Dual Citizenship and Military Detainees

Let's start with why Dual Citizenship is wrong.
First, there is no clear responsibility to a single national entity. Loyalty is then always suspect.
Second, gaining dual citizenship with one of those being of the US guarantees certain protections that other people in regions of conflict do not possess.

Here is the problem now identified in Iraq.

Five detainees who are believed to be American citizens are being held in U.S. military detention facilities in Iraq after their arrests there over the past few months, the first Americans taken into custody during the war in Iraq on suspicion of aiding the insurgency or for terrorist activity, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

In addition to one detainee with dual U.S.-Jordanian citizenship who was arrested in late October, coalition forces have snared four suspects since April in unrelated cases involving potential insurgent activities throughout Iraq, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Three of those arrested are Iraqi Americans and one is an Iranian American who said he was in Iraq to film footage for a historical documentary.

Three of these detainees are dual citizens of Iraq and the US. The military is now in a quardary over how to handle these "citizens." I don't see why this should be a fight. They were taken under suspicion in a theater of war, they should be treated by military law or by Iraqi civil law. The US government shouldn't have a say here.

Whitman said one of the Iraqi Americans was arrested for "engaging in suspicious activities," another for alleged involvement in a kidnapping, and the third for "having the knowledge of planning associated with attacks on coalition forces."

The Jordanian American, arrested after a search of his Baghdad home in late October, is believed to be a high-ranking associate of Abu Musab Zarqawi's terrorist network. Officials described him as an emissary with intimate knowledge of and participation in terrorist activities in Iraq.

As for the Iranian-American:

But in the case of the Iranian American -- 44-year-old Cyrus Kar of Los Angeles -- lawyers who are working to return him to his home in the United States argue that he was arrested by mistake as he was traveling through Iraq in a taxi while working on a film documentary about Cyrus the Great, the ancient Persian king. Kar, a native Iranian who served three years in the U.S. Navy, was arrested by Iraqi security forces almost immediately after he entered Iraq from Iran on May 17, when soldiers found several washing machine timers in the taxi's trunk.

Poor judgment in taxis or carrying materials for the insurgency?

Of course the ACLU is being their usual reasonable selves:

American Civil Liberties Union lawyers filed the petition yesterday, alleging that Kar is being held by the U.S. military "without the slightest hint of legal authority."

Hmmm. Taken in a war zone with materials that can be utilized to make weapons. That doesn't strike me as the military hasn't "the slightest hint of legal authority." What, in the ACLU's opinion, would justify taking legal action? I doubt that they would say.

Personally, I would like to see them processed quickly. If they are found to have ties to the insurgency or terrorists, then they can be processed or handed over to the Iraqi civil authorities. Though I would think the Iraqi civil authorities may want to address them even if the military doesn't choose to process them. What will the ACLU do then?