In an interview with author Stephen Hayes on June 23, 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney defended his position regarding the treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda members as enemy combatants: ” ‘We had, I think, several concerns in the aftermath of 9/11. We had al Qaeda terrorists kill 3,000 Americans that morning. We were concerned about the possibility of follow-on attacks. We still are. We also, as we went into Afghanistan, encountered significant numbers of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan that were either captured or killed. And the al Qaeda in particular didn’t operate by the rules of conventional warfare. We looked at all of that, and the decision was made that they were not lawful combatants. They didn’t wear uniforms or have badges; they didn’t carry arms out in the open. They did in fact set out to kill civilians; and, by definition, they did not qualify as lawful combatants. Also, as terrorists, they were not represented as any state.’ ”
– Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Pages 480-481