[Night Stalker]

Well, Timber, being that it is the US Constitution, that kinda implies US Citizens - no one else.

This is a very dangerous trend, though. The gov is trying to find numerous loop holes to abuse people. They aren't US citizens, so they don't enjoy the protection of the Constitution. OK - I can buy that. But they are also trying to claim that they don't enjoy POW status either because they were "unlawful combatants". Now there is some fine work of legal dancing.

I can understand that these people were taken from a combat zone, and their value as intelligence sources is extremely valuable, but not playing by rules that we helped create just sends the image that we are an 800 lb gorilla that does what it wants and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. That maybe true, but it's not political to actually act that way.

Since they were taken, presumably, on the battlefield, one of two things should have happened. Treated them as soldiers and executed on the spot killed them in battle. Or, taken as POWs as prescribed by Geneva Conventions.

This legal acrobatic act that the gov is taking is a very BadThing^TM. First the treatment of the detainees at GTMO, then the Patriot Act (which openly flouts every word in the Bill of Rights). Next we have Ceassar having Congress declare him President for Life. Never happen you say? Hmmmm ..... ignoring the numerous Third World examples, I seem to reacall another very succuessfull Democratically Republican Empire doing just so about 2000 years ago .....