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| Down Under |
| Hicksville - place with a secret |
| 2007-03-01 |
| SUPPORTERS of self-confessed Taliban warrior David (aka Abu Muslim Australia, aka Abu Muslim Astrailii, aka Abu Muslim Philippine, aka Muhammad Dawood) Hicks are either brainwashed or brainless. Their threadbare arguments to "Free Hicks" would indicate they have suspended any ability they may have once possessed to think logically. Blind emotion is clearly driving some, like millionaire Dick Smith, to contribute to this loser's cause when there are so many more better-defined causes in need of assistance. It is abundantly obvious Hicks' defence team hopes to win a victory in the court of public sentiment, probably because they fear the strength of the case against their client. If they believed they had a water-tight defence they could have relied on the injunction offered in John 8:31-32 – "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." But they haven't. They have sought to dissemble, to obfuscate, to play to anti-US and anti-Howard forces, anything to keep their client from having his day in court. They have signalled they intend to launch further appeals, in addition to the one launched in Sydney this week, which will again delay any trial. Another diversion was announced yesterday in the US, where two other notorious Guantanomo prisoners, Hamdan and Khadr, filed petitions with the US Supreme Court seeking review of the habeas corpus removal provision in the Military Commissions Act in a third bid by the accused to try to use US federal courts to stop their trials. So much for their claims that they look forward to their day in court where they can confront the witnesses and the evidence against them. As the US chief prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis says: "If they really want their day in court, and if they believe the process is unfair, then why not go to trial and develop a record so everyone can see whether it is a fair or unfair process rather than just speculate on how it might work?" With much of the Australian media barracking for Hicks, many people have forgotten it was his father, Terry, who told the media that, in a conversation with his son shortly after 9/11, David said the Americans "are the enemy" and he was going to go to the fight. Terry Hicks said: "I told him what I thought of what he was doing," but "I can't tell him what to do – he's 26 years old and his own man." Terry Hicks concluded: "He's a terrorist in our eyes as he's fighting against his own." Colonel Davis says it "was interesting to hear Terry Hicks during the taping of (SBS program) Insight last week say David was just going back to Afghanistan to get his passport when in 2001 he described his efforts to talk David out of taking up arms against the US and the coalition." Then there was the front page story in The Sydney Morning Herald which said Hicks was chained in his cell for 22 hours a day. Sheer nonsense. Just like the charge that US prosecutors timed the swearing of charges to coincide with their departure from Guantanamo, when they were told a week prior in Colonel Davis' office when they were expected to be laid; or the claim that Labor would bring Hicks home for trial – what, under retrospective laws? Get real. Or the hysteria about military commissions, a long accepted means of trying those who commit offences against the laws of war which operated, for example, at the conclusion of WWII military commissions throughout Europe and the Far East. There is no requirement that those who commit war crimes must be tried in civilian courts. Hicks' lawyer Major Michael Mori may be the darling of the latte-lappers but his claim the new rules permit Hicks to be subjected to the death penalty was absolute hokum. It went unchallenged. NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus said last November: "I think it is fair to say that we are all shaken by the information that Major Mori has given us." But he hadn't even heard the charges. As Colonel Davis said: "You would think someone with the legal training required to be an attorney-general would be somewhat hesitant to form a fixed and definite opinion based solely upon the representations of an advocate for a party in interest. "You would think he would at least be interested in hearing the other side of the story before making up his mind on an issue in which he has no first-hand knowledge." Nope. True believers don't need facts. It's all in the vibe. Hicks hasn't been demonised, as Major Mori claims Treasurer Peter Costello has attempted to do. Hicks' admissions of his desire to kill Jews and Christians and destroy those who follow Western culture is all of his own making. He was a member of a group sworn to reject everything the West stands for – the equality of women, democracy, freedom to practise any religion. He certainly didn't need anyone else demonising him. Now, he and his team in their attempts to evade trial are behaving like the six Pakistani defendants and their lawyers in one of Sydney's more appalling gang rape cases of which author Paul Sheehan wrote in his best-selling book Girls Like You – deny, exclude, confuse, accuse. Hicks' supporters should listen again to what Terry Hicks said after speaking to his son the terrorist and believe both Hicks were telling the truth. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 ...Major Michael Mori... If my last name were Mori, I would not be able to resist the temptation to name my child Memento. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2007-03-01 10:47 |
| #1 It's all moot now. Hick's attorney announced yesterday that Hicks had renounced his Islamic faith. I doubt that his former Muslim brethren at Guantanamo will let him live long enough to stand trial. |
| Posted by: GK 2007-03-01 08:16 |