On February 7, 2002, President Bush issued “a memorandum stating that he had determined the Geneva Conventions did not apply to members of the Taliban or al-Qaeda because they were ‘unlawful combatants’ and, as such, did not qualify to be labeled prisoners of war. ‘I accept the legal conclusion of the Department of Justice,’ wrote the President, ‘and determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world, because, among other reasons, al-Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva.’ ”
– Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 144