John Yoo speculated that because Afghanistan was a "failed state," those individuals captured in military operations there were not entitled to Geneva protections, because the country was no longer in possession of "the attributes of statehood necessary to continue as a party to the Conventions."
A series of memorandums from the Justice Department, many of them written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. The memorandums, principally one written on January 9 [2002], provided legal arguments to support administration officials' assertions that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees from the war in Afghanistan...
