American citizens held by US military in Iraq

The New York Times broke the amazing story of an American veteran held prisoner in Iraq by US forces. Cyrus Kar is a 44 year-old, Iranian-American filmmaker. He moved to the US when he was two years old, had served in the US Navy, and in May was in Iraq working on a film. According to various reports, the film was not even specifically about contemporary Iraq, it was an historical documentary about an ancient Persian king, Darius the Great.

Kar was captured shortly after he arrived in Baghdad in a taxi that allegedly had "several dozen" washing maching timers in the trunk, which are considered by the US "bomb making materials." Regardless of his potential guilt or innocence, he has not yet been able to meet with legal counsel, and he will be held during the "review process" that other Iraqis experience, which normally takes between 3 months and a year.

Apparently the other four people in custody holding American passports do not have the same background, they are more recently naturalized citizens of Iraq and Jordan. But the question remains, what rights to American citizens have when detained by their own military in a counter-insurgency situation in a foreign country? From the New York Times:

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who are representing Mr. Kar's relatives, said they would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Washington, accusing the government of holding Mr. Kar in violation of American and international laws and seeking his release through a writ of habeas corpus.

"Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar," said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead lawyer in the case. "This is a detention policy that was drafted by Kafka."

Colonel Skinner, the Pentagon spokesman, said any American civilians detained as a possible threat to the allied forces would eventually go before a board of three American officers, who would assess their cases and decide what to do with them. He said he did not know whether there was any specific time period by which such a review would be done.

"We have absolutely no desire to hold anyone longer than is necessary," Colonel Skinner said. "But you can't be wrong, either. We are talking about life-or-death issues. You have to absolutely be thorough."