{"id":154722,"date":"2014-04-16T15:31:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T19:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=154722"},"modified":"2019-06-21T16:34:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T20:34:04","slug":"the-quantum-of-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/","title":{"rendered":"The quantum of cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University, Alberto Mora says releasing the report on CIA practices since the 9\/11 attacks is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>

Rose Lincoln\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tThe quantum of cruelty\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tFellow gives firsthand account of CIA\u2019s controversial treatment of detainees, and emphasizes importance of accountability\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Five years after the review was ordered, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier this month to release the executive summary from a 6,300-page report that details for the first time the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s detention and interrogation programs and practices since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

The still-classified report is expected to cast a new and harsh light on the CIA\u2019s use of brutal and inhumane techniques to elicit intelligence from suspected terrorist detainees. It also is expected to assert that the CIA misled the committee about the nature of its clandestine activities, according to recent public comments by some committee members. President Obama, who shut down the CIA\u2019s detainee program and formally banned torture shortly after taking office in 2009, has pledged to declassify the report\u2019s summary once the CIA has completed its review of the document, a process that could take months.<\/p>\n

Alberto Mora<\/a> knows all too well how the United States took some actions that violated the Geneva Conventions in the name of fighting terrorism. As the senior civilian lawyer in the Department of the U.S. Navy during much of the George W. Bush administration, he saw firsthand the legal maneuvering that took place to justify the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were suspected of being members of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n

Mora was an early and vocal critic of the Bush administration\u2019s support for aggressive interrogation by the military\u2019s Joint Task Force. In a 22-page memo<\/a> written in 2004 in response to an investigation into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, Mora strongly objected to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld\u2019s authorization of abusive physical and psychological tactics such as waterboarding, a practice long held to be illegal under U.S. and international law. Mora also helped lead an effort from within the Pentagon to put a stop to it. The improper legal basis for granting such authority is reported to be among the committee\u2019s most explosive conclusions.<\/p>\n

Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a> (ALI) at Harvard University, Mora, 62, says releasing the report is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really should clarify the actual practices used, the frequency, the severity, their impact on the subjects of the interrogation, and the use of that information in an intelligence context and a net assessment as to whether or not it helped make us safer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this greater factual understanding is absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to have the ability to truly assess the cost, consequences, benefits and negatives of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

This inquiry \u201cis something I tried to get the Pentagon to do, the joint staff to do. It was one of the last things I did before I left the Pentagon,\u201d said Mora, who retired from the government in 2006. \u201cBut I was told they were ordered not to pursue this line of inquiry\u201d because \u201cit would have been embarrassing to the president, embarrassing to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legalizing what had been criminal<\/b><\/p>\n

Mora, the son of a Harvard-trained physician from Cuba and a Hungarian mother, spent time as a child in pre-Castro Cuba. A conservative who served as a political appointee during the presidencies of both Bushes, he said understanding what went on is important not as a partisan critique of an administration\u2019s policy decisions, but as \u201can issue of first principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about values, laws, the character of our country, the foreign policy we\u2019ll pursue, the kind of world we\u2019re seeking to create and support, how we conduct military operations and their effectiveness. All these things are tied into how we treat detainees and what the values are that we live up to or don\u2019t live up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Critics of the report, which was assembled by the committee\u2019s Democratic members, say it paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the CIA\u2019s actions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, widely viewed as the driver behind the use of so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d last month denied<\/a> that such tactics were war crimes and insisted that he would authorize their use again because they yielded valuable information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proponents of this have said it was legal, necessary, and effective,\u201d said Mora, who rejects the term \u201cenhanced interrogation.\u201d \u201cBut we know they redefined the whole law on torture; they sought to legalize what had been criminal acts before. The argument continues to be made that waterboarding, as applied by us, was not torture. Yet, for centuries, it\u2019s been regarded as torture. Every country regards it as torture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say \u2018torture\u2019 because it\u2019s clear that some of it was torture. If we apply the standard legal criteria for this, we know that, at a minimum, all of it was cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment, and some of it crossed the threshold into torture. So part of it is calling things by their proper names, which is so important \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the direction of Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2008, officials pushed ahead with tough interrogations even after the military had abandoned the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted people to have \u2018chalk on their cleats,\u2019\u201d Mora said. \u201cHe wanted them to go to the very boundary of what was lawful in applying interrogation. The danger with that is if you go out of bounds, you by definition cross into the realm of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not coming to grips<\/b><\/p>\n

Mora will spend his fellowship year, with support from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School, studying and measuring the costs and consequences of such U.S.-sanctioned tactics.<\/p>\n

