General Counsel of the Navy Describes How “Torture” Leads to U.S. Deaths

June 18, 2008

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Watch and listen to Alberto Mora describe, in detail, how torture has and will continue to directly lead too American casualties in the field. Mora specifically points instances in which Abu Ghraib and Gitmo have led to the deaths of U.S. military men and women in Iraq.

It should be pointed out that Alberto Mora, the recently retired General Counsel from 2001-2006, is as prominent figure within the military as it gets. Appointed by George W. Bush in 2001, Mora became the General Counsel of the U.S. Navy, the most senior civilian lawyer for the Navy, and has since been a strong critic of administration officials who seemingly support anything that could be contrived as “torture.”

Upon learning of “abusive” methods being used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Mora reacted as any high ranking military official would - regarding the authorization of coercive interrogation techniques in these words:

“To my mind, there’s no moral or practical distinction [between cruelty and torture]. If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America even those designated as ‚Äòunlawful enemy combatants.’ If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It’s a transformative issue…”

“Besides, my mother would have killed me if I hadn’t spoken up. No Hungarian after Communism, or Cuban after Castro, is not aware that human rights are incompatible with cruelty. The debate here isn’t only how to protect the country. It’s how to protect our values.”

This marked the beginning of Mora’s fight against the “illegal” use torture by the hands of any U.S. military personel on any man, woman, or child being held under our lock and key. In lieu of his staunch stance against “torture”, Mora was honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2006, which is administered by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation