Unjustifiable Means by Mark Fallon

Author:Mark Fallon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regan Arts.

CHAPTER 9

* * *

PROTECT YOUR CLIENT

By December 2002 Dave Brant had had enough and decided to see what he could do personally with the echelon of military lawyers. He contacted Alberto Mora, the navy general counsel.

“I’m receiving reports of detainee abuse at Gitmo,” Dave said. “Do you want to hear more?” Dave knew the Pentagon landscape well. This wasn’t technically a navy issue. Mora didn’t have to listen. And once he knew what was going on, he could be found culpable if he chose to ignore it. Dave wanted to give Mora a way out. But Mora asked for the details.

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Brant’s call piqued Mora’s interest, so the next day, Ralph Blincoe, Mike Gelles, and I went to see the top navy lawyer in his Pentagon office. The distinguished-looking Mora showed us back past his large mahogany desk to a tiny conference room that was soon crammed with some of the top lawyers in the marines and navy.

We had brought the logs of al-Qahtani’s abuse, as well as Diane Beaver’s memos. As I got into her assertions, I saw heads shaking and eyebrows rise. They thought it was the result of renegade low-level amateurs. Who tries to get actionable intelligence by having a detainee wear women’s underwear? Gelles then described the coercive psychological exploitation that was the basis of the EIT program. Mora and the other lawyers in the room sat silently. I wondered what would come next. I had grown so used to everyone saying, “I agree with you, but not at the cost of my job.”

Instead Mora cut to the chase: “We’ve got to do something about this. This is the worst piece of legalese I’ve ever seen.”

He turned to me. “Did you explain to them what your background is? That this sort of work is what you’ve been doing for years?”

“Mr. Mora, I’ve been running this task force since its inception—they know. I’ve tried to explain this. I just have been unsuccessful in getting anyone to take any action. No one disagrees with me, but no one will do anything because Rumsfeld says you can do this.”

First, Mora asked me to go down to Gitmo one more time and see if I could reason with Miller. I understood the implication. If Mora actually pursued this case, he’d practically be falling on his sword. He was appointed by President Bush and slotted to likely become either general counsel to the CIA or general counsel to the NSA. He might be giving all that up to back me.

“You got it,” I said.

• • •

On December 19, 2002, Mora met with Army General Counsel Steven Morello and Army Deputy General Counsel Tom Taylor. He thought these issues must have been misunderstood or not fully communicated.

Morello told him otherwise and showed him the chain of documents, from Dunlavey’s original request through SOUTHCOM

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