POW
: Saddam is declared a prisoner of war. Not clear what this means to his trial.
: Donald Sensing explains the impact in the comments, repeated here:
It means that under international law he can be tried in an American court, but it has to be a court-martial with the same procedures and protections as an American soldier would receive.
It also means that we can simply release him to the Iraqis – repatriation, in other words – in which case his future would fall under their jurisdiction in toto.
It also means that we don’t have to repatriate him until the president declares the war is over, which he hasn’t done yet.
In fact we don’t have to release EPWs immediately even then; we just have to schedule their repatriation. After WW II, some German EPWs remained in the US into 1946 awaiting their repatriation date.
I don’t yet see a downside to this for the US.
