Change Like You Won’t Believe
Posted on December 8th, 2009 at 5:12 pm by Steve

Bush: “Unlawful enemy combatants.”

Obama: “Alien unprivileged enemy belligerents.”

Joanne Mariner, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch, calls this a “cosmetic change” that has no serious impact. The new language is contained in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. Mariner points out that

the Obama administration has adopted the Bush-era position of claiming that persons who provide support to hostilities can be treated just like persons who engaged in hostilities…

Her article has all the gory details if you’d like to read them.