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If the government is so anxious to keep Padilla's interrogation uninterrupted, I wonder if it would be willing to stipulate to the court that it will not bring criminal charges against him and that it will release him at some date certain.

I'm not sure I understand your comment. Re stipulating that they wont' bring criminal charges -- I thought the point was that they're treating him as an enemy combatant, so he won't be going through our civilian justice system as as a criminal defendant. So his rights to a lawyer aren't triggered. How would whether the gov't stipulates or not matter? Either way, he still wouldn't have a lawyer. (Your comments are always good, so I'm sure I'm missing something.)

As to stipulating to release him on a date certain, hmmm: we're at war, he's a combatant we've captured at war, why should we agree to do that? All we're supposed to do is comply with the Geneva Convention. We don't have to set a date for release of him anymore than the others in Gitmo.