US Army Interrogation Officer Guilty of Killing Iraqi General

A panel of six US Army officers deliberated for six hours before convicting Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. of negligent homicide in the killing of an Iraqi General whom Welshofer had been interrogating. Welshofer put a sleeping bag over Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush's head and sat on his chest until he suffocated. Welshofer believed that the General had information that could cripple the insurgency and that US interrogation tactics were inadequate.



Again, we see that when US forces break the laws of war and are caught, they are prosecuted. Regardless of what information the Warrant Officer might have thought the General might have known that could have been of value, his death did nothing to facilitate the war effort. However, it must be remembered that under the extraordinary circumstances of combat, the legal exercise of force is easy to exceed. Welshofer could have been convicted of murder had the judicial panel not taken that into account and had ruled differently.


[edit on 2006/1/22 by GradyPhilpott]

[edit on 27-1-2006 by asala]

I have mixed feelings about these things...As a soldier you are sworn to abide by certian laws that are designed to protect you and those you are fighting. It is very hard at times to abide by these laws. We are human and we are subject to our emotions and sometimes our emotions get the best of us before we realize it.

War is is brutal...that's why it is war.

right or wrong these things are going to happen

we just hope that they are kept to a minimum