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Witness Reveals CIA Involvement in Abusive Interrogations

by TChris

Testifying from behind a curtain to conceal his identity from the public, a witness in a military murder trial revealed that he warned his "CIA bosses" about abusive interrogations of Iraqi prisoners.

He said Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, accused of suffocating an Iraqi general during an interrogation, didn’t seem to care.

“He said he was pretty sure they were breaking those rules every day,” said the man, whose CIA ties were exposed by a defense lawyer who let the intelligence agency’s acronym slip out during questioning. It was the first public acknowledgment that the agency played a role in Army interrogations at the makeshift prison camp where Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush died.

Other witnesses described the abusive interrogation techniques.

Earlier witnesses testified that Mowhoush died after he was stuffed headfirst into a sleeping bag and wrapped in electrical cord during interrogations by Welshofer, who also sat on his chest and periodically covered his mouth. ...

Another witness, Chief Warrant Officer Todd Sonnek, a Green Beret assigned to interrogations at the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment’s makeshift prison near the Syrian border, described more violent torture. Sonnek testified that on Nov. 24, 2003, Welshofer invited 10 people, including Iraqis and “civilians,” a word used in court to denote CIA operatives, into a room where Mowhoush was being questioned. ...

The Green Beret said he tackled the general as the rest of the people in the room flew into a fury of fists and feet in a beating that lasted two to three minutes. Mowhoush was covered in bruises when he died, autopsy photos entered as evidence showed.

Who else should be held accountable for this death?

The man with the secret identity told the six-officer jury that interrogation rules in Iraq forbade such techniques without permission from Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top Army boss in the war zone.

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