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Like the Taliban fighters, these guys are classified as "Enemy Combatants" because they don't wear the uniform of a recognized country, as a regular army would.

They get the very same protections as POWs, as far as the military is concerned. However, they can be tried as terrorists (while uniformed soldiers cannot). The UCMJ only applies to American military personnel. Everybody else is covered by the appropriate US laws.

If they're attacking soldiers in the theatre, I'm not sure they can be classified as terrorists. If they're attacking civilians (schools, hospitals, et al) they could definitely be classified as terrorists. The press just uses one word (depending on their political bent) for nearly everybody.

Either way, there's nothing in our laws that allows us to mistreat them.

It seems to me that the DOD wants it both ways here. When they take prisoners from Afghanistan to Gitmo they can tie them up, blindfold them, make them wear a big diaper, etc. (BTW I have no problem whatsoever with any of that, but I would be surprised to find any precedent in US military history of similar treatment of normal POWs) and hold them for an indeterminate period of time because they are "enemy combatants", but an officer in Iraq can't use questionable interrogation techniques.

If I were LTC West's advocate I would subpoanae (sp) the testimony of every soldier involved in interrogation of prisoners in Afghanistan to see if there are any similar incidents that went unpunished. The DOD just may be opening a can of worms that they don't want to deal with with this.