A question for Eugene:
It looks to me as if your (persuasive) argument about unlawful combatant detainees doesn’t turn at any point on the status of Guantanamo Bay as a place. That is, if I’ve read your argument correctly it would be legal (or, which might be different, unreviewable by U.S. civilian courts) to hold the detainees on what is uncontroverisally U.S. soil, just as it’s legal to so hold POWs.
Is that right? I would, and I’m sure Conspiracy readers would, appreciate reading your views on the separate issue of Guantanamo’s status and how if at all that status is relevant. I’m not following the case closely. But from press reports it appears that the Administration thinks something important turns on Guantanamo’s very odd extraterritorial status. I find that worrisome, in a way that the argument you’re making is not. You’re suggesting that the detentions are legally valid. The Administration seems to be arguing that they’re legally invisible, because there is no legal system that has both de jure and de facto jurisdiction over the territory of Guantanamo. There’s a difference…
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