Getting Off Light

Here is a truly appalling outcome.

FORT CARSON, Colo., Jan. 23 (AP) - A military jury ordered a reprimand but no jail time Monday for an Army interrogator convicted of negligent homicide in the death of an Iraqi general who died after he stuffed him headfirst into a sleeping bag and sat on his chest.

The interrogator, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., also was ordered to forfeit $6,000 in salary and was largely restricted to his barracks and workplace for 60 days.

Mr. Welshofer, 43, had originally been charged with murder and faced up to life in prison. But on Saturday he was convicted of lesser charges carrying up to three years and three months in prison, dishonorable discharge and a loss of pension.

After hearing the sentence, reached by the jury of six Army officers, Mr. Welshofer hugged his wife. Soldiers in the gallery, many of whom had worked with Mr. Welshofer and who testified as character witnesses, broke into applause.

The sentence now goes to the commanding general, Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon, who cannot order a harsher sentence but could lighten it or set the whole verdict aside, Mr. Welshofer's lawyer, Frank Spinner, said.

Prosecutors said Mr. Welshofer had put a sleeping bag over the head of the Iraqi, Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, and used his hand to cover his mouth while questioning him at a detention camp in Iraq in 2003.

Earlier in the day during the sentencing hearing, Mr. Welshofer fought back tears. "I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers serving in Iraq," he said.

Umm, yeah right. So Lynndie England does 3 years for putting a naked Iraqi on a leash and getting photographed, while this guy gets off with a *reprimand* only having killed an Iraqi General. Hello! This sucks.

The bit I find sort of bleakly amusing is the image of this guy trying to beat a confession out of an Iraqi General whose mouth he has covered. To my shallow knowledge of interrogation techniques, most people need their mouths to answer questions. :)

Must say the credibility of Court Martials and other military tribunals in the US has never been lower.