Some costs are already known: The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that images of detainee cruelty in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay gave jihadists and other anti-American groups their most effective recruiting tool and constitute the top two identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths, said Mora.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives them the moral high ground. And combat, like a lot of political activity, is fought using the language of justice and of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we engage in waterboarding, when we engage in brutality, when we dismantle the human right of freedom from cruelty, then we lose the advantage, we lose the clarity of contrast between ourselves and al-Qaida. And we certainly damaged relationships with our traditional allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that almost half the American public believes that torture is permissible if it could make us safer, that\u2019s an indication of the country not coming to grips with this kind of issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite his now-public break with the Bush administration, Mora says he hasn\u2019t paid a price for his outspokenness or efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, I think my reputation has been enhanced, and I\u2019ve benefited from doing what I did and from my involvement in this activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never a sole actor in this matter. I always took comfort in every single moment from the fact that every military lawyer, every [judge advocate general] I spoke with \u2026 always believed about these things exactly as I did \u2026 [that] this was contrary to Geneva, contrary to American ethics and values, counterproductive in the battlefield, an abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Rumsfeld halted abusive interrogation in Guantanamo following intervention by Mora and others, there was a feeling of triumph, albeit fleeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize at the time, didn\u2019t realize it until after Abu Ghraib, was the fact that the same authority and even worse had been given to the CIA and a lot of the interrogation activity shifted to CIA,\u201d away from the military, said Mora. \u201cWhat we had done at the Pentagon clearly did not affect CIA authorities, clearly did not affect White House thinking on the issue, Department of Justice thinking on these matters. So it was a partial victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the problem of prisoner abuse is \u201cmuch better\u201d now than it was in 2002, he says, there is a connection between the government\u2019s relaxed stance on torture and the unchecked surveillance of civilians by the National Security Agency, one rooted in the emotions stirred by 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weighed the defensive effort too much toward protecting the homeland,\u201d he said, \u201cnot understanding that we have to \u2026 protect lives at the same time that we protect values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mora believes that while those who used or authorized the use of torture could face prosecution outside the United States for war crimes, the political fallout from such an undertaking here renders that scenario virtually \u201cunthinkable\u201d because of the stature of those involved.<\/p>\n

At the very least, he says, publicly airing the report\u2019s findings will provide some small measure of accountability, if not of the actors themselves, then for the nation moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t create a precedent such that in the future, we weaken the prohibitions against torture \u2026 and then we eliminate the degree of accountability for having committed these crimes. That\u2019s not a good result for the country\u201d or for our desire to lead the world on this issue, Mora said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make the world safe or safer for torture, we don\u2019t want to increase the quantum of cruelty, we don\u2019t want to decrease the accountability of those who apply cruelty to individuals around the world. That\u2019s what our example has done and would continue to do unless we correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former general counsel for the U.S. Navy, among the earliest Pentagon critics of detainee abuse, offers firsthand insights into the findings of the still-secret Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s report on CIA torture. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105622744,"featured_media":154725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":0,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"","document_color_palette":"crimson","author":"Christina Pazzanese","affiliation":"Harvard Staff Writer","_category_override":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1378],"tags":[2865,3089,3395,7282,8168,8321,10772,14242,14384,15057,15846,18173,25571,30929,34166,34545],"gazette-formats":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-154722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-world","tag-abu-ghraib","tag-advanced-leadership-initiative","tag-alberto-mora","tag-carr-center-for-human-rights-policy","tag-christina-pazzanese","tag-cia","tag-detainees","tag-geneva-conventions","tag-george-w-bush","tag-guantanamo-bay","tag-harvard-kennedy-school","tag-interrogation","tag-news-hub","tag-senate-intelligence-committee","tag-torture","tag-u-s-department-of-the-navy"],"yoast_head":"\nThe quantum of cruelty — Harvard Gazette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former general counsel for the U.S. Navy, among the earliest Pentagon critics of detainee abuse, offers firsthand insights into the findings of the still-secret Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s report on CIA torture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The quantum of cruelty — Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former general counsel for the U.S. Navy, among the earliest Pentagon critics of detainee abuse, offers firsthand insights into the findings of the still-secret Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s report on CIA torture.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-16T19:31:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-21T20:34:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"605\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"403\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"harvardgazette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"harvardgazette\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b\"},\"headline\":\"The quantum of cruelty\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-16T19:31:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-21T20:34:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/\"},\"wordCount\":1660,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Abu Ghraib\",\"Advanced Leadership Initiative\",\"Alberto Mora\",\"Carr Center for Human Rights Policy\",\"Christina Pazzanese\",\"CIA\",\"detainees\",\"Geneva Conventions\",\"George W. 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intelligence committee","torture","u.s. department of the navy"],"dateCreated":"2014-04-16T19:31:32Z","datePublished":"2014-04-16T19:31:32Z","dateModified":"2019-06-21T20:34:04Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"The quantum of cruelty\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/gazette\\\/story\\\/2014\\\/04\\\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/gazette\\\/story\\\/2014\\\/04\\\/the-quantum-of-cruelty\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/04\\\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg?w=150\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.harvard.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/04\\\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Nation & 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navy\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2014-04-16T19:31:32Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-16T19:31:32Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-21T20:34:04Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/news.harvard.edu\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg","has_blocks":true,"block_data":{"0":{"blockName":"harvard-gazette\/article-header","attrs":{"blockColorPalette":"","coloredHeading":"","creditText":"Rose Lincoln\/Harvard Staff Photographer","displayDetails":"","displayTitle":"","categoryId":1378,"mediaAlt":"","mediaCaption":"Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University, Alberto Mora says releasing the report on CIA practices since the 9\/11 attacks is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.","mediaId":154725,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg","poster":"","title":"The quantum of cruelty","subheading":"Fellow gives firsthand account of CIA\u2019s controversial treatment of detainees, and emphasizes importance of accountability","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University, Alberto Mora says releasing the report on CIA practices since the 9\/11 attacks is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Rose Lincoln\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University, Alberto Mora says releasing the report on CIA practices since the 9\/11 attacks is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Rose Lincoln\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_mora_0380_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Currently a fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University, Alberto Mora says releasing the report on CIA practices