“According to a leaked draft of a memo to the President [Bush] dated January 25, 2002, [presidential Counsel Alberto] Gonzales took the position that the nature of the al Qaeda threat rendered ‘obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on [the] questioning of enemy prisoners, in addition to its requirements that captured fighters receive commissary privileges, pay, athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments.’ Why? According to the leaked draft the United States must be able ‘to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians.’ Applying different standards to al Qaeda does not abandon Geneva, but only recognizes that Geneva does not reach an armed conflict against a stateless enemy able to fight an international conflict.”
– John Yoo, War By Other Means, Pages 39-40