Torture on Trial - HRF Observes Court Martial of Army Officer Accused in Death of Iraqi Major General

Human Rights First will observe the Fort Carson, Colorado, trial of Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, charged with the murder of Iraqi Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who died after being forced inside a sleeping bag during interrogation.

Marc Kusnetz is a consultant to Human Rights First and a freelance journalist. He was a producer at NBC News for twenty-six years.

David Danzig is the manager of Human Rights First's "End Torture Now" campaign.

The Proceedings So Far: In Their Own Words

January 19, 2006

What follows are particularly telling excerpts from the witnesses who have testified through the end of Wednesday. The quotations are from my notes and while I did my best to transcribe each witness’ exact words, the authoritative version of what was said will be the transcript of the proceedings from the court reporter.

Major Jessica Voss

Major Jessica Voss testified that she was Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer's direct supervisor. She acknowledged in her testimony that she had approved the use of a "sleeping bag interrogation technique", which other witnesses testified was used on at least a dozen detainees. Voss explained that the technique, which was used on General Mowhoush, was intended to scare uncooperative detainees and to make them talk.

According to Voss, Welshofer came to her and argued in support of the use of the technique -- that it should be considered approved because it was a "stress position" and U.S. commanders in Iraq had approved the use of stress positions in a Sept 10, 2003 memo.

The Prosecutor asked Voss about Welshofer's conduct on the base in general and the sleeping bag technique in particular. Excerpts:

Prosecutor: "Did you ever see the accused [Welshofer] slap a detainee?"

Major Jessica Voss: "I did. I was somewhat shocked. He explained it was something he learned in SERE school [designed to train troops to avoid capture and resist interrogation]. He said it was open-handed. It was intended to shock the detainee, not hurt him."

Prosecutor: "Did you express any concern about the use of this [sleeping bag] technique."

Voss: "I did. My concern was that the detainee was going to have enough room in the sleeping bag to breathe."

Prosecutor: "Did you express that concern?"

Voss: "I did."

Prosecutor: "Did you ultimately approve the use of the technique?"

Major Jessica Voss: "I did."

Prosecutor: "Would you have approved it if it included sitting on the chest of a detainee?"

Voss: "I would not have."

"He could barely walk."

— Williams testifying about Mowhoush’s condition
after a beating two days before his death.

Williams testified that Welshofer lead the interrogation on the roof of the U.S. facility. Williams described some of what happened: Mowhoush’s hands and legs were tied and his arm was “tapped” with a wooden stick "in the funny bone area" to try to elicit answers. [Yesterday (Wednesday) the prosecution showed an autopsy photo of Mowhoush, in which his left arm was deeply discolored from just above his elbow all the way down to his finger tips. The autopsy photo also showed dozens of other bruises all over his body.]

"We basically held him down on his back and poured water on his face."

— Williams explaining to the court a technique used on Mowhoush by Welshofer on the roof of the interrogation facility the day before he died.


Prosecutor: "You don’t consider bruising an injury?"

Williams: "No sir."

Prosecutor: "But you think the stick treatment was done enough times to cause bruising?"

Williams: "Yes sir. I know the technique may be considered extreme. But it was not that extreme when you consider other things that were happening at the facility."

According to Williams, on the morning that Mowhoush died, Welshofer put him in a sleeping bag headfirst, wrapped the bag tightly with electrical cord, and forced Mowhoush to lie down.

"At that point, when they were putting General Mowhoush in the sleeping bag, I went to get more coffee. . . I'd seen this interrogation technique before."

— Williams explaining what he did as the interrogation that led to General Mowhoush's death began.

Williams said Welshofer straddled the General and asked him a series of questions. Williams testified that Welshofer was unsatisfied with the answers and held his hand over Mowhoush’s "lower face" a number of times for 5 to 20 seconds each time, while asking questions. At one point the General became unresponsive, and, Williams said, “there was tension because we were not sure if the General was playing possum,” but then, Williams added, Mowhoush made a muffled sound.

"Thank God, I thought he had died."

— Welshofer, as told to the court by Williams.

"His eyes were completely open. He was dead."

— Williams explaining what he saw when Welshofer took the sleeping bag off the head of Mowhoush.

Prosecutor: "What happened to the sleeping bag [that Welshofer used to interrogate Mowhoush]?"

Sgt. Gerold Pratt: "[Army investigators] took it away."

Prosecutor: "What happened then?

Pratt: "Chief Welshofer got another one. Another detainee came in with a sleeping bag and Chief Welshofer got ahold of it."

—David Danzig