The U.S. military in Afghanistan wants the Afghan government to take over indefinite detentions of "suspected insurgents" it has captured in Afghanistan. To this purpose it is pressing the Afghan government to change the country's laws outside of the normal process.

The U.S. government had been reluctant to transfer more authority over detained insurgents to the Afghan government because of concern that many would be released if they were tried in criminal courts.

Now there is a real danger. Afghan courts could actually release people from jail when the legal process  finds that they have done nothing criminal. That can't let be.

"We've told them we can't transfer detainee operations to you without the proper framework," said a U.S. official familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Do I smell blackmail? "We will not transfer of free your incarcerated sons to you unless you guarantee that they will NOT receive due process!"

Unlike the United States, Aghanistan is a country with laws that do not allow indefinite detentions without trial. The Afghan government, to get control over Afghans the U.S. has captured, will therefore have to change its laws. There is of course the tiny problem of Afghanistan being, at least nominal, a democracy where laws are enacted by a parliament.

Although U.S. officials had hoped that the Afghan changes would be spelled out in a presidential decree and promulgated before parliament convened – under Afghan law, the president can make laws by fiat when the legislature is in recess – a draft decree has yet to reach Karzai.

So they hoped to circumvent the parliament. How is that for 'democracy promotion' the Obama administration claims to favor?

U.S. and Afghan officials say the legal basis for continuing the detentions derives from Additional Protocol Two to the Geneva Conventions.

Afghanistan has signed the AP2, but the U.S. has not. If indeed the AP2 is the required legal basis for indefinite detention, one wonders what legal basis is there for the U.S. military to currently indefinitely detain "suspected insurgents" Afghans.

As this sorry story makes clear, the U.S. does neither care for due process in Afghanistan, nor for any democratic procedures, nor for any real rule of law.

In that it wants Afghanistan to be just like itself.