Details of the suffocation death of Iraqi Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush have been filed in court Monday. Four U.S. soldiers from Colorado are charged with murder and derelection of duty in his death. The documents show the technique used on Mowhoush had been used before rendering that prisoner unconscious.

The army had closed the hearing to the public and the Denver Post filed suit to stop the hearing until the decision could be reviewed. The new documents were filed in response to the Post's suit.

Mowhoush was placed in a sleeping bag and tied with an electrical cord in what the Army referred to as stress positions during a Nov. 26, 2003, interrogation at the Qaim detention facility northwest of Baghdad, according to the charges and other documents.

Special forces and other individuals previously interrogated the general, leaving him with "bruises, contusions and possibly some fractured ribs," the document said....

"This particular stress position has been used in the past and had rendered one person unconscious," Army lawyers wrote. "After that incident, CW3 Welshofer directed that only he and (another soldier) could use the sleeping bag technique."

Background available here.