Hicks has Landed - National Human Rights

A far more accurate lead-in would read: ‘Guantanamo torture victim delivered into the hands of local regulators’ or ‘illegally detained torture victim arrives in SA’ or ‘torture victim denied his rights arrives home to face local regulators’; perhaps even, ‘ill-educated and foolhardy Australian adventurer learns bitter lessons of government neglect’ or maybe, ‘Aussie political pawn abused by U.S. and Australian governments returns home’! LET THE READER BE THE JUDGE and cease the BIASED reporting please, it simply doesn’t ‘cut it’!

The ‘elephant in the kitchen’ that everyone is at pains to avoid is the coerced confession, legal liability for criminal abuse, illegal deprivation of liberty, human rights abuses, criminal compensation, and the indictment of the administrations and their political lackeys for war crimes and other crimes against humanity – the truth is already in the public domain and history will no doubt record further injustices suffered by Hicks.

Numerous efforts to neutralise the heroic aspects of the Hicks case prior to Hicks' transfer to (servile) Australian regulators indicate the acute sensitivity and guilt of the Australian and U.S. authorities in relation to David Hicks.

Press releases stating that Hicks was a harmless adventurer with a less than average IQ; that Hicks confessed to everything for the price of a hamburger, to the absurd claim made by an extraordinarily ‘intelligent’ American military prosecutor, that Hicks is a ‘lucky’ man, “lucky”! Now there’s an interesting term in the circumstances, only the American military could have made such a moronic remark!

We do not regret to inform the Howard and Bush (criminal) governments that the Hicks case is far from over, advice from various local and international legal advocates would indicate that it has barely begun. The Australian people will no doubt take the entire experience of Howard’s neglect and cynical exploitation of David Hicks to the ballot box in the forthcoming elections – and perhaps to the international criminal court. The world is in no confusion regarding the identity of the REAL criminals in this matter!

As for David Hicks welcome home, mate!

FUTURE generations will look back in shame on the Australian government's treatment of David Hicks, Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja says.

The confessed terrorism supporter was flown to Australia today after being detained for five years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

He will serve the remaining seven months of a nine months sentence for providing material support for terrorism, at the high security Yatala prison in Adelaide.

Senator Stott Despoja, the Democrats' legal affairs spokeswoman, said today the government should not be let "off the hook" despite Hicks' return.

Prime Minister John Howard only acted to bring Hicks home after a high profile public campaign in an election year, she said.

"For more than five years, the Australian government chose not to repatriate one of our citizens, preferring to be a cheer leader for the flawed - and, for a time, illegal - military commission process," Senator Stott Despoja said.

"It was only the strong surge in public support for David Hicks in an election year, after being detained at Guantanamo Bay for five years, largely without trial, and the determination of a small but committed group of lawyers, legislators and activists such as Get Up, that led to a change in the government's stance.

"The government should not be let off the hook over its appalling neglect of David Hicks," Senator Stott Despoja said.

"David Hicks may be out of sight at Yatala but the issue of the abuse of international humanitarian Law, the rule of law and human rights are not out of mind."

© Herald and Weekly Times

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