"Unprivileged Belligerent"

Yes, that is the reason we are trying Omar Ahmed Khadr, a 15 year old at the time of his alleged crime.  He was, the Government contends, an "unprivileged belligerent".

Here is one view of the situation:

Combatants such as U.S. soldiers, and German/Japanese soldiers during WWII, were privileged combatants. Their battlefield acts were privileged by their status, such that they could not be prosecuted for the lawful killing of an enemy soldier on the battlefield. However, in Khadr's case, and that of the other GTMO detainees facing the same charge, the U.S. government has decided as a policy and legal matter that it is a war crime for these individuals, who are deemed unprivileged combatants, to kill a U.S. soldier. And so Congress established "murder in violation of the law of war" as a crime in the Military Commissions Act, pursuant to its Constitutional power to "define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations."

But, others disagree.  Or as the author of the above quote says, "there is a raging debate in the legal community over the propriety of this charge."

This view of unprivileged belligerents is not new.  During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870/71 the French continued to resist after the Army had given up with Francs-Tireurs (Free Shooters).  The German response was executions.

Regards  —  Cliff