Washington ? Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales is promising senators that he will abide by treaties prohibiting the torture of prisoners, despite deriding the restraints as relics in 2002.

White House counsel Gonzales, in line to become the first Hispanic attorney general, had a hand in much of the White House’s post-Sept. 11 terrorism policies as President Bush’s top lawyer.

His confirmation hearing today offers Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee a fresh chance to criticize Gonzales and the advice he gave Bush. Among the most contentious matters is a memo Gonzales wrote in January 2002 in which he argued that the fight against terrorism “renders obsolete” the Geneva Conventions’ prohibitions against torture.

A month later, Bush signed an order declaring he had the authority to bypass the accords “in this or future conflicts.” Bush’s order also said the Geneva treaty’s references to prisoners of war did not apply to al-Qaida or “unlawful combatants” from the Taliban.

Some of Gonzales’ critics say that decision and his memo led to the torture scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and abuses of detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon is sending investigators to Guantanamo Bay to look into allegations of prisoner abuse described in recently released FBI documents, authorities said Wednesday, as a new batch of FBI memos were released.

The U.S. Southern Command in Miami assigned Army Brig. Gen. John T. Furlow to lead the investigation, which could begin as early as this week. The military maintains that most incidents detailed in the FBI memos occurred in 2002 when the prison was just opening, and that some of the interrogation techniques labeled as “aggressive” are no longer in use.

“It will be fully investigated,” Guantanamo’s commanding Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood said Wednesday.

In testimony prepared for his hearing, Gonzales said Bush has made clear that the government will defend Americans from terrorists “in a manner consistent with our nation’s values and applicable law, including our treaty obligations.”

Gonzales added, “I pledge that, if I am confirmed as attorney general, I will abide by those commitments,” according to the testimony obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Gonzales has repudiated torture before. “The president has stated that this administration does not condone torture. If anyone engages in such conduct, he or she will be held accountable,” Gonzales said July 7.

Democrats, not satisfied with just those statements, planned to question Gonzales extensively.

“It is clear he was in the chain receiving this critical documentation relative to changing American standards on the treatment of prisoners, so he was not a bystander, he was part of it,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Democrats are expecting Gonzales to be confirmed by the GOP-majority Senate.

“I have found him someone I could work with when he wasn’t simply pursuing an agenda that was thrust upon him,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.