A crack appears in the rotten facade

This blog has supported justice for David Hicks for a long time. He was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for a long and inhuman time. Now comes this news:

Hicks' lawyer, David McLeod, has told The Age he is confident that sooner or later either the US Supreme Court or the American political process will find the military commission system that convicted Hicks either unlawful or unsustainable.

"If the Supreme Court gets rid of the commissions, his conviction will go with it, and so will the proceeds-of-crime constraints," Mr McLeod said. It is also possible Hicks would then be in a position to seek compensation.

Go here to read further about the politically trumped up case that even the Chief Prosecutor of the US Military Commissions admits to.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

David Hicks: politicians get brickbats

Let's be blunt here. There are politicians in this nation who bleat about citizenship and Australian values and who have done nothing to increase the value of either. In fact, they have failed the mateship test. They have failed to show a duty of care towards a citizen - namely David Hicks. Although he is not the first - just the worst - case.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
There is the Black Trinity of John Howard, Philip Ruddock, and Alexander Downer.

For years, they have refused to lift a finger to gain the release of David Hicks from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay used to circumvent the Geneva Convention. As the US Government conspired to avoid it human rights obligations, the Australian Government was complicit and these three men were the Australian activists who conspired to ensure the detention of David in this illicit hell hole.

Citizenship, mateship, Australian values. Forget it! These three devalue everything that Australians hold dear.

The duty of care towards a citizen. Forget it. Corruption at AWB gets more support and priority.

Mateship. Forget it. Just because Hicks is Australian did not make him a mate. He was evil - according to the demonisation antics of the Black Trinity. Australia had no law under which he could be convicted and imprisoned. So the Black Trinity took the most convenient option. Revenge, US style. Convict him in the United States. They have a law and, if it doesn't fit, they will make it fit to order.

Australian values. Forget it. Foreign governments - particularly and in particular the United States of America - can do anything they like with impunity to Australian citizens. Britain, however, values their protection of citizens more highly than this Australian government. Tony Blair got every last one of his people released from Guantanamo years ago.

THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

Ministers from Mike Rann down continue the demonisation begun by the Black Trinity. Wonderful how Labor and Liberal coalesce and merge into one another sometimes, isn't it?
Caught Kevin Foley briefly on the telly last night saying "he's not a celebrity, he's not a hero." Duh, Kevin!

No, David Hicks is not a celebrity. He is not a hero. He is more than that. He is one of us.

He has been misguided and foolish - as are all of us at some time in our lives, to a greater or lesser degree. But David Hicks is one of us who has been treated abominably. He is one of us who has been a victim of revenge from two governments - from the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave; and from his homeland, Australia, the land of mateship, the fair go and being fair dinkum.

Are South Australian politicians so used to law and order debates and upping the ante on who is the toughest on criminals, that they just automatically mouth off?

Have they never heard of mercy and compassion?

We know the Black Trinity does not understand mercy and compassion. Corruption and privilege and special pleading for people of privilege is what is understood best.

So Rann and Co - who like to appear non-partisan, who appoint a churchman to the halls of government - look no better. No mercy for Hicks. No compassion for Hicks. Demonise Hicks. Belittle Hicks. Kick Hicks while he is down. Feet of clay, Mike and Kevin, feet of clay!

Homecoming for David Hicks

David Hicks is home - where he belongs.

Please continue to pray for his welfare.

Thanks be to God. David Hicks is home in Australia. The list of people to thank is endless. But David's greatest support has been his father, Terry. Terry Hicks has acquitted himself well. He was on a steep learning curve as he faced the media, lobbied politicians, learned to use film to promote David's cause. No parent could have done more in such circumstances than Terry Hicks.

Terry Hicks - 3 February 2007

Then there are the lawyers. They twisted. They turned. They persevered to gain every inch. Australian lawyers supporting David Hicks grew in number. Vital support. But the one who spoke to the hearts of Australians was Major Mori. An unknown in his own country he has become a well-known figure in Australia. Major Mori was exemplary. And he loves cricket which helped the case to take yet another direction in attempts to free David from Guantanomo Bay. Michael Mori now has his own row to hoe. At this time, it does not appear that Michael's strenuous efforts on behalf of his client have helped his career.

So many people assisted in the battle for David Hicks, Australian Citizen. People took to the streets, prayed in churches and a cathedral, lobbied, kept vigil, wore orange.

And one website kept faith and kept us going - Fair Go for David.

The Tao of John (for David Hicks)

In order to be strong

Make somebody weak.

To be at the centre of the crowd,

Make somebody as lonely outcast.

