Obama Admin. to End Use of Term 'Enemy Combatant'

In this Sept. 19, 2006 file photo, reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense official, long abandoned...

In this Sept. 19, 2006 file photo, reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense official, long abandoned chain link and razor wire fencing is seen overgrown with weeds and vines at Camp X-Ray, which for the first few months of 2002 served as the primary detention center at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. Nearby sit the modern, state of the art prison facilities used to house detainees since Camp X-Ray was closed down, and which President Obama and ordered closed by January, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

(AP)

The Obama administration said Friday that it is abandoning one of President George W. Bush's key phrases in the war on terrorism: enemy combatant. But that won't change much for the detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba — Obama still asserts the military's authority to hold them. Human rights attorneys said they were disappointed that Obama didn't take a new stance.

The Justice Department said in legal filings that it will no longer use the term "enemy combatants' to justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

"This is really a case of old wine in new bottles," the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has been fighting the detainees' detention, said in a statement. "It is still unlawful to hold people indefinitely without charge. The men who have been held for more than seven years by our government must be charged or released."

In another court filing Thursday criticized by human rights advocates, the Obama administration tried to protect top Bush administration military officials from lawsuits brought by prisoners who say they were tortured while being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Obama administration's position on use of the phrase "enemy combatants" came in response to a deadline by U.S. District Judge John Bates, who is overseeing lawsuits of detainees challenging their detention. Bates asked the administration to give its definition of whom the United States may hold as an "enemy combatant."

The filing back's Bush's stance on the authority to hold detainees, even if they were not captured on the battlefield in the course of hostilities. In their lawsuits, detainees have argued that only those who directly participated in hostilities should be held.

"The argument should be rejected," the Justice Department said in its filing. "Law-of-war principles do not limit the United States' detention authority to this limited category of individuals. A contrary conclusion would improperly reward an enemy that violates the laws of war by operating as a loose network and camouflaging its forces as civilians."