http://www.defenselink.mil/transcrip...0430-1402.html (as visited
June 8, 2004, and available in the Clerk of Court's case file) (media
briefing describing ongoing operations in Afghanistan involving 20,000
United States troops). The United States may detain, for the duration of
these hostilities, individuals legitimately determined to be Taliban
combatants who "engaged in an armed conflict against the United States." If
the record establishes that United States troops are still involved in
active combat in Afghanistan, those detentions are part of the exercise of
"necessary and appropriate force," and therefore are authorized by the
AUMF."


Peter Wiley wrote:
Ah. So there isn't a new Govt controlling Afghanistan, then? It's still
in the control of the Taliban as a political and military force?

Not.

Agreed, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an armed conflict going
on. In fact, the legal blah-blah Dave cited does make some sense and
could cover the case for prisoners from Afghanistan.

The problem is, it's *still* not what the U.S. gov't is doing with
regard to the Gitmo detainees, nor the 'War On Terror' in general.

DSK