since the 9\/11 attacks is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Rose Lincoln\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tThe quantum of cruelty\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2014-04-16\">\n\t\t\tApril 16, 2014\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t9 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tFellow gives firsthand account of CIA\u2019s controversial treatment of detainees, and emphasizes importance of accountability\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Five years after the review was ordered, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier this month to release the executive summary from a 6,300-page report that details for the first time the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s detention and interrogation programs and practices since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The still-classified report is expected to cast a new and harsh light on the CIA\u2019s use of brutal and inhumane techniques to elicit intelligence from suspected terrorist detainees. It also is expected to assert that the CIA misled the committee about the nature of its clandestine activities, according to recent public comments by some committee members. President Obama, who shut down the CIA\u2019s detainee program and formally banned torture shortly after taking office in 2009, has pledged to declassify the report\u2019s summary once the CIA has completed its review of the document, a process that could take months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/2006\/02\/27\/060227fa_fact\">Alberto Mora<\/a> knows all too well how the United States took some actions that violated the Geneva Conventions in the name of fighting terrorism. As the senior civilian lawyer in the Department of the U.S. Navy during much of the George W. Bush administration, he saw firsthand the legal maneuvering that took place to justify the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were suspected of being members of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mora was an early and vocal critic of the Bush administration\u2019s support for aggressive interrogation by the military\u2019s Joint Task Force. In a 22-page <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mora_memo_july_2004.pdf\">memo<\/a> written in 2004 in response to an investigation into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, Mora strongly objected to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld\u2019s authorization of abusive physical and psychological tactics such as waterboarding, a practice long held to be illegal under U.S. and international law. Mora also helped lead an effort from within the Pentagon to put a stop to it. The improper legal basis for granting such authority is reported to be among the committee\u2019s most explosive conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>Currently a fellow at the <a href=\"http:\/\/advancedleadership.harvard.edu\/\">Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a> (ALI) at Harvard University, Mora, 62, says releasing the report is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis really should clarify the actual practices used, the frequency, the severity, their impact on the subjects of the interrogation, and the use of that information in an intelligence context and a net assessment as to whether or not it helped make us safer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this greater factual understanding is absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to have the ability to truly assess the cost, consequences, benefits and negatives of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This inquiry \u201cis something I tried to get the Pentagon to do, the joint staff to do. It was one of the last things I did before I left the Pentagon,\u201d said Mora, who retired from the government in 2006. \u201cBut I was told they were ordered not to pursue this line of inquiry\u201d because \u201cit would have been embarrassing to the president, embarrassing to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Legalizing what had been criminal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora, the son of a Harvard-trained physician from Cuba and a Hungarian mother, spent time as a child in pre-Castro Cuba. A conservative who served as a political appointee during the presidencies of both Bushes, he said understanding what went on is important not as a partisan critique of an administration\u2019s policy decisions, but as \u201can issue of first principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about values, laws, the character of our country, the foreign policy we\u2019ll pursue, the kind of world we\u2019re seeking to create and support, how we conduct military operations and their effectiveness. All these things are tied into how we treat detainees and what the values are that we live up to or don\u2019t live up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the report, which was assembled by the committee\u2019s Democratic members, say it paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the CIA\u2019s actions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, widely viewed as the driver behind the use of so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theeagleonline.com\/article\/2014\/03\/dick-cheney-denies-war-criminal-allegations-at-kpu-event\">denied<\/a> that such tactics were war crimes and insisted that he would authorize their use again because they yielded valuable information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proponents of this have said it was legal, necessary, and effective,\u201d said Mora, who rejects the term \u201cenhanced interrogation.\u201d \u201cBut we know they redefined the whole law on torture; they sought to legalize what had been criminal acts before. The argument continues to be made that waterboarding, as applied by us, was not torture. Yet, for centuries, it\u2019s been regarded as torture. Every country regards it as torture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say \u2018torture\u2019 because it\u2019s clear that some of it was torture. If we apply the standard legal criteria for this, we know that, at a minimum, all of it was cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment, and some of it crossed the threshold into torture. So part of it is calling things by their proper names, which is so important \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the direction of Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2008, officials pushed ahead with tough interrogations even after the military had abandoned the practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted people to have \u2018chalk on their cleats,\u2019\u201d Mora said. \u201cHe wanted them to go to the very boundary of what was lawful in applying interrogation. The danger with that is if you go out of bounds, you by definition cross into the realm of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Not coming to grips<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora will spend his fellowship year, with support from the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School, studying and measuring the costs and consequences of such U.S.