Hi Katie,

"I agree with you....technically he would be a prisoner of war wouldn't he? And would be granted whatever the rights are of a prisoner of war."

Technically, they aren't being called POWs, at least not the al-Qaida detainees in Guantanamo. They are "enemy combatants" at this time. I don't believe they're being treated any different than they would be if they were in an American controlled POW camp. I think the reason for the different designation of status for these people is, standard procedure for handing POWs in past wars has been to release them to their country of origin when the war ended.

Given that this war isn't against a particular country, Yemen or Saudi Arabia or Qatar or whatever country, could try to make the claim that since we aren't at war with their country, they have a right to have us deliver these people to them. Since most of these countries aren't known for prosecuting terrorists who commit terrorist acts against us, we aren't likely to make it easy for a government that turns its back on terrorism to use the POW standard to put these people back into circulation and fight again.

Bob