no longer enemy combatant
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
No Longer Enemy Combatant (NLEC) is a term used by the U.S. military for a group of 38 Guantanamo detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) determined they were not "enemy combatants".
{{cite news
| url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=31063
| title=38 Guantanamo Detainees to Be Freed After Tribunals
| author=Kathleen T. Rhem
| publisher=American Forces Press Service
| date=30 March 2005
| accessdate=2007-09-01
}} None of them were released right away. Ten of them were allowed to move to the more comfortable Camp Iguana.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} Others, such as Sami Al Laithi, remained in solitary confinement.
Thirty-eight detainees were finally classified as NLECs.
{{Cite news
| url=http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/
| title=Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classified as "No Longer Enemy Combatants"
| newspaper=Washington Post
| accessdate=2008-03-26
| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070204065424/http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/
| archivedate = 2007-02-04
}}
The fifth Denbeaux report, "No-hearing hearings", reported that an additional three Combatant Status Review Tribunals determined that captives should not have been determined to have been enemy combatants, only to have their recommendation overturned.Mark Denbeaux et al.,
[http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf No-hearing hearings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802031333/http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf |date=2008-08-02 }}, 17 November 2006
The Washington Post has published a list of the names of 30 of the 38 individuals who were determined not to have been enemy combatants.
The delay in the release of some of the detainees was said to be due to considerations of their safety. Some could not be returned to their home countries, out of fears of retaliation from their fellow citizens, or from the governments of their countries. Some, like Al Laithi, were returned to their home countries after the US secured a promise that they would not be punished by their home countries. Others, like five of the Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo, were released when the US found a third country which would accept them.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4979466.stm Albania takes Guantanamo Uighurs], BBC, 6 May 2006
[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/18/freed_from_guantanamo_5_face_danger_in_albania/ Freed from Guantanamo, 5 face danger in Albania], Boston Globe, 18 May 2006
Three further captives who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants, who had been occupants of Camp Iguana since May 2005, were released in Albania in November 2006.[http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005556662 U.S. Releases Three Men From Terror Camp In Guantanamo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929111236/http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005556662 |date=2007-09-29 }}, All Headline News, 17 November 2006[http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/November/20061120180922sjhtrop0.7480738.html Albania Agrees To Resettle Three Detainees from Guantanamo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409194003/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/November/20061120180922sjhtrop0.7480738.html |date=2008-04-09 }}, US State Department, 20 November 2006[http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16040949.htm Pentagon sends Guantánamo captives to Albania]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Miami Herald, 17 November 2006
Multiple CSRTs
The fifth Denbeaux study, entitled "No-hearing hearings", revealed that some Guantanamo captives had second or third Combatant Status Review Tribunals convened when their first tribunal determined that they had not been enemy combatants after all.{{cite web
| url=http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf
| title=No-hearing hearings
| page=17
| author=Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman and Helen Skinner
| publisher=Seton Hall University School of Law
| accessdate=2 April 2007
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802031333/http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf
| archive-date=2 August 2008
| url-status=dead
}}
H. Candace Gorman, the pro bono lawyer for Abdel Hamid Ibn Abdussalem Ibn Mifta Al Ghazzawi, expressed surprise when she learned that her client had initially been determined not to have been an enemy combatant, after all.
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-candace-gorman-/secrets-of-the-war-crimin_b_34505.html Secrets of the War Criminals], Huffington Post, 12 December 2006 Gorman described traveling to the secure site in Virginia, the only place where lawyers were allowed to review their clients' classified files. She was told that the justification for convening her client's second tribunal had been that the DoD had new evidence. However, when she reviewed the transcript of his second tribunal she found that there had been no new evidence.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Abraham came forward and swore an affidavit, describing his experience sitting on Al Ghazzawi's tribunal. It was critical of the process, including the pressure exerted to find against the detainee.
{{cite news
| url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gitmo-panelist-slams-hearing-process/
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524063152/https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/23/world/main2970288_page2.shtml
| archive-date=2011-05-24
| title=Gitmo Panelist Slams Hearing Process: Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham Is First Member Of Military Panel To Challenge Guantanamo Bay Hearings
| date=23 June 2007
| publisher=CBS
| url-status=live
| access-date=2007-06-23
| url=http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/Al%20Odah%20reply%206-22-07.pdf
| title=Declaration of Stephen Abraham, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army Reserve, June 14th, 2007
| publisher=United States Supreme Court
| date=14 June 2007
| accessdate=2007-06-25
|author = Mike Rosen-Molina
|url = http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/06/guantanamo-tribunal-officer-says-csrts.php
|title = Guantanamo tribunal officer says CSRTs pressured on 'enemy combatant' rulings
|publisher = The Jurist
|date = 22 June 2007
|accessdate = 2007-06-25
|url-status = dead
|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080208154544/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/06/guantanamo-tribunal-officer-says-csrts.php
|archivedate = 2008-02-08
| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202230.html
| title=An Ex-Member Calls Detainee Panels Unfair: Lawyer Tells of Flawed 'Combatant' Rulings
| last1 = Leonnig | first1 = Carol D. | authorlink1 = Carol D. Leonnig
| first2 = Josh | last2 = white| authorlink2 = Josh White (journalist)
| newspaper=Washington Post
| date= 23 June 2007
| accessdate=2007-06-24
{{cite news
| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/guantanamo-will-more-wh_b_59716.html
| author=Andy Worthington
| title=Guantánamo: Will More Whistleblowers Step Forward, Please?
| publisher=Huffington Post
| date=8 August 2007
| accessdate=2007-08-09
}}
NLEC captives
On 19 November 2007, the Department of Defense published a list of the 38 men finally deemed to be no longer enemy combatants in 2004.{{cite news
| url=http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/27/20/NLEC_DetaineeList.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
| title=Detainees Found to No Longer Meet the Definition of "Enemy Combatant" during Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo
| publisher=United States Department of Defense
| author=
| date=19 November 2007
| accessdate=2008-03-01
| quote=
| archive-date=2018-12-15
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215115511/http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/27/20/NLEC_DetaineeList.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
| url-status=dead
}}
On 17 January 2009, Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, quoted Guantanamo spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, that a panel of officers had recently reviewed Bismullah's "enemy combatant" status, and determined, "based on new evidence", that he was not an enemy combatant after all.
{{Cite news
|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/858981.html
|title=Six more detainees freed from Guantánamo
|publisher=Miami Herald
|author=Carol Rosenberg
|date=2009-01-17
|accessdate=2009-01-18
|url-status=live
|archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/5dw0VOliY?url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/858981.html
|archivedate=19 January 2009
}}
Bismullah was released to Afghanistan on 17 January.
See also
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:No Longer Enemy Combatant}}
Category:Guantanamo Bay captives legal and administrative procedures