-sanctioned tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Some costs are already known: The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that images of detainee cruelty in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay gave jihadists and other anti-American groups their most effective recruiting tool and constitute the top two identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths, said Mora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt gives them the moral high ground. And combat, like a lot of political activity, is fought using the language of justice and of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we engage in waterboarding, when we engage in brutality, when we dismantle the human right of freedom from cruelty, then we lose the advantage, we lose the clarity of contrast between ourselves and al-Qaida. And we certainly damaged relationships with our traditional allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that almost half the American public believes that torture is permissible if it could make us safer, that\u2019s an indication of the country not coming to grips with this kind of issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his now-public break with the Bush administration, Mora says he hasn\u2019t paid a price for his outspokenness or efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything, I think my reputation has been enhanced, and I\u2019ve benefited from doing what I did and from my involvement in this activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never a sole actor in this matter. I always took comfort in every single moment from the fact that every military lawyer, every [judge advocate general] I spoke with \u2026 always believed about these things exactly as I did \u2026 [that] this was contrary to Geneva, contrary to American ethics and values, counterproductive in the battlefield, an abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Rumsfeld halted abusive interrogation in Guantanamo following intervention by Mora and others, there was a feeling of triumph, albeit fleeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize at the time, didn\u2019t realize it until after Abu Ghraib, was the fact that the same authority and even worse had been given to the CIA and a lot of the interrogation activity shifted to CIA,\u201d away from the military, said Mora. \u201cWhat we had done at the Pentagon clearly did not affect CIA authorities, clearly did not affect White House thinking on the issue, Department of Justice thinking on these matters. So it was a partial victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the problem of prisoner abuse is \u201cmuch better\u201d now than it was in 2002, he says, there is a connection between the government\u2019s relaxed stance on torture and the unchecked surveillance of civilians by the National Security Agency, one rooted in the emotions stirred by 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weighed the defensive effort too much toward protecting the homeland,\u201d he said, \u201cnot understanding that we have to \u2026 protect lives at the same time that we protect values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mora believes that while those who used or authorized the use of torture could face prosecution outside the United States for war crimes, the political fallout from such an undertaking here renders that scenario virtually \u201cunthinkable\u201d because of the stature of those involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, he says, publicly airing the report\u2019s findings will provide some small measure of accountability, if not of the actors themselves, then for the nation moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t create a precedent such that in the future, we weaken the prohibitions against torture \u2026 and then we eliminate the degree of accountability for having committed these crimes. That\u2019s not a good result for the country\u201d or for our desire to lead the world on this issue, Mora said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make the world safe or safer for torture, we don\u2019t want to increase the quantum of cruelty, we don\u2019t want to decrease the accountability of those who apply cruelty to individuals around the world. That\u2019s what our example has done and would continue to do unless we correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Five years after the review was ordered, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier this month to release the executive summary from a 6,300-page report that details for the first time the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s detention and interrogation programs and practices since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The still-classified report is expected to cast a new and harsh light on the CIA\u2019s use of brutal and inhumane techniques to elicit intelligence from suspected terrorist detainees. It also is expected to assert that the CIA misled the committee about the nature of its clandestine activities, according to recent public comments by some committee members. President Obama, who shut down the CIA\u2019s detainee program and formally banned torture shortly after taking office in 2009, has pledged to declassify the report\u2019s summary once the CIA has completed its review of the document, a process that could take months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/2006\/02\/27\/060227fa_fact\">Alberto Mora<\/a> knows all too well how the United States took some actions that violated the Geneva Conventions in the name of fighting terrorism. As the senior civilian lawyer in the Department of the U.S. Navy during much of the George W. Bush administration, he saw firsthand the legal maneuvering that took place to justify the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were suspected of being members of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mora was an early and vocal critic of the Bush administration\u2019s support for aggressive interrogation by the military\u2019s Joint Task Force. In a 22-page <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mora_memo_july_2004.pdf\">memo<\/a> written in 2004 in response to an investigation into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, Mora strongly objected to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld\u2019s authorization of abusive physical and psychological tactics such as waterboarding, a practice long held to be illegal under U.S. and international law. Mora also helped lead an effort from within the Pentagon to put a stop to it. The improper legal basis for granting such authority is reported to be among the committee\u2019s most explosive conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>Currently a fellow at the <a href=\"http:\/\/advancedleadership.harvard.edu\/\">Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a> (ALI) at Harvard University, Mora, 62, says releasing the report is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis really should clarify the actual practices used, the frequency, the severity, their impact on the subjects of the interrogation, and the use of that information in an intelligence context and a net assessment as to whether or not it helped make us safer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this greater factual understanding is absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to have the ability to truly assess the cost, consequences, benefits and negatives of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This inquiry \u201cis something I tried to get the Pentagon to do, the joint staff to do. It was one of the last things I did before I left the Pentagon,\u201d said Mora, who retired from the government in 2006. \u201cBut I was told they were ordered not to pursue this line of inquiry\u201d because \u201cit would have been embarrassing to the president, embarrassing to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Legalizing what had been criminal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora, the son of a Harvard-trained physician from Cuba and a Hungarian mother, spent time as a child in pre-Castro Cuba. A conservative who served as a political appointee during the presidencies of both Bushes, he said understanding what went on is important not as a partisan critique of an administration\u2019s policy decisions, but as \u201can issue of first principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about values, laws, the character of our country, the foreign policy we\u2019ll pursue, the kind of world we\u2019re seeking to create and support, how we conduct military operations and their effectiveness. All these things are tied into how we treat detainees and what the values are that we live up to or don\u2019t live up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the report, which was assembled by the committee\u2019s Democratic members, say it paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the CIA\u2019s actions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, widely viewed as the driver behind the use of so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theeagleonline.com\/article\/2014\/03\/dick-cheney-denies-war-criminal-allegations-at-kpu-event\">denied<\/a> that such tactics were war crimes and insisted that he would authorize their use again because they yielded valuable information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proponents of this have said it was legal, necessary, and effective,\u201d said Mora, who rejects the term \u201cenhanced interrogation.