But the memorandums, by their numbers and their arguments all aimed at justifying the use of torture and the inapplicability of international treaties like the Geneva Conventions, have produced expressions of outrage from international human rights groups and members of Congress, mostly Democrats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/politics/08CND-TORT.html

Mr. Ashcroft, often responded by saying that the United States was at war and the critics often failed to take that into account. Mr. Kennedy told him curtly that he could not withhold the memorandums from Congress unless there was an invocation of executive privilege, something only the president himself can do.

Mr. Ashcroft replied that it was simply not good policy to openly debate what powers a president had in wartime.

The report also said that interrogators could justify breaching laws or treaties by invoking the doctrine of necessity. An interrogator using harmful techniques that cause harm might be inoculated from liability if he "believed at the moment that his act is necessary and designed to avoid greater harm."