Panel: Guantanamo detainee wrongly named enemy combatant

Two-and-a-half years after he was captured in Afghanistan and detained by the U.S. military as an "enemy combatant," a prisoner at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been told he will be allowed to go home, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. A three-person military panel determined after reviewing his case that he does not fit the definition of an enemy combatant, Navy Secretary Gordon England told a Pentagon news conference. England declined to disclose the man's name, nationality or case details. He said the State Department is making arrangements for the man to be returned to his home country within days or weeks. Of the 30 Guantanamo Bay detainee cases reviewed thus far in a process that began Aug. 13, this is the first one that concluded with a finding that the detainee is not an enemy combatant. [more ]