\u201d \u201cBut we know they redefined the whole law on torture; they sought to legalize what had been criminal acts before. The argument continues to be made that waterboarding, as applied by us, was not torture. Yet, for centuries, it\u2019s been regarded as torture. Every country regards it as torture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say \u2018torture\u2019 because it\u2019s clear that some of it was torture. If we apply the standard legal criteria for this, we know that, at a minimum, all of it was cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment, and some of it crossed the threshold into torture. So part of it is calling things by their proper names, which is so important \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the direction of Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2008, officials pushed ahead with tough interrogations even after the military had abandoned the practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted people to have \u2018chalk on their cleats,\u2019\u201d Mora said. \u201cHe wanted them to go to the very boundary of what was lawful in applying interrogation. The danger with that is if you go out of bounds, you by definition cross into the realm of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Not coming to grips<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora will spend his fellowship year, with support from the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School, studying and measuring the costs and consequences of such U.S.-sanctioned tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Some costs are already known: The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that images of detainee cruelty in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay gave jihadists and other anti-American groups their most effective recruiting tool and constitute the top two identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths, said Mora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt gives them the moral high ground. And combat, like a lot of political activity, is fought using the language of justice and of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we engage in waterboarding, when we engage in brutality, when we dismantle the human right of freedom from cruelty, then we lose the advantage, we lose the clarity of contrast between ourselves and al-Qaida. And we certainly damaged relationships with our traditional allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that almost half the American public believes that torture is permissible if it could make us safer, that\u2019s an indication of the country not coming to grips with this kind of issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his now-public break with the Bush administration, Mora says he hasn\u2019t paid a price for his outspokenness or efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything, I think my reputation has been enhanced, and I\u2019ve benefited from doing what I did and from my involvement in this activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never a sole actor in this matter. I always took comfort in every single moment from the fact that every military lawyer, every [judge advocate general] I spoke with \u2026 always believed about these things exactly as I did \u2026 [that] this was contrary to Geneva, contrary to American ethics and values, counterproductive in the battlefield, an abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Rumsfeld halted abusive interrogation in Guantanamo following intervention by Mora and others, there was a feeling of triumph, albeit fleeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize at the time, didn\u2019t realize it until after Abu Ghraib, was the fact that the same authority and even worse had been given to the CIA and a lot of the interrogation activity shifted to CIA,\u201d away from the military, said Mora. \u201cWhat we had done at the Pentagon clearly did not affect CIA authorities, clearly did not affect White House thinking on the issue, Department of Justice thinking on these matters. So it was a partial victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the problem of prisoner abuse is \u201cmuch better\u201d now than it was in 2002, he says, there is a connection between the government\u2019s relaxed stance on torture and the unchecked surveillance of civilians by the National Security Agency, one rooted in the emotions stirred by 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weighed the defensive effort too much toward protecting the homeland,\u201d he said, \u201cnot understanding that we have to \u2026 protect lives at the same time that we protect values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mora believes that while those who used or authorized the use of torture could face prosecution outside the United States for war crimes, the political fallout from such an undertaking here renders that scenario virtually \u201cunthinkable\u201d because of the stature of those involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, he says, publicly airing the report\u2019s findings will provide some small measure of accountability, if not of the actors themselves, then for the nation moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t create a precedent such that in the future, we weaken the prohibitions against torture \u2026 and then we eliminate the degree of accountability for having committed these crimes. That\u2019s not a good result for the country\u201d or for our desire to lead the world on this issue, Mora said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make the world safe or safer for torture, we don\u2019t want to increase the quantum of cruelty, we don\u2019t want to decrease the accountability of those who apply cruelty to individuals around the world. That\u2019s what our example has done and would continue to do unless we correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Five years after the review was ordered, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier this month to release the executive summary from a 6,300-page report that details for the first time the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s detention and interrogation programs and practices since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The still-classified report is expected to cast a new and harsh light on the CIA\u2019s use of brutal and inhumane techniques to elicit intelligence from suspected terrorist detainees. It also is expected to assert that the CIA misled the committee about the nature of its clandestine activities, according to recent public comments by some committee members. President Obama, who shut down the CIA\u2019s detainee program and formally banned torture shortly after taking office in 2009, has pledged to declassify the report\u2019s summary once the CIA has completed its review of the document, a process that could take months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/2006\/02\/27\/060227fa_fact\">Alberto Mora<\/a> knows all too well how the United States took some actions that violated the Geneva Conventions in the name of fighting terrorism. As the senior civilian lawyer in the Department of the U.S. Navy during much of the George W. Bush administration, he saw firsthand the legal maneuvering that took place to justify the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were suspected of being members of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mora was an early and vocal critic of the Bush administration\u2019s support for aggressive interrogation by the military\u2019s Joint Task Force. In a 22-page <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mora_memo_july_2004.pdf\">memo<\/a> written in 2004 in response to an investigation into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, Mora strongly objected to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld\u2019s authorization of abusive physical and psychological tactics such as waterboarding, a practice long held to be illegal under U.S. and international law. Mora also helped lead an effort from within the Pentagon to put a stop to it. The improper legal basis for granting such authority is reported to be among the committee\u2019s most explosive conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>Currently a fellow at the <a href=\"http:\/\/advancedleadership.harvard.edu\/\">Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a> (ALI) at Harvard University, Mora, 62, says releasing the report is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis