No longer enemy combatant


No Longer Enemy Combatant is a term used by the U.S. military for a group of 38 Guantanamo detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal determined they were not "enemy combatants". None of the detainees who were determined not to have been enemy combatants were released right away. Ten of the detainees who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants were allowed to move to the more comfortable Camp Iguana. Others, such as Sami Al Laithi, remained in solitary confinement.
Thirty-eight detainees were finally classified as NLECs.
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.
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.
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.

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.
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. 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.

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.
ISNNameNotes
142FazaldadReturned to Pakistan on 17 September 2004
208Maroof Saleemovich SalehoveDate of release to Tajikistan unknown
248Saleh Abdall Al OshanRepatriated to Saudi custody on 20 July 2005
260Ahmed AdilSent to Albania with four other Uyghurs
276Akhdar Qasem BasitSent to Albania with four other Uyghurs
279Mohammed AyubSent to Albania with four other Uyghurs
283Abu Bakr QasimSent to Albania with four other Uyghurs
287Sami Abdul Aziz Salim AllaithyRepatriated to Egypt, after assurances
293Adel AbdulhehimSent to Albania with four other Uyghurs
298Salih UyarReleased to Turkey on 18 April 2005
357Abdul RahmanDate of return to Afghanistan unknown.
457Mohammad GulReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
459Gul ZamanReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
491Sadik Ahmad TurkistaniUyghur born in Saudi Arabia, repatriated to Saudi Arabia
561Abdul Rahim MuslimdostReleased to Pakistan, disappeared mysteriously
581Shed Abdur RahmanDate of release to Pakistan unknown
586Karam Khamis Sayd KhamsanDate of release to Pakistan unknown; charged with attempting to assassinate US ambassador to Yemen in December 2005; acquitted on 13 March 2006
589Khalid Mahomoud Abdul Wahab Al AsmrReturned to Jordan on 19 July 2005
631Padsha WazirReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
649Mustaq Ali PatelReturned to France on 7 March 2005
672Zakirjan AsamSet free on 17 November 2006
712Hammad Ali Amno GadallahReturned to Sudan on 19 July 2005
716Allah Muhammed SaleemReleased to Albania on 7 January 2007, where he applied for asylum
718Fethi BoucettaReleased to Albania rather than his home of Algeria
730Ibrahim FauzeeCitizen of the Maldives, release date unknown
812Qalandar ShahReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
834Shahwali Zair Mohammed Shaheen NaqeebyllahReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
835Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed MohammedReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
929Abdul QudusYoungest person ever detained at Guantanamo only 14 years old when he arrived in Guantanamo early 2002, he returned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
952ShahzadaReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
953HammdidullahReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
958Mohammad NasimReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
986Kako KandahariReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
1013Feda AhmedReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
1019NasibullahReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
1041Habib NoorReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005
1117JalilReturned to Afghanistan on 11 March 2005
1157Hukumra KhanReturned to Afghanistan on 18 April 2005

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.
Bismullah was released to Afghanistan on January 17.