By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Middletown native and members of a Cincinnati military police unit have been linked in published reports to the widening U.S. military investigation of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, a Bishop Fenwick High School graduate, declined comment Friday on a report that he is under investigation in the death of an Iraqi general during interrogation by U.S. forces last fall.

"There is an agenda going on and I am not going to be caught up in it," Welshofer, assigned to Fort Carson, Colo., told the Associated Press. "I am not at liberty to discuss any of the details."

Welshofer's mother, a Middletown teacher, worried Friday that her son would be a scapegoat in the growing investigation of prisoner abuse since photos were published of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison.

"I don't know what he does in the military, but I'm sure he does what he's trained to do," Mrs. Welshofer told the Enquirer. "I don't know anything about this, but my phone has been ringing off the hook."

Welshofer, who grew up in Butler County, and another officer are being investigated for the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, 57, who died during interrogation Nov. 26 at Qaim, Iraq, the Denver Post reported.

Mowhoush, who served in Saddam Hussein's military, died from asphyxiation due to smothering and chest compression, the newspaper said. Welshofer, assigned to the 66th Military Intelligence Group, is accused of sitting on Mowhoush's chest and placing his hands over the general's mouth, the report said.

The Denver newspaper reported that it reviewed military documents stating that Welshofer and the other officer - who has not been identified - were reprimanded. The investigation for a possible court-martial continues, the report said.

Meanwhile, members of the Roselawn-based Army Reserve 377th Military Police Company have been questioned in the investigation of the 2002 deaths of two prisoners in Afghanistan, news reports said.

About 124 soldiers from the 377th unit were assigned to guard detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan when two prisoners died in December 2002, said Bill Geddes, Army Reserve spokesman.

Both were ruled homicides, according to the New York Times, citing a May 5 Army summary of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report was prepared after the Abu Ghraib prisoner photographs surfaced, the Times said.

West Chester Police Officer John Handorf, who served in the 377th unit in Afghanistan during this period, told the Enquirer that he could not comment Friday because the Bagram operation was classified. He also wouldn't say if he had been interviewed by the Army about the deaths.

"I can't talk about it all," Handorf, a Price Hill resident, said. "Any of the operations there are still classified. All that stuff that happened when I was there is still part of an ongoing operation."

Members of an intelligence battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C., also have been questioned about the Bagram Air Base homicides. Investigators said the military police and intelligence units were believed to have been "involved at various times in assaulting and mistreating the detainees," according to the Times.

Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Division said in an Enquirer interview that the Army has "nearly completed its investigation." Neither Geddes nor Grey would confirm that members of the 377th had been questioned in the investigation.

The report will be turned over to the appropriate commanders, who "will decide to prosecute or not prosecute," Grey said.

The 377th comprises soldiers from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and had two functions at Bagram Air Base, Geddes said. The unit guarded detainees at an area called the "Bagram collection point" and provided security at the front gate, he said.

When Handorf returned home in April 2003, after 10 months of active duty, he told the Enquirer that his unit provided perimeter protection at the air base. The 377th mobilized June 17, 2002, and spent August to March 2003 in Afghanistan, Geddes said.

In Roselawn Friday, the Morrow U.S. Army Reserve Center was closed for an extended Memorial Day holiday. A handful of soldiers from the three other units housed there were attending a training exercise.

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Reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this report.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com