For Immediate Release: September 19, 2006
Contact: Marsha Mullan
(610) 328-8535

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Mora '74, Who Led Battle Against Coercive Interrogation Tactics at Guantanamo Bay, Presents McCabe Lecture

Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the Department of the Navy, presented the annual Thomas B. McCabe Lecture at Swarthmore College on "Law, Foreign Policy, and the War on Terror" on Oct. 6.

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Mora was recently recognized for the moral and political courage he demonstrated in waging a behind-the-scenes battle with Pentagon leaders over U.S. military policy regarding the treatment of detainees held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay as part of the war on terror. He warned Pentagon officials two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that circumventing international agreements on torture and detainees' treatment would invite abuse of the sort that was eventually exposed at Abu Ghraib.

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Mora resigned from his position as the chief legal officer of the Navy and Marine Corps in January 2006 and now serves as vice president and general counsel for the International Department of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., where he is responsible for the company's legal affairs in Puerto Rico and its overseas retail markets.

Mora graduated from Swarthmore College with honors in 1974. He worked for the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer at the American embassy in Lisbon before attending University of Miami School of Law, where he received his J.D. in 1981. He served in the administration of President George H.W. Bush as general counsel to the United States Information Agency and was later appointed three times by President Bill Clinton to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America and other U.S. information services. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Mora as the General Counsel of the U.S. Navy, the most senior civilian lawyer for the Navy.

The McCabe Memorial Fund honors Swarthmore benefactor Thomas B. McCabe, Class of 1915, and funds the lectureship to bring individuals with distinguished careers to campus.