The Geneva Covention against torture does not just apply to soldiers, Two Bears - it applies to everyone. Torture is criminal whoever does it, and whoever they do it to. The fact that Nick Berg wasn't a soldier doesn't mean that somehow that it was any less of a crime to butcher him. If the people being tortured in Abu Ghraib were civilians, that doesn't mean it was legal to torture them, either for Saddam or his successors in US unifiorms.

The fact that someone is a Prisoner of War does not mean they have more rights than anyone else - if amnything it mean sthey have fewer rights. It is legal to keep a POW in custiody even if there is no reason to think they ahve done anything wrong. That does not apply in the case of people who are not POWs - there has to be sufficient evidence against them to stand up in court.