Jan. 24) - A military jury recommended a
simple reprimand Monday for an Army officer who killed an
Iraqi general by stuffing him headfirst into a sleeping bag
and sitting on his chest during an interrogation.
As soldiers applauded in the courtroom, Chief Warrant Officer
Lewis Welshofer Jr. hugged his wife after hearing the
surprisingly light sentence, which will be reviewed by Fort
Carson's commander, Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon.
The commander cannot order a harsher sentence, defense
attorney Frank Spinner said.
Welshofer, 43, was charged with murder, but was convicted
over the weekend of negligent homicide and negligent
dereliction of duty that carried a penalty of up to three
years and three months in prison, a dishonorable discharge,
loss of pension and other penalties.
The murder charge carried a potential sentence of life in
prison. Instead, Welshofer faces no jail time, the forfeiture
of $6,000 in salary and what amounts largely to a restriction
to his barracks for 60 days.
"I have the utmost respect for the decision the panel members
came to tonight," Welshofer said. "I'm sure it was difficult
for them."
Welshofer was convicted of putting a sleeping bag over the
head of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, sitting on his
chest and using his hand to cover the general's mouth while
asking him questions at a detention camp in 2003 in al Qaim,
Iraq.
The defense argued that a heart condition caused Mowhoush's
death, and that Welshofer's commanders had approved the
interrogation technique. Spinner also argued that
interrogators were under pressure to extract information from
detainees and to find a way to replace techniques that hadn't
been working.
Spinner said Mixon can order a lighter sentence and that he
might ask the general to set aside the verdict entirely. He
contends his client should never have been charged.
After the sentencing, Spinner said the six-member jury
apparently accepted his argument that Welshofer did what he
thought was right without clear guidance from his commanders
during a chaotic time.
"When you send our men and women over there to fight, and to
put their lives on the line, you've got to back them up,
you've got to give them clear rules, and you've got to give
them enough room to make mistakes without treating them like
criminals," Spinner said.
During the sentencing hearing, Welshofer fought back tears as
he apologized and asked the jury not to separate him from his
wife and children by sending him to prison.
"I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers
serving in Iraq," Welshofer said. "It was never my intent to
cast aspersions on their tremendous accomplishments."
After his testimony, Welshofer mouthed "I love you" to his
wife, Barbara, who was seated in the gallery. She told the
jury she was worried about providing for their three children
without her husband, but was proud of him for contesting the
case.
"I love him more for fighting this," she said, tears welling
up in her eyes. "He's always said that you need to do the
right thing, and sometimes the right thing is the hardest
thing to do."
Lt. Col. Paul Calvert, testifying on Welshofer's behalf, said
attacks by Iraqi insurgents around al Qaim, the area where
Mowhoush was taken into custody, "went to practically none"
when Mowhoush died.
Prosecutor Maj. Tiernan Dolan suggested Mowhoush's death
likely denied coalition forces valuable information. He did
not call any witnesses at the sentencing hearing.
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.
Spinner admitted that Welshofer sat on Mowhoush while the
general's face was covered by the sleeping bag. But he said
Welshofer did nothing illegal, and claimed Army headquarters
had told interrogators it was "time to take the gloves off"
during questioning because of a need to gather information
about an increasingly lethal insurgency.
The weeklong court-martial included dramatic testimony from
secret witnesses. One man spoke from behind a green cloak and
recalled Welshofer saying rules about interrogation
techniques were probably being broken in Iraq "every day."
In the background of the trial was whether the CIA played a
role in the attempts to get Mowhoush to talk. The CIA said
last year that one of its officers may have been involved in
the death, but the agency refused additional comment despite
reports that documents said Mowhoush had been beaten by a
paramilitary Iraqi group sponsored by the CIA two days before
he died.
Chief Warrant Officer Todd Sonnek testified that Mowhoush had
been beaten by Iraqis, but he did not identify the civilian
interrogators he said were responsible."
That one is a pretty cut and dried offense and the guy gets a $6000 fine for it?!? For unlawfully killing (polite term for murder) a senior officer of an enemy combatants army?
Dream all you want about visions of Obama or Clinton leading you back to the light. The reality is, this is who you have become.
