Frank Sweigart

Frank Sweigart is a former officer in the United States Navy.

Sweigart retired from the Navy in 2004,with the rank of Captain, and was appointed the Deputy Director of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC), He was subsequently promoted to replace his boss Admiral James M. McGarrah.

As Director of OARDEC Sweigart is notable for having the responsibility to oversee the operation of the annual Administrative Review Board hearings for approximately 250 captives the United States holds in extrajudicial detention in it Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He also has the responsibility to oversee Combatant Status Review Tribunals for any newly arrived captives.

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Board hearings are new procedures whose structure and operation are modeled after the procedures laid out in Army Regulation 190-8 for determining if a captive was entitled to the protections of Prisoner of War status. The OARDEC procedures however have more limited mandates.

Controversially, the Bush Presidency asserts that the USA is not obliged to honor captives apprehended in Afghanistan with the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Combatant Status Review Tribunals determine if captives meet a new definition—that of "enemy combatant".

Administrative Review Boards determine if captives continue to represent a threat to the USA, or hold any intelligence value.

Five new captives arrived in Guantanamo in 2007, who have not yet had their "enemy combatant" status reviewed.