Those who have been released have, for the most part, resumed lives of terrorism. Many of those held openly brag about their complicity in terrorist attacks. This shows that they were NOT selected at random.

What SHOULD have happened is that these guys should have been given summary courts-martial by "competent tribunals" and shot immediately afterward. But, I agree that evidence and due process (but not much process is due is such cases) should have been attended to. The arresting soldiers, however, did not gather evidence properly, having never been trained to do so.

The alternative is to hold them as "prisoners of war". This permits them to be held without charges or trials "until the cessation of hostilities", which, in the case of Al Qaeda means forever, since Al Qaeda will never sign a peace treaty. Prisoners of war are not entitled even to "habeas corpus", but are simply kept until a peace treaty.

David F Mayer