A Process of Dubious Fairness
The plea by Mr Hicks does nothing to allay the fears that a lot of people, including me, have about the lack of independence of this process. It’s a military process that is still effectively controlled by the Department of Defence, and people are going to be punished for criminal conduct in these circumstances where there’s a lack of independence, and where some of the basic and longstanding human rights, like habeas corpus and Geneva Conventions and various other things, have been deliberately removed. The Law Council of Australia’s independent observer at Guantanamo Bay, speaking on ABC Radio’s The World Today.
Articles
You are quite right. The so called crime was legislated for last year. Retrospective Legislation makes innocent people criminals. The sentencing is another head screw. Have alook at that process, the poor buggar could get life. So much for plea bargaining with people who dont keep their end of the deal.
The guilt or innocence of David Hicks is not the point. (Let’s assume he is a ratbag and did all the things in his charge sheet). The PROCESS is the point. The guilty plea of David Hicks cannot legitimise the illegitimate charges, Military Commission or the form and duration of his detention. The governments of both the United States and Australia cannot take any comfort or satisfaction from this guilty plea. Those governments have now escaped scrutiny by the higher courts of this process, charge and detention and by doing so should not be given credit, rather condemnation. Watch out the next time you travel overseas if anything goes wrong - because your government will not help you.
What bothers me as much as anything is that no-one has ever asked who it was that Hicks was supposed to be providing aid to and where are they?
We know for certain that one head of the Taliban is at Yale university so he sure isn’t the one. Another number are in the Afghan government so it can’t have been them.
So precisely who did Hicks give aid to?
I am in total agreement with Lex Lasry. I would like to add however a comment about the charge which David Hicks has been coerced into pleading guilty to. You would presumably be guilty of aiding terrorism under the current USA retrospective law if you cut Osama Ben Laden’s hair or helped him to cross the road.
Mr Lasry,
What do you mean “Dubious” fairness? Let’s be blunt - there is no chance of fairness AT ALL in David Hicks’ situation.
Having been held hostage over 5 years by America with John Howard’s blessing, running their ‘war’ on ‘terror’, how do you think any hostage is going to plead? Innocent? You’ve got to be joking.
Hicks was declared guilty by George Bush and John Howard when he was first sold to the Americans by mercenary, disgruntled Afgan militants. Who could stand a chance against Bush and Howard in their testosterone charged war-dance to prove how masculine and leader-like they are?
Old angry men with a war-like way of operating, like Bush and Howard, should not be allowed to run the world. It is their warped war-like view of the world that has resulted in David Hicks having to beg for his freedom by confessing to whatever charge they want him to, so he can live a few years of his life in freedom.
John Howard, you disgust me.
Lex Lasry is right.
I am unimpressed by all the theatricals of this show trial.
But … the situation is far worse than it seems. When captured, David Hicks was an intelligence treasure; what he could have told us was priceless …. but only IF he had been sent straight back to Australia for investigation by highly-skilled Australian professionals then dealt with in our own comprehensive, impartial legal system.
Given his recent, relevant experience, he could have been offered a very attractive position as an advisor to the ADF and the AFP.
IF certain Australian polticians and other enthusiasts …. all ignorant of geopolitics, military affairs, intelligence matters and ideology …. hadn’t been so foolish as to allow David Hicks to be held for years by an assortment of ratbags. fanatics and dilettantis.
Now, in intelligence terms, Hicks is worthless to us …. but he has been made unintentionally valuable to our sworn enemies.
Fools!!!
The David Hicks saga will always remain of the saddest in Australian history. We’ve lost a lot and gained very little. What an appalling episode it has been in our national history and conscience.
It all seems so pointless when we consider that the Afghan government now comprises of many of the murderous warlords of old including many former heads of the wretched Taliban.
The reality is that the Bakhtiyari children were treated in a more contemptible manner by our own government than anything David Hicks could have done.
Tear gassed, illegally detained, pushed into the razor wire, hosed with water cannons, slashed themselves, hanged themselves, went on hunger strikes, sewed up their lips. All on the orders and in the “care” of Philip Ruddock.
Five years and nine months, not much for someone held in conditions against the geneva convention abandonded by the Howard government, the worst of the worst! This whole situation has always been absurd , the American govt. and it’s conga line of allies , sadly including Australia operating and colluding thru graft , fear and torture , flying people across borders to escape liability for using ntorture methods.Then tellling us other people have not played fair and sticking them in conditions that would outrage them if thier own people ended up in such unfortunate circumstances .
David Hicks was a bloody idiot , really ,I think , but he is hardly Robinson Carooso there now ,is he?
The lack of independence in the Hicks “trial process” is about the only transparent item in the trashing of the west’s legal frmework. It is clear, now that the sentence has been handed down that it was a show trial. The sentence itself has been carefully crafted to suit our Governement’s political needs. I don’t think Hicks is a hero. That is not the point - he is an Australian who has been sacrificed on the altar of the Australian - US alliance. This is obscene and Howard, Ruddock and Downer should be held accountable
The situation wherein the Australian Government can refuse to uphold the rights of an Australian citizen and then allow him to be refused due process of law with representation, and conveniently keep him verbally shackled until after they hope they get back into power is nothing short of scandalous. Let’s see the end of Howard and his cronies who maintain the ‘Born to Rule’ philosophy.
Hopefully we’ll see Howard before the High Court of Australia for perverting the right of true justice and watch him squeal!