Douglas R. Burgess has an excellent essay on why terrorists should be treated as pirates under international law. He draws several insightful parallels between both independent and state sponsored piracy and terrorism. Though this argument is not a new one, this is perhaps the best analysis I have seen for this position.
Of course, this would mean that we would have to re-define the War on Terror™, as a struggle against individual actors, some of whom receive state funding, instead of against a mythical global conspiracy. Thus, it probably won’t happen anytime soon . . .
