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Apathy on Hicks 'unbelievable'
 AMERICANS would not tolerate a fellow citizen being treated in the way the US has dealt with Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks, his military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, said yesterday.
I'm an American. I would.
"I didn't mean you. I meant most Americans. The ones in the blue states."
They're managing to swallow it for Johnny Jihad, doing twenty big 'uns. |
Major Mori said he believed Australia was the only country to have accepted US military commissions as a means of putting its citizens on trial. "I just don't understand why the Australian Government just won't move on this. Hicks has done four years at Guantanamo
We know he didn't violate any Australian law," Major Mori said from the US.
"From an American perspective, e would not tolerate it for an American citizen. I just can't believe it's not rubbing people in Australia the wrong way."
| It's probably because they don't like him. They don't care about him. |
Hicks' Australian lawyer, Adelaide-based David McLeod, said the Federal Government had refused again this week to intervene on his client's behalf despite widespread condemnation of the military commissions set up to try detainees.
"He's here again, Mr. Minister."
"Tell him we don't care. Again."
"Yes, sir. Should I sneer?"
"No, no. That wouldn't be polite."
"Damn."
"I believe the supercilious look should do."
"But if my lip does lift...?"
"I'm sure it will be accidental, Higgins."
"Thank you, sir!" |
The British Government is appealing against a British High Court decision to grant Hicks British citizenship. The hearing is set for next Friday. Nine British citizens have been released from Guantanamo Bay at the request of the British Government. Hicks has tried to secure his release by seeking British citizenship; his mother was born there.
| Blair's government's appealing against the award of Brit citizenship. If they lose, they still have no obligation to ask that he be freed. And if he does, we have no obligation to comply. |
Major Mori said Hicks' treatment was extraordinary when compared with the case of an aide to Osama bin Laden, Abdallah Tabarak, who was released from Guantanamo Bay in August 2004. Tabarak is said to have sacrificed himself for capture by operating bin Laden's satellite phone as he headed towards Pakistan from the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, while the al-Qaeda leader fled in the opposite direction.
| Didn't Tabarak spill his guts? Has Taliban Dundee spilled his guts? |
It was revealed recently that a former Taliban spokesman, Rahmatullah Hashemi, who also spent time with bin Laden, has enrolled in a course on terrorism at Yale University in the US.
| That's an internal Afghan matter. If they choose to amnesty the guy, that's their right. It's their country, so they're free to screw it up as they please. And Yale's free to do stoopid things, too. |
Major Mori said that even after considering the allegations against Hicks, those being released were far more culpable. "They (the US) are not pursuing enemy combatants. Unless you were in the first group of 700 captured (and taken to Guantanamo), you are not even considered for (trial by military commission)," Major Mori said.
| Life's tough, ain't it? Maybe he should have been in Adelaide instead of Konduz. |
Hicks' case faces further delay while the US Supreme Court considers the legality of the military commissions created to try Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lawyers acting for one detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, will argue that the commissions are illegal. Hamdan, from Yemen, was allegedly bin Laden's bodyguard and driver during the period he plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks.
| I doubt if the Supreme Court will find them illegal. Even if they do, an anticipated verdict isn't the same thing as a verdict. |
Posted by: tipper 2006-03-11 |
