US: President George Bush's nominee for Attorney General, Mr Alberto Gonzales, yesterday drew scorching criticism from Democrats and from at least one Republican senator for his role as White House counsel in the treatment of terrorism suspects.
Mr Gonzales refused to repudiate his 2002 memo describing some provisions of the Geneva Conventions as "obsolete" and "quaint", but said he was absolutely opposed to the use of torture.
Critics of the administration claim that the memo opened the door to the abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and other US detention centres, which the Red Cross later described as ill treatment amounting to torture.
Senator Edward Kennedy told Mr Gonzales that policies he helped formulate "have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel".
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he would support the nomination, but chided Mr Gonzales, saying that "when you try to play cute" and look for ways around the law "you lose the moral high ground".
Several senators on the Judicial Committee voiced anger at the refusal of the White House to provide additional documents about Mr Gonzales's role in the decision shortly after 9/11 to allow aggressive interrogations of terrorism detainees.
The Republican chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, asked bluntly: "Do you approve of torture?" "Absolutely not, senator," Mr Gonzales responded.
With some Democrats supporting his nomination, Mr Gonzales is expected to get through the Senate process fairly quickly. The memo he wrote in January 2002 stated that in his judgement a "new paridigm" in the war on terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questions of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions".
The following month on his advice President Bush signed an order declaring that as President he had authority to bypass the accords "in this or further conflicts", though this was recently rescinded.
Senators also questioned Mr Gonzales about a Justice Department memo he requested later in 2002 to get around a legal ban on torture. It redefined "torture" to mean only procedures that would produce pain "of an intensity akin to that which accompanies serious physical injury such as death or organ failure".
This made "legal" other punitive techniques used by interrogators in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay such as "water-boarding", strapping a prisoner to a board and dipping his head in water to induce a drowning effect.
In response to Democratic Senator Pat Leahy, who said America's troops and citizens were at greater risk because of torture, Mr Gonzales pledged to abide by international treaties on prisoner rights.
He said he was "sickened and outraged" by the photos from Abu Ghraib but declined to give a legal opinion as criminal cases are pending.
Mr Gonzales's memos were opposed by the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, who twice met Mr Bush to convince him that circumventing Geneva Conventions would be a public relations débâcle and would undermine US military prohibitions on detainee abuse.
Several senators from both sides praised Mr Gonzales (49) for his rise to prominence as a second-generation Mexican-American immigrant. However the Washington Post yesterday carried a critical report on his time as Texas attorney general to the state governor, Mr George W. Bush.