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Preferred term

enemy combatants  

Definition

  • In 2001, the Bush administration coined the term unlawful combatant (later renamed enemy combatant) to describe certain individuals either captured during the war in Afghanistan or suspected of having links to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Currently, any individual who the administration deems a threat or danger to the United States, including “citizens who associating themselves with the enemy and with its aid, guidance, and direction, or enter into this country bent on hostile acts are enemy belligerents” (U.S. District Court, Lower Manhattan, U.S. v. Padilla [2002]), may be defined as an enemy combatant. [Source: Encyclopedia of Prisons & Correctional Facilities; Enemy Combatants]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/enemy_combatants

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