The conflict he had fought in had not been between states, but part of the amorphous war on terror that America had been prosecuting, against brutal but shadowy jihadist networks, since the attacks of September 11th 2001.
"It was the type of case that would not be prosecuted against anyone else," Bob Woodward wrote in "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate" (1999).
"The first American Revolution, as we know, was prosecuted against King George III and his out-of-control Parliament," she said in Goshen in 2009, according to a news account.
There are lots of recent examples, like the bogus charges brought against Alexei Navalny, the heroic investigative blogger, and the posthumous case currently being prosecuted against, believe it or not, Sergei Magnitsky.
As a result, employees at the central office have begun looking through files for additional cases that could be prosecuted against guards at extermination camps and members of "Einsatzgruppen," or mobile SS killing squads.
But not one contractor has been prosecuted for crimes against an Iraqi.
The DPP's Principal Legal Advisor concluded that Savile could have been prosecuted for offences against at least three victims during his lifetime.
It was the first time in state history that a guard had been prosecuted for brutality against someone in prison, according to the Correctional Association.
Still, four years after the start of the war, not one contractor has been prosecuted for crimes committed against an Iraqi.
Hundreds of labour activists have been prosecuted for taking industrial action, especially against state-controlled firms.
