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Home Front: WoT
Hicks drops Islamic faith
2007-02-28
DAVID Hicks has renounced Islam, his American military lawyer confirmed yesterday. Major Michael Mori declined to say why Hicks was no longer a Muslim, saying it was a personal issue for the suspected terrorist.
What is he this week? A Jew or a Hindoo?
Hicks adopted the name Dawood when he converted to Islam in Adelaide in the late 1990s.
Maybe he's adopted Shinto and changed his name to Chirigami...
Tell everyone he's a Bi'hai and drop him into Teheran ...
He was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and has spent five years in the high-security US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A former Guantanamo inmate has claimed Hicks was denounced by Muslim prisoners for his change of faith.
"Arrrrr! He must be killed!"
Major Mori, who spoke to 300 delegates at a human rights conference in Melbourne yesterday, later condemned Australia's law officers.
"Liars and thieves, the lot of 'em!"
He described as "strange and foreign" comments by Solicitor-General David Bennett, QC, in the Federal Court that a general obligation for the Federal Government to protect citizens abroad "is simply something that the law has never recognised".
Consulates are for bringing citizens cigarettes in jug when said citizen happens to get his/her scrotum/bosom in a wringer. They're not for springing people who're actually guilty of crimes in other countries, believe it or not. Nor are they for the purpose of retrieving citizens who've been caught fighting for the other side on the field of battle.
"It's frustrating for me to see an Australian being abandoned and being pushed towards a cliff for this system that is not acceptable for Americans," he said.
It's frustrating for us to see him still using up oxygen.
Major Mori said Hicks might have to wait another three years to face trial if there were a Supreme Court challenge to the legitimacy of the military commission. Major Mori will speak to Victorian MPs today.
Posted by:Fred

#15  disturbing. Mori looks to be running for Senator or Cargo God or such...
Posted by: Frank G   2007-02-28 21:28  

#14  exJAG, things must have changed drastically since you left the military. Mori is the darling of the Socialists in Australia.

Mori, who received a sustained standing ovation, gave a power-point presentation detailing the violations of Hicks’s basic democratic rights and the illegal nature of the US military tribunals. He pointed out that while Hicks was incarcerated in Guantánamo, the Bush administration had released and repatriated over 200 prisoners, including Afghan Taliban members. Mori said Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, was, in fact, now studying at Yale on a US student visa.

Hicks’s detention, he said, was continuing because the Australian citizen “had not violated any international law, but because the US had to invent charges and then create an unfair system that would rubber stamp the charges without question”.

“Every time the Australian government says ‘we cannot charge Hicks’,” he continued, “they are admitting that David has not violated any law. But instead of demanding his immediate return, they use this as a reason to abandon him.”

Mori punctured ongoing government assertions that his client was an Islamic terrorist and accused the Australian government of “blindly following” the US Defense Department and “deliberately rejecting overwhelming evidence that the military tribunal system was illegal”. He warned that the new system being prepared in Washington to try Guantánamo prisoners would not be any fairer and would not even begin hearings for at least another 12 months.

Isolated and deeply concerned by the popular response to Mori’s tour, senior government ministers, who have collaborated with Washington in denying the physical and psychological torture and other crimes being committed in Guantánamo, categorically refused to meet him.
Posted by: tipper   2007-02-28 21:07  

#13  Time to let David loose into general population in the yard maybe?

Agreed. But let's not forget to have a big announcement made over the Gitmo PA system announcing his apostasy. Say maybe five times each day. Just before the "call to prayer". Each day. For about the next 30 days. That should do it.
Posted by: Mark Z   2007-02-28 15:00  

#12  Simple, DepotGuy.....now all his fellow traveler/useful idiot allies can say that he needs to get out of there. I mean, he'll get killed, right? And it will all be the Americans fault if he gets hurt, too, since those savages don't know any better detainees are just following their religion.

That Mori's a devious little bastard, I'll give him that....
Posted by: Swamp Blondie   2007-02-28 13:26  

#11  heh, heh. Saves the government the trouble of actually having to convict him of a death sentence. He sentenced himself.
Posted by: Snuque Crereck6058   2007-02-28 11:18  

#10  Â“A former Guantanamo inmate has claimed Hicks was denounced by Muslim prisoners for his change of faith.”

Why make the announcement at human rights conference? Well…no one should be surprised when next weeks angle will be that it’s too dangerous for him to be incarcerated with a population that now wants to kill him for his “conversion”.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2007-02-28 10:15  

#9  tu3031: You read my mind... witch!!
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-02-28 10:14  

#8  SteveS, the JAG Corps bears no resemblance to the civilian profession. We're trained to be military officers first, and to never forget that we're all on the same team. We all have to serve time as both prosecutors and defense attorneys; we don't get to pick our jobs, or stay in the same one for more than a few years.

It's true that after a while, some attorneys develop a preference for one or the other, and try to get assignments according to their personal inclinations. But even "defense-minded" JAG officers never forget that their duties are constrained by their allegiance to the United States, and do not run amok violating DoD publicity directives.

Mori's conduct is totally unhinged, totally without honor, and totally beyond anything I ever observed on AD -- not to mention illegal. I agree that brain damage must be a factor here, but kindly do not generalize to the entire profession, particularly those in uniform.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-02-28 10:04  

#7  Time to let David loose into general population in the yard maybe?
Posted by: tu3031   2007-02-28 09:32  

#6  I could see a privately paid civilian defense attorney spewing this meme

I'm not in the legal profession, but based on decades of astonishment at the public frothings of high profile defense lawyers, I can only conclude some form of brain damage is part of the job description. Amazing that any of them still have their lips attached.
Posted by: SteveS   2007-02-28 09:31  

#5  Maybe he got sum TAXPAYER funded therapy.
Posted by: ARMYGUY   2007-02-28 08:39  

#4  He's joined that new religion based on the Shiffer Islands. Everyone there is know as "Shiffer Brains".
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2007-02-28 08:02  

#3  This is the first I'd heard of this Mori douchebag. Watada with a law degree -- and a Marine, no less. Looks to me like he's pitching for a SOCO investigation, a referral to his state bar disciplinary committee, and/or a court-martial.

Christ, I once had an SJA threaten me with an ethics investigation because he (erroneously) thought I was allowing an imprisoned client to address me by first name. That's it. So I can't believe no one has told Mori to stuff a sock in it or reassigned him to a nice quiet admin job in some forgotten outpost. That's the least he deserves.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-02-28 07:41  

#2  Exjag, I agree. I know bugger all about the US military justice system, but Mori has been way out there in his statements for a long time. Looks to me like he is pitching for some plum civilian job.
Posted by: phil_b   2007-02-28 04:38  

#1  "A system that is not acceptable to Americans?" I could see a privately paid civilian defense attorney spewing this meme. But I'm absolutely blown away that detailed defense counsel, an active duty Army JAG officer, would go abroad and publicly agitate this way.

TDS (Trial Defense Service) lawyers may be required to "zealously represent" the interests of their clients, but that duty ends at the courthouse door. It doesn't negate their obligations as military officers, like that of refraining from seditious public statements or giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Mori "spoke to 300 delegates at a human rights conference in Melbourne yesterday? Will speak to Victorian MPs today"?!?! The PAO must be having kittens. I'd be very interested to know (a) if he's making these appearances in uniform, (b) if he sought approval from his superiors, and (c) if US taxpayers are footing the bill for the trip. Even if the answer to all three is no, this is outrageous.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-02-28 04:28  

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