Under pressure.(Politics)

CONSERVATIVES have no great stake in whether Alberto Gonzales, a Bush friend who has shown no signs of being encumbered with a political philosophy, becomes the next attorney general of the United States. What is very important is that his nomination not be defeated in a way that will set back the War on Terror. At issue are two legal documents. One was authored by Gonzales, in January 2002, in his capacity as White House counsel; it concerned the Geneva conventions. Reports always quote Gonzales as writing that the conventions are "obsolete," as if he were unilaterally disavowing a U.S. treaty commitment. Not so. What he said was that Geneva does not apply to the members of a transnational murder gang. He was right.

Those who believe--apparently as a theological matter--that the conventions apply to al-Qaeda must believe that its terrorists are entitled to dormitories, sports equipment, pay allowances, and pretty much anything you remember from Hogan's Heroes. Most important, they can't be interrogated. Kiss goodbye the kind of intelligence that has led to the capture of important Qaeda leaders.

Because CIA agents were worrying about how far they could go to get Qaeda captives to talk, Gonzales commissioned a memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The so-called "torture ...