Bzzt!
Lawyer-boy finds a way to lawyer up the process of carrot & stick on the battlefield.
Every non-lawyer derived reference on this topic runs towards HTG's explanation.
Why would you be looking for non-lawyer advice on a hugely complicated set of laws that were drafted primarily by...lawyers?
Might that be a good way to skip out on the actual meaning of the law in order to achieve whatever this government or that government wants, as opposed to say, following the letter of the law?
The Geneva conventions are clear on this: POW status is premised on the principle that you can't be tried for conduct that is within the rules of war, even though the same conduct would constitute a crime in the civilian world.
Terrorists and other non-POW category fighters are to be treated as criminals.
The conventions (and every other law on the subject, international AND US) ban torture and indefinite detention without trial
absolutely and without exception.There is absolutely no gray area on this in anyone's law: if the .gov wants to imprison people for life, it must show criminal responsibility. And if the .gov wants to torture people, it becomes an outlaw government just like Burma.