really should clarify the actual practices used, the frequency, the severity, their impact on the subjects of the interrogation, and the use of that information in an intelligence context and a net assessment as to whether or not it helped make us safer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this greater factual understanding is absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to have the ability to truly assess the cost, consequences, benefits and negatives of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This inquiry \u201cis something I tried to get the Pentagon to do, the joint staff to do. It was one of the last things I did before I left the Pentagon,\u201d said Mora, who retired from the government in 2006. \u201cBut I was told they were ordered not to pursue this line of inquiry\u201d because \u201cit would have been embarrassing to the president, embarrassing to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Legalizing what had been criminal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora, the son of a Harvard-trained physician from Cuba and a Hungarian mother, spent time as a child in pre-Castro Cuba. A conservative who served as a political appointee during the presidencies of both Bushes, he said understanding what went on is important not as a partisan critique of an administration\u2019s policy decisions, but as \u201can issue of first principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about values, laws, the character of our country, the foreign policy we\u2019ll pursue, the kind of world we\u2019re seeking to create and support, how we conduct military operations and their effectiveness. All these things are tied into how we treat detainees and what the values are that we live up to or don\u2019t live up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the report, which was assembled by the committee\u2019s Democratic members, say it paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the CIA\u2019s actions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, widely viewed as the driver behind the use of so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theeagleonline.com\/article\/2014\/03\/dick-cheney-denies-war-criminal-allegations-at-kpu-event\">denied<\/a> that such tactics were war crimes and insisted that he would authorize their use again because they yielded valuable information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proponents of this have said it was legal, necessary, and effective,\u201d said Mora, who rejects the term \u201cenhanced interrogation.\u201d \u201cBut we know they redefined the whole law on torture; they sought to legalize what had been criminal acts before. The argument continues to be made that waterboarding, as applied by us, was not torture. Yet, for centuries, it\u2019s been regarded as torture. Every country regards it as torture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say \u2018torture\u2019 because it\u2019s clear that some of it was torture. If we apply the standard legal criteria for this, we know that, at a minimum, all of it was cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment, and some of it crossed the threshold into torture. So part of it is calling things by their proper names, which is so important \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the direction of Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2008, officials pushed ahead with tough interrogations even after the military had abandoned the practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted people to have \u2018chalk on their cleats,\u2019\u201d Mora said. \u201cHe wanted them to go to the very boundary of what was lawful in applying interrogation. The danger with that is if you go out of bounds, you by definition cross into the realm of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Not coming to grips<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora will spend his fellowship year, with support from the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School, studying and measuring the costs and consequences of such U.S.-sanctioned tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Some costs are already known: The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that images of detainee cruelty in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay gave jihadists and other anti-American groups their most effective recruiting tool and constitute the top two identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths, said Mora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt gives them the moral high ground. And combat, like a lot of political activity, is fought using the language of justice and of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we engage in waterboarding, when we engage in brutality, when we dismantle the human right of freedom from cruelty, then we lose the advantage, we lose the clarity of contrast between ourselves and al-Qaida. And we certainly damaged relationships with our traditional allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that almost half the American public believes that torture is permissible if it could make us safer, that\u2019s an indication of the country not coming to grips with this kind of issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his now-public break with the Bush administration, Mora says he hasn\u2019t paid a price for his outspokenness or efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything, I think my reputation has been enhanced, and I\u2019ve benefited from doing what I did and from my involvement in this activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never a sole actor in this matter. I always took comfort in every single moment from the fact that every military lawyer, every [judge advocate general] I spoke with \u2026 always believed about these things exactly as I did \u2026 [that] this was contrary to Geneva, contrary to American ethics and values, counterproductive in the battlefield, an abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Rumsfeld halted abusive interrogation in Guantanamo following intervention by Mora and others, there was a feeling of triumph, albeit fleeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize at the time, didn\u2019t realize it until after Abu Ghraib, was the fact that the same authority and even worse had been given to the CIA and a lot of the interrogation activity shifted to CIA,\u201d away from the military, said Mora. \u201cWhat we had done at the Pentagon clearly did not affect CIA authorities, clearly did not affect White House thinking on the issue, Department of Justice thinking on these matters. So it was a partial victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the problem of prisoner abuse is \u201cmuch better\u201d now than it was in 2002, he says, there is a connection between the government\u2019s relaxed stance on torture and the unchecked surveillance of civilians by the National Security Agency, one rooted in the emotions stirred by 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weighed the defensive effort too much toward protecting the homeland,\u201d he said, \u201cnot understanding that we have to \u2026 protect lives at the same time that we protect values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mora believes that while those who used or authorized the use of torture could face prosecution outside the United States for war crimes, the political fallout from such an undertaking here renders that scenario virtually \u201cunthinkable\u201d because of the stature of those involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, he says, publicly airing the report\u2019s findings will provide some small measure of accountability, if not of the actors themselves, then for the nation moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t create a precedent such that in the future, we weaken the prohibitions against torture \u2026 and then we eliminate the degree of accountability for having committed these crimes. That\u2019s not a good result for the country\u201d or for our desire to lead the world on this issue, Mora said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make the world safe or safer for torture, we don\u2019t want to increase the quantum of cruelty, we don\u2019t want to decrease the accountability of those who apply cruelty to individuals around the world. That\u2019s what our example has done and would continue to do