Mel Sembler

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Melvin Floyd Sembler (1930 - ) is the former US ambassador to Italy (2001 - 2005), and former ambassador to Australia and Nauru (1989-1993).

A graduate of Northwestern University in 1952, Sembler has been a Republican fundraiser since 1979, raising the record $21.3m at a single dinner in April 2000.[1] Sembler was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Italy by President George W. Bush, being sworn in on 16 November, 2001. In February 2005 Sembler had an annex to the US Embassy in Rome named after him (the Mel Sembler Building) - an unheard of honour for a sitting diplomat. The naming was due to an amendment by Rep. Bill Young to an appropriations bill. Sembler is an Honorary Chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

As well as having been the Chairman of The Sembler Company, a leading shopping center developer, in 1976, Sembler and his wife co-founded STRAIGHT, Inc., an adolescent drug treatment program through which more than 12,000 people passed before it was closed down in 1993 amidst allegations of widespread abuse. Sembler's Drug Free America Foundation continues to campaign for hard-line drug policy.

At one time, STRAIGHT, Inc. was the leading juvenile rehab business in America. Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in Pennsylvania, told The Montel Williams show this year about her experience there: overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she says she gnawed her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took years to overcome. Ms. Monroe said her mother was told by counselors that her daughter was a liar and encouraged to trick the girl for her own good. On 10 November and 13 November 2005, Reporter John Gorenfeld spoke live on these allegations against former Ambassador Sembler on a nationally syndicated radio show, Mark Levine's Inside Scoop on Washington in shows entitled "This Bush Crony Has Blood on His Hands!" [2] and "The Bush Crony Who Tortured American Teens, Part II" [3]. The blogs attached to these radio shows are replete with comments from listeners who claim to have been brutally mistreated in one of Mel Sembler's centers.

The Honorable Mel Sembler

Ambassador Mel Sembler was appointed by President Bush as Ambassador to Italy and was sworn in by Vice President Cheney on November 16, 2001.

Ambassador Sembler, the former United States Ambassador to Australia, is the former Chairman of the Board of The Sembler Company, one of the nation's leading shopping center developers and financiers, and is nationally recognized as an activist in the anti-drug campaign despite the widespread complaints about his own treatment centers and a long-time supporter of the Republican Party and its candidates.

As a developer, Sembler is recognized for building The Sembler Company into one of the country's most recognized shopping center development and finance firms. The Sembler Company is identified as an innovative leader in the industry and Sembler-built centers are known for their creative design and environmental integrity. [source?]

Sembler served as the international leader and spokesman for the shopping career industry as 1986-1987 President of the International Council of Shopping Center, a position that capped 25 years of active service to this worldwide trade association.

Due to Mr. Sembler's life-long professional experience in complex finance and loan transactions and arrangements, he was asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the First Bank of Treasure Island, The National Bank, and First Union Bank. Collectively, Sembler served on the boards of those banks in excess of 14 years.

During the 1988 Presidential campaign, Sembler served on the National Steering Committee and the National Finance Committee for the George Bush for President campaign. Additionally, he was Finance Co-Chairman for the state of Florida for the George Bush for President campaign. He served on President Reagan's White House Conference for a Drug-Free America and was an advisor on drug policy to President Bush and to Florida's former Governor Bob Martinez. This, despite the fact that his drug rehabilitation centers have been compared by their inhabitants to "concentration camps." [4] [5].

As a Bush supporter since 1979, Sembler capped nearly 10 years of campaigning on November 8, 1988, when Bush won the bid for the presidency. He played an instrumental part in raising funds for the Fund for America's Future and George Bush for President campaign. He served as Co-chairman of the Republican National Committee's Team 100 and Finance Co-Chairman of The American Bicentennial Presidential Inaugural, raising the dollars needed for Bush's inauguration.

In February 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed Sembler United States Ambassador to Australia and Nauru, where he served for three and a half years. During his tenure as Ambassador, Sembler took a particular interest in encouraging the export to Australia of U.S. goods and services.

At the recommendation of the Governor-General of Australia and with the approval of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Sembler was named an Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia at an investiture ceremony in October 2000. The Order of Australia is an Australian society of honor for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service of the highest degree to Australia or humanity at large.

Although best known as a leading shopping center developer, Sembler is also renowned for his activism in the anti-drug movement. In 1976, Sembler and his wife Betty founded STRAIGHT, which he claimed an adolescent drug rehabilitation program. During its 17 years of existence, more than 12,000 kids went through STRAIGHT, widely criticized as a center for torture and abuse.

Sembler served as Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2000. He also served as Florida's National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee from his election in 1994 until 2000. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Italy, Sembler was the Honorary Chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition and Chairman of the Drug Free America Foundation, and served on the boards of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Florida Governor's Mansion Foundation, and the Florida Holocaust Museum. He was a resident member of the Florida Council of 100, a business advisory council to the Governor of Florida, and has been an active supporter of many other political, religious, and community activities. Sembler continues to serve on the boards of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation and the American Australian Education Leadership Foundation.

Born in 1930 in St. Joseph, Missouri, Sembler is a 1952 graduate of Northwestern University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He and his wife Betty have three sons, Steve, Brent, and Greg, and are the grandparents of eleven grandchildren.