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Outspoken critic of US detainee policies, former Navy General Counsel,
Alberto Mora, to deliver Georgetown’s William V. O’Brien Lecture on
International Law and Morality, April 30, 2013
[image: Alberto Mora]

Alberto Mora

Former General Counsel at the U.S. Department of the Navy, Alberto J.
Mora<http://aspensecurityforum.org/alberto-mora>,
will deliver the William V. O’Brien Lecture at Georgetown University on
Tuesday, April 30 at 5:00 in McNeir
Auditorium<http://maps.georgetown.edu/mcneirauditorium/>.
The Lecture is open to the public. To register for the event please go to
this link<http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6329115555/?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MzQ1MzQ2Ny9hcmVuZGFAZ2VvcmdldG93bi5lZHUvMA%3D%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformal001&utm_term=eventpage>
.

Mora served as General Counsel from 2001 to 2007 and was an outspoken
critic of America policies regarding the treatment of detainees. In 2006,
he was given the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. The announcement
for the Award reads<http://www.jfklibrary.org/Events-and-Awards/Profile-in-Courage-Award/Award-Recipients/Alberto-Mora-2006.aspx?t=2>
:

In December 2002, Alberto J. Mora, then general counsel of the United
States Navy, was alerted by Navy investigators to reports that detainees
held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay were being subjected to cruel
and unlawful interrogation practices. Mora, whose civilian position
accorded him a rank equal to that of a four-star general, soon came to
learn that the cruel and abusive practices of United States military
interrogators at Guantanamo were the result of significant policy shifts at
the highest levels of the U.S. government. Over the next three years, Mora
waged a campaign inside the Bush Administration to prevent military and
civilian leaders from codifying any policy that might implicitly or
explicitly sanction the mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees as part of the
war on terror.

Mora, a Republican who had led a distinguished career in public service and
international law prior to his appointment to the Navy, argued that a
policy allowing cruelty toward prisoners at Guantanamo left the door open
for American military personnel to engage in torture of the kind that was
later exposed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Mora did not know
of the abuse at Abu Ghraib when he warned Pentagon and other administration
officials that the mistreatment of terror suspects and other prisoners
would carry grave political consequences for the United States, and might
expose U.S. interrogators and policy makers to criminal prosecution. In a
2004 internal memo to the Navy inspector general, Mora outlined his efforts
to prevent the Administration from grounding policy in what he believed
were flawed legal arguments that would permit the mistreatment of detainees
and set off politically and morally disastrous chain reactions. The memo
was made public in February 2006. Accounts of widespread prisoner abuse in
Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo have continued to escalate. Earlier
this year, Alberto Mora retired from his service to the U.S. government and
returned to the private sector.

For his moral courage and his commitment to upholding American values,
Alberto Mora is honored with the 2006 Profile in Courage Award.

Mora is currently Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Mars,
Inc. He previously served as Vice President and General Counsel,
International, for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He serves on the Boards of
Directors Human Rights First and Freedom House and is a member of the Board
of Advisors of the MSFS Program at Georgetown University.

*THE WILLIAM V. O’BRIEN LECTURE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW AND MORALITY*

The William V. O’Brien Lecture in International Law and Morality was
established by the School of Foreign Service and the Department of
Government to honor Dr. O’Brien for his many years of distinguished service
to Georgetown University on the occasion of his retirement in 1993.

Born and raised in the Washington area, Dr. O’Brien was associated with
Georgetown University for over half a century. He received his B.S.F.S.,
M.S.F.S., and Ph.D. from Georgetown. Dr. O’Brien joined the faculty of the
Department of Government in 1953, became a full professor of Government in
1966, and twice served as chairman of the Government Department (1974-77)
and (1983-84). He also served as Director of MSFS. He became Professor
Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. O’Brien passed away in 2003.

Dr. O’Brien’s scholarship on war, morality and the legal dimensions of
international affairs has gained him international recognition. Among his
many published works are *The Conduct of Just and Limited War*, *Law and
Morality in Israel’s War with the PLO*, and *The Nuclear Dilemma and the
Just War Tradition*. Dr. O’Brien was also an important figure in
contemporary policy debates, and was active as an advisor to the American
Catholic Bishops on morality and strategic nuclear deterrence.

The O’Brien Lecture brings a distinguished scholar or practitioner to
Georgetown to speak on an aspect of international law and morality. Dr.
O’Brien gave the inaugural lecture on April 16, 1993. Previous lecturers
have included Thomas M. Franck, Father J. Bryan Hehir, Louis J. Freeh,
Abiodun Williams, Mark P. Lagon, and Paul D. Clement