Peter Murphy (JAG)

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Peter M. Murphy
Peter Murphy, senior legal advisor to the USMC.jpg
Murphy in the Pentagon
Service/branch United States Army
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Other workAttorney

Peter M. Murphy is an American lawyer, and former senior legal advisor to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. [1] [2] Murphy was the Commandant's legal advisor twenty years prior to becoming a partner with the legal firm of Holland & Knight. [3] [4] At Holland & Knight Murphy specialized in Government litigation.

Murphy earned his B.A. in 1972, at Long Island University. [5] He earned his J.D. in 1974 at Saint John’s University School of Law.

United States Secretary of Defense asked Murphy to serve on a panel to look into the Haditha incident in 2006. [6]

Murphy was senior legal advisor to the United States Marine Corps Commandant in 1989, when he drafted "The Importance of Environmental Law Considerations for the Military Commander & Advisor". [7]

In The Pentagon at the time it was hit in the September 11, attacks, [8] Murphy later gave interviews to press and government agencies describing how he was one of the few people to instantly assume the explosion was a plane hitting the building. [9] [10] The Marine Corps flag from behind his desk was taken and memorialised, being flown in Afghanistan, before being sent into outer space. [2] Seapower reports that Murphy was injured on 9-11. [11]

He is notable for his participation in discussions, in December 2002, of reports that interrogators from the Joint Task Force 160 and Joint Task Force 170 were using controversial interrogation techniques on the captives held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. [1]

Murphy was the Counsel to the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps's when Alberto J. Mora, the Department of the Navy's General Counsel convened several meetings of the Navy's most senior lawyers after David Brant, the Director of the NCIS, drew Mora's attention to use of the questionable interrogation techniques by the Navy's tenants at Guantanamo. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Alberto J. Mora (July 7, 2004). "Memorandum from Navy General Counsel Alberto J. Mora to Navy Inspector General" (PDF). United States Navy . Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  2. 1 2 Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Policy Briefing: September 11: Legacy of a Tragedy Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Peter M. Murphy Joins Holland & Knight's Government Practice". Holland & Knight. 2004-12-09. Archived from the original on 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  4. ↑ "Holland & Knight Leads the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Battle to Prevent the Closing of Willow Grove Airforce Base". Holland & Knight. 2005-07-13. Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  5. ↑ "September 11: Legacy of a Tragedy" (PDF). Georgia Public Policy Foundation. 2006-09-06. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  6. ↑ Nathaniel R. Helms (2008-09-15). "Rumsfeld created Haditha group to counter Murtha: Led to prosecution of Marines". WarChronicle. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  7. ↑ Peter M. Murphy (1989). The Importance of Environmental Law Considerations for the Military Commander & Advisor (PDF) (Thesis). Vol. 38. Naval Law Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2011. Counsel for the Commandant of USMC has stated, '[a] habitable environment is essential not only to train, but to survive. Contamination of our land, water, or air could literally bring our demise; therefore, we clean up our environment as a matter of survival'.
  8. ↑ Washington Times, Seeking closure Archived 2003-04-08 at the Wayback Machine , September 11, 2002
  9. ↑ American Forces Press Service, Senior civilian returns to Pentagon, recalls attack, August 16, 2002
  10. ↑ Goldberg, Alfred et al. Department of Defense Historical Office, "Pentagon 9/11", 2007
  11. ↑ Arthur P. Brill Jr. (January 2002). "To the caves of Tora Bora". Seapower . Retrieved 2009-01-03.
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