unless we correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Five years after the review was ordered, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier this month to release the executive summary from a 6,300-page report that details for the first time the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s detention and interrogation programs and practices since the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The still-classified report is expected to cast a new and harsh light on the CIA\u2019s use of brutal and inhumane techniques to elicit intelligence from suspected terrorist detainees. It also is expected to assert that the CIA misled the committee about the nature of its clandestine activities, according to recent public comments by some committee members. President Obama, who shut down the CIA\u2019s detainee program and formally banned torture shortly after taking office in 2009, has pledged to declassify the report\u2019s summary once the CIA has completed its review of the document, a process that could take months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/2006\/02\/27\/060227fa_fact\">Alberto Mora<\/a> knows all too well how the United States took some actions that violated the Geneva Conventions in the name of fighting terrorism. As the senior civilian lawyer in the Department of the U.S. Navy during much of the George W. Bush administration, he saw firsthand the legal maneuvering that took place to justify the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were suspected of being members of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mora was an early and vocal critic of the Bush administration\u2019s support for aggressive interrogation by the military\u2019s Joint Task Force. In a 22-page <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mora_memo_july_2004.pdf\">memo<\/a> written in 2004 in response to an investigation into abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, Mora strongly objected to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld\u2019s authorization of abusive physical and psychological tactics such as waterboarding, a practice long held to be illegal under U.S. and international law. Mora also helped lead an effort from within the Pentagon to put a stop to it. The improper legal basis for granting such authority is reported to be among the committee\u2019s most explosive conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>Currently a fellow at the <a href=\"http:\/\/advancedleadership.harvard.edu\/\">Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a> (ALI) at Harvard University, Mora, 62, says releasing the report is a vital first step in informing the public about actions undertaken by the U.S. government during the war on terror, an area that\u2019s been largely shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis really should clarify the actual practices used, the frequency, the severity, their impact on the subjects of the interrogation, and the use of that information in an intelligence context and a net assessment as to whether or not it helped make us safer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of this greater factual understanding is absolutely critical if we\u2019re going to have the ability to truly assess the cost, consequences, benefits and negatives of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This inquiry \u201cis something I tried to get the Pentagon to do, the joint staff to do. It was one of the last things I did before I left the Pentagon,\u201d said Mora, who retired from the government in 2006. \u201cBut I was told they were ordered not to pursue this line of inquiry\u201d because \u201cit would have been embarrassing to the president, embarrassing to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Legalizing what had been criminal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora, the son of a Harvard-trained physician from Cuba and a Hungarian mother, spent time as a child in pre-Castro Cuba. A conservative who served as a political appointee during the presidencies of both Bushes, he said understanding what went on is important not as a partisan critique of an administration\u2019s policy decisions, but as \u201can issue of first principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about values, laws, the character of our country, the foreign policy we\u2019ll pursue, the kind of world we\u2019re seeking to create and support, how we conduct military operations and their effectiveness. All these things are tied into how we treat detainees and what the values are that we live up to or don\u2019t live up to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the report, which was assembled by the committee\u2019s Democratic members, say it paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the CIA\u2019s actions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, widely viewed as the driver behind the use of so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theeagleonline.com\/article\/2014\/03\/dick-cheney-denies-war-criminal-allegations-at-kpu-event\">denied<\/a> that such tactics were war crimes and insisted that he would authorize their use again because they yielded valuable information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proponents of this have said it was legal, necessary, and effective,\u201d said Mora, who rejects the term \u201cenhanced interrogation.\u201d \u201cBut we know they redefined the whole law on torture; they sought to legalize what had been criminal acts before. The argument continues to be made that waterboarding, as applied by us, was not torture. Yet, for centuries, it\u2019s been regarded as torture. Every country regards it as torture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say \u2018torture\u2019 because it\u2019s clear that some of it was torture. If we apply the standard legal criteria for this, we know that, at a minimum, all of it was cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment, and some of it crossed the threshold into torture. So part of it is calling things by their proper names, which is so important \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the direction of Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005 and the CIA from 2006 to 2008, officials pushed ahead with tough interrogations even after the military had abandoned the practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted people to have \u2018chalk on their cleats,\u2019\u201d Mora said. \u201cHe wanted them to go to the very boundary of what was lawful in applying interrogation. The danger with that is if you go out of bounds, you by definition cross into the realm of criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Not coming to grips<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mora will spend his fellowship year, with support from the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School, studying and measuring the costs and consequences of such U.S.-sanctioned tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Some costs are already known: The Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that images of detainee cruelty in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay gave jihadists and other anti-American groups their most effective recruiting tool and constitute the top two identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths, said Mora.