Death Of A General

Interrogation Technique Had Lethal Consequence For Iraqi General

(CBS) 
To "take it up a notch," the top general in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, approved new interrogation rules allowing harsher treatment. But the Pentagon couldn’t decide what was legal, so the rules were issued, changed and re-issued three times in 30 days. Gen. Sanchez OK'd vague "stress positions" that may have violated the Geneva Convention and the Army’s own field manual.

"It says in General Sanchez’s memo: 'stress positions … use of physical postures … sitting … standing … kneeling prone, etc.' What does 'et cetera' mean?" Pelley asked Welshofer.

"Now you're getting into the crux of all the confusion that was going on. Things like 'et cetera' were never specifically spelled out," he replied.

That's why, before he put Mowhoush in the sleeping bag, Welshofer went to his commanding officer, Maj. Jessica Voss, for permission. She granted it.

In a statement, Voss said, "I assessed the use of this technique as an appropriate method to be used to glean intelligence from detainees. At no time did I perceive any violations of (official) policy or laws of war.”

"Chief Welshofer did not do this in a closet. He didn’t do it in the middle of the night when nobody else was looking. He was open about what he was doing," says Spinner. "So if he really thought he was doing something that violated either General Sanchez's directions or the Geneva Convention or the rules of engagement, it was there for anybody to see and report."

If Welshofer thought what he was doing was open and aboveboard, there was another group of interrogators that was operating in secret.

Two days before he died, Gen. Mowhoush was visited by a team from U.S. Army Special Forces and the CIA, men who came equipped with rubber hoses. When the general continued to insist he knew nothing, Welshofer watched the session turn violent.

"There were probably five or six guys who, you know, are hitting the general. And he’s rolling around on the floor trying to move away from one guy who’s hitting him. But as he rolls away from one, he happens to roll into where another guy is at. And then that guy hits him," Welshofer recalls.

Welshofer says there was slapping, says he did see a kick that got the general on the side and recalls that there were two rubber hoses.

The session, says Welshofer, lasted "about five" minutes.

What kind if shape was the general in after it was over?

"He was still lying on the ground, you know, rolling around a little bit like that, you know, yelling and screaming a little bit," says Welshofer.

The blows took their toll on the general, as a picture and the Army autopsy show. “Findings included rib fractures, numerous contusions (bruises), some of which were due to impacts with a blunt object(s),” the autopsy read.

It’s not known what role the beating may have played in Mowhoush’s death, which came two days later. But Rep. Sanchez thinks the buck should not stop at Welshofer’s door.

"It happened in Abu Ghraib. It happened in Afghanistan. It happened in Guantanamo Bay. When you see this across three different arenas and in many different places, it is no longer just a few guys got it in their head to do this," says Rep. Sanchez. "It is coming from somewhere else. And it’s got to come from above."

In January, Welshofer faced court-martial for murder. After a week of testimony, a sympathetic jury of officers convicted him of a lesser charge, negligent homicide, and sentenced him to 60 days confinement to his barracks

"In my mind, the Lewis Welshofers of the world are to be respected," says Spinner, "because they are doing the best they can to serve America’s interest and to keep their fellow soldiers alive. Even if they may step over a line, let’s give them a little bit of understanding."

Welshofer was implicated only in the death of the general, who was one of more than 600 prisoners that Welshofer interrogated in Iraq.

Asked if he would do all this again, Welshofer says, "I helped save soldiers lives. I'm 100 percent convinced of that. If I had done anything less than what I did, if one soldier more had died because I had done anything different, I find that even more reprehensible — even more unacceptable."