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Trial Illuminates Dark Tactics of Interrogation
By Nicholas Riccardi
Times Staff Writer
01/20/06 "Los
Angeles Times" -- -- FT. CARSON, Colo. — It was
dubbed the "sleeping bag technique."
Interrogators at a makeshift prison in western Iraq, desperate
to break suspected insurgents, would stuff them face-first into
a sleeping bag with a small hole cut in the bottom for air.
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr. used it on an Iraqi
general as a last-ditch grab for information as Welshofer's unit
was in the midst of an offensive against insurgents and
desperate for intelligence.
The technique was not in the Army Field Manual, but Welshofer
testified Thursday that he believed it was permitted after top
commanders told interrogators "the gloves were coming off."
But Welshofer got no information.
Military prosecutors allege that Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush,
57, suffocated in the sleeping bag as Welshofer sat on him.
Welshofer's murder trial, which began this week at the home base
of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to which he was assigned in
Iraq, opens a window into the murky world of military
interrogations.
Issues raised by the prosecutors and the defense about how to
calibrate interrogations during the war against terrorism echo
those made during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the recent
debate in Washington over banning torture.
Welshofer described spending months in Iraq without any clear
directives about how to manage interrogations. When rules came
down, he said, they were vague and he soon found that his
training did not apply.
"There was no preparation from the schoolhouse at all for what
we encountered in Iraq," he said. "The doctrine was based on an
enemy from 60 years ago."
But the prosecutor, Lt. Tiernan Dolan, said that Welshofer took
advantage of, or blatantly neglected, decades of military
standards in how to practice interrogation. "You use
psychological ploys to let [detainees] know you are in control,"
he told Welshofer. "But you crossed the line from psychological
control to physical control."
When Welshofer and Mowhoush met in the fall of 2003, the
insurgency was gaining strength and interrogators were under
intense pressure to obtain leads from Saddam Hussein loyalists,
such as the captured general.
U.S. commanders at the time had asked for what Welshofer called
a "wish list" of new interrogation techniques. Beginning in
September, U.S. generals in Iraq issued a stream of rules on the
acceptable bounds of interrogation, sometimes shifting them from
week to week.
A witness who testified behind a screen on Wednesday — whom an
attorney inadvertently referred to as someone who worked for the
CIA — said Welshofer told him the day before Mowhoush's death
that he was aware of the most recent regulations, but that "he
was breaking those rules every day."
Welshofer said he did not recall the conversation, but his
attorney, Frank Spinner, argued that his client was navigating a
gray zone. Spinner cited disagreements within the Bush
administration about what techniques constituted torture. "There
are not clear-cut rules here," Spinner told the panel of six
officers, who will determine whether Welshofer is guilty. He
faces life imprisonment if convicted.
The interrogations took place at a converted train station
outside of the western Iraqi city of Qaim. Mowhoush was believed
to be directing attacks in the region and had surrendered
himself to authorities in hopes of helping his sons, who were
also in U.S. custody.
At the prison, Welshofer supervised a handful of other
interrogators and 40 military intelligence officers. Another
interrogator had invented the sleeping bag technique, which
Welshofer said was designed to create a claustrophobic effect.
Welshofer said a supervisor had approved the technique, but was
concerned whether prisoners would be able to breathe, and only
allowed Welshofer and its inventor to use it.
Welshofer acknowledged Thursday that when briefing his superior,
he omitted that the technique he used involved straddling the
detainee's chest.
Welshofer said he started gently with Mowhoush. He said he began
by simply questioning the general. When Mowhoush denied his role
in the insurgency, the interrogations became more heated. Over
two weeks, Welshofer progressed from conversing, to slapping the
general in front of other detainees, to having him held down and
pouring water in his face.
During that time, Welshofer was in an interrogation room when
Mowhoush was severely beaten by a group of Iraqis who, according
to published reports, were in the pay of the CIA. One witness
said Welshofer appeared to be directing that interrogation, but
the defendant said he had "no command and control" over that
situation.
Two days later, Welshofer made his final choice. "I had gone
through all my techniques and all my experience that might have
been applicable — except that one technique," he said.
Army Spc. Jerry L. Loper, a guard at the prison who is
cooperating with the prosecution, testified that Mowhoush was
unable to walk after his beatings by fellow Iraqis (those
allegedly paid by the CIA), and that even on Nov. 26, he had
difficulty moving and was breathing heavily. At 8 a.m., Loper
led the general into the interrogation room and questioning
began.
The general was issuing blanket denials, and after the final
one, Loper said, Welshofer told the detainee: "If you don't
answer, you're not going to like what's coming."
Welshofer said that the general at times appeared tired, but he
believed he was faking his fatigue. He ordered that the
olive-green sleeping bag be dropped over his head, and that he
be wrapped in an electrical cord "like winding a yo-yo" to
fasten the bag to his 300-pound frame. The general was lowered
to the ground on his back, and Welshofer straddled his chest and
continued to ask questions, occasionally putting his hand over
the general's mouth, the interrogator said. He said he was
stopping the detainee from calling out to Allah.
Loper and another witness testified that after several minutes,
the general became unresponsive and Welshofer stood up. Then,
they said, the general emitted a loud gasp and Welshofer
expressed relief that he wasn't dead. Welshofer said he did not
recall this occurring.
It was after the general was flipped on his stomach and
Welshofer straddled his back that he became silent again.
Welshofer said he pulled the bag from the general and saw an odd
smile on his face, so he threw water on him to get a response.
It was then, he said, that he realized the general was dead or
dying, called for medics, and began CPR.
The military contends the general was smothered during the
interrogation, but the defense called a pathologist who
testified that the cause of Mowhoush's death was probably heart
failure. Mowhoush had an enlarged heart and other signs of heart
disease.
Welshofer, who has spent 17 years in the Army, is also charged
with slapping another detainee, wrapping him in a sleeping bag,
and body-slamming him. He said he wasn't sure to which of the
many detainees he interrogated the charge referred, but said
that in one case, he had to use his body weight to control a
prisoner who was becoming violent.
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
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