No longer enemy combatant

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NLEC is an acronym for No Longer Enemy Combatant, U.S. military term for Guantanamo captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal determined they should not have been classified as "enemy combatants".

Thirty-eight detainees were finally classified as "NLECs".^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[1] 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.

The delay in the release of some of the detainees was due to considerations of the detainees safety. Some of the detainees could not be returned to their home countries, out of fears of retaliation from their fellow citizens, or the governments of their countries. Some, like Al Laithi, were returned to their home countries after the U.S. secured a promise that they would not be punished by their home countries. Others, like five of Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo, were released when the U.S. found a third country which would accept them.^[3]^[4]

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.^[5]^[6]^[7]