Reply #3: an initial Pentagon press release attributed the death to natural causes

[UpInArms]

http://www.gazette.com/war/0625xwar.html

excerpt:

Two Fort Carson warrant officers and two other soldiers will be charged in the prison death of an Iraqi general, a Pentagon document confirms.

The document says “two warrant officers will be charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide, and two enlisted soldiers present during the interrogation will be charged with dereliction of duty.”

Army sources, including Fort Carson commander Maj. Gen. Robert Wilson, wouldn’t comment on the disclosure about soldiers in the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, saying the investigation is ongoing.

The investigation summary, released by Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., says Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush died while he was being interrogated and possibly tortured at a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment base in Western Iraq.

<snip>

Mowhoush died Nov. 26, and an initial Pentagon press release attributed the death to natural causes.

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and

Army charges 4 in death

excerpt:

Army officials have accused two chief warrant officers, Lewis E. Welshofer Jr. and Jeff L. Williams, of suffocating Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush with a sleeping bag and an electrical cord during a Nov. 26 interrogation at the Qaim detention facility northwest of Baghdad.

Also charged are Sgt. 1st Class William J. Sommer and Spec. Jerry L. Loper. All four soldiers, who were assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment unit at Fort Carson when Mowhoush died, also face dereliction-of-duty charges. They could receive a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Welshofer, who has denied wrongdoing, hung up the phone without comment Monday. Williams and the other soldiers could not be reached.

The Mowhoush interrogation case caught the interest of Congress in May after The Denver Post disclosed that the key interrogators, Welshofer and Williams, had only been reprimanded after placing Mowhoush inside a sleeping bag, sitting on him and rolling him across the floor before he was pronounced dead, according to investigative documents.

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Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, shown with his grandson in an undated family photo, died last November in American custody in Iraq.