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 N L A W F U L ENEMY COMBATANT -- a status as legal fiction, promulgated by the Bush II administration allowing the White House a black lie: that neither the rules of war, nor the criminal justice system nor the Geneva Conventions need apply to this newly minted category of human being. It is a notion worthy of Orwell's Ministry of Truth. Those unfortunate enough to be tagged with the label are subjected to chilling treatment as practiced in the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib branches of the Ministry of Love. The flawed distinction between 'lawful' and 'unlawful' combatants dangles like a pathetic fig leaf -- tortured logic seeking to hide the practice of torture under the guise of submitting to the rule of law. An administration charged with executing the law, that then distorts the law, and holds itself above-the-law: a contradiction wrapped in hypocrisy. |