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt gives them the moral high ground. And combat, like a lot of political activity, is fought using the language of justice and of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we engage in waterboarding, when we engage in brutality, when we dismantle the human right of freedom from cruelty, then we lose the advantage, we lose the clarity of contrast between ourselves and al-Qaida. And we certainly damaged relationships with our traditional allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that almost half the American public believes that torture is permissible if it could make us safer, that\u2019s an indication of the country not coming to grips with this kind of issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his now-public break with the Bush administration, Mora says he hasn\u2019t paid a price for his outspokenness or efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything, I think my reputation has been enhanced, and I\u2019ve benefited from doing what I did and from my involvement in this activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI was never a sole actor in this matter. I always took comfort in every single moment from the fact that every military lawyer, every [judge advocate general] I spoke with \u2026 always believed about these things exactly as I did \u2026 [that] this was contrary to Geneva, contrary to American ethics and values, counterproductive in the battlefield, an abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Rumsfeld halted abusive interrogation in Guantanamo following intervention by Mora and others, there was a feeling of triumph, albeit fleeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I didn\u2019t realize at the time, didn\u2019t realize it until after Abu Ghraib, was the fact that the same authority and even worse had been given to the CIA and a lot of the interrogation activity shifted to CIA,\u201d away from the military, said Mora. \u201cWhat we had done at the Pentagon clearly did not affect CIA authorities, clearly did not affect White House thinking on the issue, Department of Justice thinking on these matters. So it was a partial victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the problem of prisoner abuse is \u201cmuch better\u201d now than it was in 2002, he says, there is a connection between the government\u2019s relaxed stance on torture and the unchecked surveillance of civilians by the National Security Agency, one rooted in the emotions stirred by 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weighed the defensive effort too much toward protecting the homeland,\u201d he said, \u201cnot understanding that we have to \u2026 protect lives at the same time that we protect values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mora believes that while those who used or authorized the use of torture could face prosecution outside the United States for war crimes, the political fallout from such an undertaking here renders that scenario virtually \u201cunthinkable\u201d because of the stature of those involved.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, he says, publicly airing the report\u2019s findings will provide some small measure of accountability, if not of the actors themselves, then for the nation moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t create a precedent such that in the future, we weaken the prohibitions against torture \u2026 and then we eliminate the degree of accountability for having committed these crimes. That\u2019s not a good result for the country\u201d or for our desire to lead the world on this issue, Mora said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make the world safe or safer for torture, we don\u2019t want to increase the quantum of cruelty, we don\u2019t want to decrease the accountability of those who apply cruelty to individuals around the world. That\u2019s what our example has done and would continue to do unless we correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":164398,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/12\/a-mirror-to-coercion\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":0},"title":"A mirror to coercion","author":"harvardgazette","date":"December 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Alberto Mora, a top civilian lawyer for the U.S. Navy in the administration of President George W. Bush and an early critic of the CIA torture program, assesses the findings and conclusions of the newly released Senate Intelligence Committee report.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/torturemora_door.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/torturemora_door.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/torturemora_door.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":354578,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2023\/02\/why-church-committee-alums-urged-new-house-panel-to-avoid-partisanship\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":1},"title":"Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Fritz Schwarz, former chief counsel of the 1975-76 U.S. Senate panel known as the Church Committee, discusses what it was like to undertake the largest, most consequential investigation of U.S. intelligence in American history.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Members of the special Senate Committee created to investigate the CIA, FBI and other U.S. Intelligence gathering agencies in 1975.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/AP2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/AP2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/AP2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/AP2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":348143,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/09\/no-jason-bourne-is-not-the-real-cia\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":2},"title":"No, Jason Bourne is not the real CIA","author":"harvardgazette","date":"September 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Former officials, scholars say nation\u2019s image comes from popular media, offer insights into actual mission, history as the CIA turns 75.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sue Gordon","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/091622_CIA@75__053.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/091622_CIA@75__053.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/091622_CIA@75__053.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/091622_CIA@75__053.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":180306,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/04\/lessons-from-a-post-911-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":3},"title":"Lessons from a post-9\/11 world","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Deborah Popowski is a Harvard Law School lecturer and human rights lawyer who has led efforts to hold psychologists accountable for their participation in torture during the war on terror.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/022516_popowski_133_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/022516_popowski_133_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/022516_popowski_133_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":360801,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2023\/06\/chinese-spies-in-cuba-problem-runs-deeper-than-that\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":4},"title":"Chinese spies in Cuba? The problem runs deeper than that.","author":"gazettebeckycoleman","date":"June 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As Blinken visits Beijing, cyber infiltration of U.S. is a far more serious threat, 25-year CIA officer Paul Kolbe says.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Havana, Cuba.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20230616_china_cuba_AP20106849445753.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20230616_china_cuba_AP20106849445753.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20230616_china_cuba_AP20106849445753.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20230616_china_cuba_AP20106849445753.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":328521,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2021\/06\/the-state-of-spy-craft-according-to-former-cia-director\/","url_meta":{"origin":154722,"position":5},"title":"Intel agencies in an age of \u2018nuclear\u2019 cyberattacks, political assassinations","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"June 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Former U.S. and Israeli intelligence heads, John Brennan and Tamir Pardo, told students that it will be up to them to beat back the threats posed by cyberwarfare and politically driven disinformation.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John Brennan, John Ferguson, and Tamir Pardo.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/61721_Spy_Craft_136.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/61721_Spy_Craft_136.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/61721_Spy_Craft_136.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/61721_Spy_Craft_136.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279307,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154722\/revisions\/279307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154722"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=154722"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=154722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}