The Washington Post has obtained the August 1, 2002 Justice Department memo that suggests torture of detainees may be justified. You can read it here (pdf).

The March 6, 2003 Pentagon memo made available last week is here (html).

The August 1 memo is titled "Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A," and is from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to President Bush. It was prepared at the request of the CIA, which at the time was unhappy with the progress and fruitfulness of interrogations of al Qaeda prisoners being held outside the U.S.

Congress asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to release the memos last week, and he refused. A transcript of that hearing is here.

Background on the memos and legal issues involved is here. More on Ashcroft's refusal is here.

Update: Law Prof Michael Froomkin has an analysis at Discourse.Net.