Gonzales argued that the so-called War On Terror meant that the United States was not bound by "quaint" rules in the Geneva Convention that prohibit torture.

"This new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges," Gonzales wrote.

Bush eventually agreed and within weeks, military interrogators were being trained on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which a nonpartisan group recently determined were "clearly torture."