Foes of detainee abuse, war get courage awards
To Alberto J. Mora, then the general counsel for the US Navy, the abusive treatment of detainees in the war on terror was an outrageous corrosion of core American values.
To Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Vietnam veteran, his startling call last year for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq was driven by his vision of ``logic" over ``illusion."
Yesterday, these two conservative supporters of the Iraq invasion who broke ranks with the Bush administration over its handling of the war received Profile in Courage Awards from Caroline Kennedy yesterday in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
Their decisions to challenge the administration, which stonewalled Mora and criticized Murtha, prompted Senator Edward M. Kennedy to describe the men as ``two courageous officials" who ``prove that dissent, even in wartime, may well be the ultimate act of patriotism."
Mora, who resigned from government service this year, fought the administration's approval of detainee abuse as a way to gain intelligence and prevent future attacks against Americans. After hearing reports in December 2002 of abuse at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Mora struggled to prevent such policy from becoming codified. In a protracted, behind-the-scenes battle, Mora eventually took his concerns to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but did not prevail.
``In this war, we have come to a crossroads," Mora said after accepting the award. ``Will we continue to regard the protection and promotion of human dignity as the essence of our national character and purpose, or will we bargain away human and national dignity in return for an additional possible measure of physical security?"
Mora, whose parents fled Cuba in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized power, said that public vigilance is still needed despite the disclosures of the Abu Ghraib prison abuses and the 2005 congressional prohibition against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees.
``Each of us knows that this issue has not gone away," Mora said. ``The years ahead will continue to test our national security. We again will be tempted to abandon our values in the mistaken belief that we will be made more secure by doing so."
Cruelty, he said, ``disfigures our national character. It is incompatible with our constitutional order, with our laws, and with our most prized values."
Mora currently is counsel for
Murtha, the other award recipient, said yesterday he was stunned when his call last November for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq prompted an avalanche of public support unlike any he had seen in his 32 years in Congress.
``To me," he said, ``it was undeniable evidence that for too long our citizenry had been cowed by fear and manipulation. Even the voice of pragmatic dissent had been stifled."
Opposition to the war by Murtha, a Democrat and combat veteran who had been a confidant to presidents of both parties on military matters, helped jump-start a national debate about the war's objectives and management.
After Murtha's call for withdrawal, Senator Kennedy said yesterday, ``you could feel the earth move in Washington, and the White House knew it. Their political operation went into overdrive" and ``the attack dogs were sent out."
However, Kennedy said, ``they couldn't fire or demote him."
Murtha said that he spoke out to protect the men and women of the armed forces who already had won the military victory in Iraq and that his support for a pullout was an affirmation of that victory.
``My words of Nov. 17, 2005, and the many that followed, reflect not only my own gut consciousness, but that of many in our military and the majority in this country," Murtha said. ``I am proud to be the messenger of those who at one time had no voice."
The awards, given annually since 1989, were presented yesterday -- 50 years after the publication of ``Profiles in Courage," the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by then-Senator John F. Kennedy about eight US senators who took controversial stances and risked their careers rather than betray their conscience.
