What is the criteria for someone to be determined as an "Enemy Combatant"?

[KauaiK]

Was the term "enemy combatant" created by Bush administration? What is the criteria to determine when someone is an "enemy combatant"? Does the weapon have to be a bomb vs a assault gun? Under what law, case law, or administrative rule does the determination of enemy combatant fall?

It appears to me to be to be arbitrary, depending on which way the political winds are blowing.

[onehandle]

1. Brown person. nt

[Walk away]

3. Yup! nt

[Xipe Totec]

2. They're feisty, and they don't like you. nt

[Fumesucker]

4. I could tell you..

But then you would be an enemy combatant.

[still_one]

5. First it needs to be on a battlefield, second and most important, not a citizen

[Gregorian]

7. But wasn't John Walker Lindh a citizen? I think he was classified as an enemy combatant.

[still_one]

15. You may be right but I thought it was treason

Last edited Tue Apr 23, 2013, 09:21 AM - Edit history (1)

[dipsydoodle]

6. More or less

whatever the US needs it to be. The US changed the historic definition following 9/11.

I thought Pres. Obama had dropped its usage.

[spanone]

8. anyone who can be used to make democrats look weak on terror

[randome]

9. Anyone taking up arms against the government, citizen or not, I would think.

Although the exact definition may depend on whether it occurs on American or foreign soil. My guess is foreign.

[KauaiK]

10. So that would include Ted Nugent, right?

[randome]

14. He hasn't taken up arms. He shit his pants when the Secret Service questioned him.

Hot air is not a very useful weapon.

[DevonRex]

11. Start here.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/32/11.5

Work your way backwards, until you see that this is indeed the section you need. Then back, and you'll have to read all the definitions to put a good understanding together.

This site also has the Supreme Court decisions like Hamdi.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/03-6696

[KauaiK]

13. Thanks!

I haven't read all of it yet...but I will. It still seem arbitrary and political as to who gets charged as an enemy combatant and who doesn't. I appreciate your effort to inform!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. The term precedes the war on terror

Taking up arms against the US and capture in an actual battlefield.