Albert T. Church

Vice Admiral Albert Thomas Church III (born 1947) is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy. Church served as the Naval Inspector General and then Director of the Navy Staff until his retirement from active duty in 2005.Admiral Church is the younger brother of the former Senator from Idaho, Frank Church, who ironically was an outspoken critic of, and worked hard to hinder the U.S. military.

Partial list of postings

ISTF - The Church Report

On May 25, 2004, under the direction of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Church assembled a team to conduct an inquiry into detainee interrogation and incarceration, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His team interviewed 800 Armed Service members, and Washington policy-makers, and issued their report on March 2, 2005.

According to Human Rights Watch Church's committee did not interview a single detainee.

While much of the report remains classified a 22 page narrative, written by Alberto J. Mora, the General Counsel of the Department of the Navy, has been made public.cite web
url=http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/mora_memo_july_2004.pdf
title=Memorandum from Navy General Counsel Alberto J. Mora to Navy Inspector General
date=July 7, 2004
author=Alberto J. Mora
publisher=United States Navy
accessdate=May 5
accessyear=2007] Mora's narrative was in reply to a request from Church dated June 18, 2004.Mora's narrative chronicles his efforts, and those of his staff and associates, to make sure the rules for the interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo were brought back into compliance with United States law, and the USA's international obligations.

Mora's narrative describes learning that extended interrogation techniques, which, at least, straddled the border of what could be considered "torture", from David Brant, the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, on December 17, 2002. Mora's narrative contains several dozen dated entries describing the efforts of him, his staff and associates to get on record an alternate view to that expressed by John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales.

Mora's narrative sometimes refers to the abuses as alleged abuses, and, in other passages, refers to them asabuses, without the qualifier that there were merely "alleged".

Awards and medals

Church's personal awards and decorations include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (three awards), Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards) and the Combat Action Ribbon.

ee also

References

External links

* [http://cryptome.org/church-report.htm Copy of the report]
* [http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2005/d20050310exe.pdf PDF Copy of the report]
* [http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=71 official USN biography of Albert T. Church]
* [http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2000/000307ac.pdf Statement of Rear Admiral Albert T. Church] , Before the Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee on The President's Budget Request for Readiness Programs, March 7, 2000