Example: Wrapping an electrical cord around a prisoner's neck is an approved technique:
The killings include the drowning of a man soldiers pushed from a bridge into the Tigris River as punishment for breaking curfew, and the suffocation during interrogation of a former Iraqi general believed to be helping insurgents.
In the suffocation, soldiers covered the man’s head with a sleeping bag, then wrapped his neck with an electrical cord for a “stress position” they said was an approved technique.
The latter instance involved the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush:
“The simple fact of the matter is, interrogation is supposed to be stressful or you will get no information,” [Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer] wrote in a letter to the court asking for clemency. “To put it another way, an interrogation without stress is not an interrogation — it is a conversation.”
I'm still not sure we're getting the whole truth here. Some of the troops' actions were so over the top that it's hard to believe they thought they were sanctioned.
For example, Mowhoush died during an interrogation:
"It is estimated that MG Mowhoush was interrogated at least once each day he was in custody," the investigative summary says. "Approximately 24 to 48 hours prior to (Nov. 26), MG Mowhoush was questioned by (other governmental agency officials), and statements suggest that MG Mowhoush was beaten during that interrogation." A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment.
When Welshofer and his partner took over, they slid a sleeping bag over Mowhoush's head and rolled him from his back and to his stomach while asking questions, the documents allege. Then, Welshofer sat on Mowhoush's chest and placed his hands over the general's mouth, the report says. Mowhoush died during the interrogation, and both officers were reprimanded, the documents say.
At Welshofer's trial, a CIA agent testified from behind a curtain:
He said Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, accused of suffocating an Iraqi general during an interrogation, didn't seem to care.
On the other hand, the CIA agent also testified,
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.
Welshofer got off with a reprimand, which had soldiers in the courtroom cheering.
The Tigris (Tigeris) River drowning was just as bad. Two young men whose truck, filled with bathroom equipment, had broken down at night, were arrested for a curfew violation. The troops forced them into the river at gunpoint.
Marwan Fadil, who was forced off the bridge along with his cousin, Hassoun, testified on Wednesday that the soldiers tossed the two at gunpoint into the water after they begged for mercy and then laughed as Hassoun drowned.
Sgt. Tracy Perkins got 6 months in the death. At his trial,
Witnesses called by the prosecution said they heard Perkins say over the radio, "Somebody is going to get wet, tonight."
It sounds to me like a blend of soldier cruelty and of acting on orders from higher-ups.
They should all be held accountable, the soldiers and the brass.
