Quote Originally Posted by CloseDanger View Post
"If, as the Bush administration has held, they are not "legal combatants", then what are they? The rhetorical answer was to call them "criminals", but even criminals have rights under international laws to which the US is a signatory."

They are neither. They have no code. They are signatory to nothing, and hold no value for life. They do not work for a country OR GOD.
Whether or not they are signatories is not germain to the argument - the US is a signatory.

Quote Originally Posted by CloseDanger View Post
Our legal system is for our citizens who have rights. Not phlem flam from some throwback century.
Your legal system, including all of your rules of evidence, "rights", etc., is for whomever your government agrees to cover which may, or may not, include your citizens and those of other nations. Rule of law has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the people who are detained have ever signed a convention (individuals don't) or are citizens with rights (as opposed to either citizens without rights or non-citizens), but it has everything to do with the US government keeping its pledged word to the international community.