What does NLEC mean in Unclassified?

No longer enemy combatant

No Longer Enemy Combatant, is a term used by the U.S. military for a group of 38 Guantanamo detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal determined they were not "enemy combatants". None of the detainees who were determined not to have been enemy combatants were released right away. Ten of the detainees who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants were allowed to move to the more comfortable Camp Iguana. Others, such as Sami Al Laithi, remained in solitary confinement. Thirty-eight detainees were finally classified as "NLECs". The fifth Denbeaux report, "No-hearing hearings", reported that an additional three Combatant Status Review Tribunals determined that captives should not have been determined to have been enemy combatants, only to have their recommendation overturned. The Washington Post has published a list of the names of 30 of the 38 individuals who were determined not to have been enemy combatants. The delay in the release of some of the detainees was due to considerations of the detainees safety. Some of the detainees could not be returned to their home countries, out of fears of retaliation from their fellow citizens, or the governments of their countries. Some, like Al Laithi, were returned to their home countries after the U.S. secured a promise that they would not be punished by their home countries. Others, like five of the Uyghur detainees in Guantanamo, were released when the U.S. found a third country which would accept them.

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