“On February 7 [2002], President Bush struck what was described as a compromise. America would abandon its commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions in the war on terror. But Bush promised that ‘as a matter of policy’–not law–‘the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely’…so long as it was consistent with ‘military necessity.’ …this last phrase was a caveat flexible enough to sanction almost anything. …It was…the same legalistic language used by the Japanese in World War II to justify the Bataan Death March.”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 125