A secret memo written on November 6, 2001, by Vice President Dick Cheney and the war council–five or six men in the White House Office of Legal Counsel–declared: “that the President had ‘inherent authority’ as commander in chief to establish military commissions. The memo nonchalantly dismissed international law, suggesting that the President could abide by it or not. …the memo also stated that terror suspects were not automatically entitled to ‘receive the protections of the Geneva Conventions or the rights that laws of war accord to lawful combatants.’ ”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 83