President George W. Bush issued executive orders that two terror suspects (American Jose Padilla and Qatari Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri), who were initially processed as criminal defendants, be turned over to the Department of Defense for interrogation.

The logic of the orders is simple: 1) Padilla and Al-Marri were known agents of al-Qaeda, an international terrorist organization with which the United States is at war. 2) They had engaged in “war-like” acts against the United States. 3) They possessed intelligence that could possibly prevent such attacks in the future.

You can read the orders here and here.