I think it is referenced in the Geneva conventions.

I guess you are right the Delta and CIA guys are screwed anyway if they are caught.

>delta force have been given special exemptions from US laws but not international ones in so far as if they are caught abroad they are subject to that countries laws. i am not sure about spy's, if they are caught i don't know if they are unlawful or not but i imagine that their existance is automatically denied anyway. is "unlawful combatant" a new term, pre war on terror, i first heard it when the administration wanted to deny human rights in Gitmo, but was it in use before then do you know?
>~M
>
>>The 'unlawful combantant' reason for detaining the prisons at Guantanamo Bay is flawed. The Haque convention defines a legal combatant as
>>
>>To be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
>>To have a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance;
>>To carry arms openly; and
>>To conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
>>
>>This means that both Delta Force and the CIA (the paramilitary division for sure) could be held by enemy states as unlawful combatants.