Posted on 01/25/2006 10:56:23 AM PST by radar101
An unexpectedly light sentence for an Army interrogator who once faced life in prison for the death of an Iraqi general could tarnish the government and hurt human-rights efforts around the globe, critics said.
Prosecutors said during Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr.'s court-martial that his interrogation of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush "could fairly be described as torture" and had stained the military's reputation. During the trial, testimony showed he stuffed Mowhoush in a sleeping bag and straddled his chest.
If the tables were turned and an American general had suffered the same fate from interrogators in an enemy's hands, there would have been an uproar in the U.S., said Eugene Fidell, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute of Military Justice, a private group that monitors military justice policy.
"How is this going to look overseas?" he said.
Mowhoush, the former commander of Saddam Hussein's air defenses, surrendered to the Army on Nov. 10, 2003, in hopes of seeing or securing the release of his four sons.
Sixteen days later, Mowhoush died after Welshofer covered him in a sleeping bag, straddled his chest and put his hand over the general's mouth, already covered by the bag.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
people die in war.
What say we just cut off his head instead.
What a pile of crap.
Another AP editorial disguised as news.
Yep, they are so worried about that very fact they would hang this guy from a yardarm if it would appease their idols in the E.U.
...guess this clown don't (or won't ) remember the Hanoi Hilton and it's amenities. Our gracious host there were never held accountable for anything...sitting on someone's chest at the Hilton would've been just a warm up
"AP" -- A (P)ile of crap.
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