Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Isn't an enemy combatant someone who is not in an organized army?
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Not according to the Supreme Court in
Quirin:
- The spy who secretly and without uniform passes the military lines of a belligerent in time of war, seeking to gather military information and communicate it to the enemy, or an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war
I'm not sure of the exact number of "belligerents who have come through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property," but I know that most of them are dead.
ETA incidentally,
Quirin came before the Court on a petition for a writ of habeus corpus.
