Quote Originally Posted by Hurin_Rules
I think we probably disagree on this, Redleg, but it might help me if you could provide some examples of usage of the term 'enemy combatant' before the present controversy over the 'War on Terror'?
It was used to try two captured german agents on American Soil.

Quote Originally Posted by source
The phrase enemy combatant was "invented" by the US Supreme Court in the 1942 ruling "Ex Parte Quirin".

......

Definition
As defined by President Franklin D Roosevelt's proclamation number 2561, this definition applied to

all persons who are subjects, citizens, or residents of any Nation at war with the United States or who give obedience to or act under the direction of any such Nation and who during time of war enter or attempt to enter the United States or any territory or possession thereof, through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing or attempting or preparing to commit sabotage, espionage, hostile or warlike acts, or violations of the law or war....
[edit]... and Application
The power of the President to declare enemy combatants was not used until the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Once determined by the president to be an enemy combatant, persons may be held indefinitely and are subject to the jursidiction of military tribunals. Appeals or privilege to access to civilian courts is only granted to enemy combatants with the approval of both the Attorney General and Secretary of Defense.

Although the power to declare enemy combatants was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1942, it is currently under review (as of May 2004) and the future of this authority is unknown.

"It is the President of the United States who designates people as Enemy Combatants on information passed to him via the military or intelligence agencies. There is no right to appeal such a decision and no one is allowed to see the evidence for the designation. In effect it gives the President the power to indefinitely detain any US citizen without trial, charge or an explanation."

Source: adequacy.org (http://www.adequacy.org/public/stori...554.1907.html).

http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtm...nemy_combatant






It seems to me that much of the present policy was simply 'made up' by Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, et al. in the last few years. I don't see the phrase anywhere in the Geneva or Hague Conventions (correct me if I'm wrong). Moreover, it seems to me that the saboteurs in WWII were still given rather speedy trials, defenders, charges, etc.-- all of which the 'enemy combatants' in Guantanamo have been denied. If there are firm rules for this sort of thing, then where are they, beyond the musings and loophole-exploiting of the Bushites (little of which, it would seem, is able to pass muster in a court of law, as the Padilla case and the supreme court rulings have indicated).

Again criticism of the Bush Adminstration's use of the term and how they are going about the process is valid. However to think that Bush just made up the term is incorrect.