False choice on handling terrorists

The Dahlia Lithwick piece I linked to in the last blog is worth reading, on the government's mania for secrecy. But here's the one I meant to reference in relation to the Jose Padilla case, on the false choice between treating terrorists as soldiers or as criminals. The government doesn't make its choices on any obviously principled basis, unless any way that will keep secrets from citizens and avoid accountability amounts ot a principle.