I love Ken White's "... the Lawyers totally blew it in an effort to outsmart themselves." We do that everyday; but it's not always noticed !

Also, like Wolfsberger's quoting the GC provisions - RTFO is a good rule.

The two L & C articles most pertinent to the present discussion seem to be:

Tung Yin, Enemies of the State: Rational Classification in the War on Terrorism, 11 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 903 (2007)
http://www.lclark.edu/org/lclr/objec...4_Art3_Yin.pdf

Mark Weisburd, Al-Qaeda and the Law of War, 11 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1063 (2007)
http://www.lclark.edu/org/lclr/objec...8_Weisburd.pdf

Despite being a U of M law grad, Weisburd's Conclusion seems quite rational.

Tacitus and I have to talk about the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials someday - but not today.

Also, Jedburgh citation of Rand's James Renwick, Gregory F. Treverton, The Challenges of Trying Terrorists as Criminals (2008), provides an overview of the practical procedural problems in the "Common Law, Magna Carta" jurisdictions.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_r...RAND_CF249.pdf