To gain extraordinary privilege,

Deny somebody their rights.

Sacrifice a man in the outer world.

Keep a man alone and tormented in a cage.

He will mirror the inner man you have sacrificed.

Thus pain will balance pain and end all feeling.

As you have controlled yourselfSo you shall control the world.

Leunig - The Age, December 9, 2006

David Hicks coming to Yatala Labour Prison

Short Shadow has left a comment on Miss Eagle's previous post about David Hick's homecoming. Miss E doesn't want such a worthwhile comment left unnoticed so is posting it here:

Unfortunately Premier Rann seems bent on squeezing as many populist brownie points as he can out of the last few months of Hicks' incarceration by insisting that he's kept in conditions which resemble Guantanamo as closely as possible. In SA prisoners approaching the end of their sentences are allowed to access various pre-release programs etc to prepare them for their eventual release. Rann has not only ruled this out in Hicks' case but he's also banging on about how after his release he'll still be a major threat to the community, and demanding that his liberty be restricted further by control orders and the like once he is set free. Given that the US Military Commission imposed a much lighter sentence than all the Rumsfeldian hyperbole (Hicks "the worst of the worst"?) seemed to suggest some people, hearing Mr Rann's drum banging, might smell a rodent and conclude that the Premier is trying to create a smokescreen over the perception that his government's dealing with crime, and perhaps corruption, is sub-optimal.

David Hicks: Home soon - very soon it seems

G Division, Yatala Labour Prison, South Australia

David Hicks who will be incarcerated there.

The arrival home of David Hicks to Yatala Prison is drawing closer in what might even be called an expeditious manner. Pray for his welfare.

Fair Go for David

Hicks, hair, and light

An artist depicts David Hicks' appearance in the US military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today.Photo: AP

Published in The Age, Melbourne.

David Hicks has grown his hair to chest length in an attempt to try to avoid the never-ending light in his cell.

The charges - or lack of them - against Hicks are noteworthy:

The charge sheet does not allege Hicks fired on US troops or attacked a US target, but says he conducted surveillance on the abandoned US embassy in Kabul and met Osama bin Laden as well as accused "shoe bomber'' Richard Reid.
Previous charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy have been dropped, with defence lawyers saying the move shows US authorities have a weak case.

The prosecutor in this jumped-up, stuffed-up, kangaroo court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay has used the argument that Terry Hicks told David Hicks that taking up arms was wrong.

So this is to prove the guilt of David?

In that case what are we waiting for? Let's arrest Bush, Cheney, Rumsefield, Blair, Howard & Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. After all hundreds of thousands - at least - of their citizens have told them that they are wrong in what they are doing and how they are doing it. What is the measure of their guilt? Are their circadian rhythms interrupted? Do they sleep well at night?

They have proved themselves gun-totin' cowboys with no idea of nation building. Afghanistan is still a mess. Freedom loving democracy is not a reality there. It is not a reality in Iraq.

The US cannot build a decent democracy itself. The most powerful political figure in the world does not have and cannot prove that he has the majority of support of the citizens of his nation. Because it's a good day if more than half of the US population turn out to vote. The US cannot help its own. Hurricane Katrina proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt. And in the case of New Orleans many, so many of us, believe that the US will not help its own if they are black.

Nation building? The Government of the USA should try it some time.

Sign of the times

Photo: Craig Abraham/The Age

"JUSTICE FOR DAVID HICKS"

has become a cause for Melbourne's Anglicans. Not only is the demand made in an eight-metre banner hanging from St Paul's Cathedral, but new Archbishop Philip Freier has written to Prime Minister John Howard on Hicks' behalf.

John Howard's Comedy: no sense of timing

One thing a comic needs is a good sense of timing.

Here a list of examples are given of a good sense of timing.

Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail

� The African/European Swallow debate at the beginning is a great use of pauses.

Dennis Miller

� He bulls through the punchlines quickly and effectively.

Noises Off

� The entire play/movie (especially the middle section; excellent physical use of timing!)
Back to the Future

� Michael J. Fox uses timing brilliantly by pausing before his line to create wonderful facial expressions, conveying a wealth of emotion.

The comedy of life isn't really much different. Great statesmen give every appearance of a good sense of timing. Churchill and the war against the Nazis; Robert Menzies and post-war prosperity.

Shakespeare said it all in Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Until 1996, John Howard seemed to have misjudged the tide. Ten years as Prime Minister of Australia has given every appearance that Howard has judged the tide very well. Now, in 2007, John Howard's judgment of tides has ebbed indeed.

Climate change denial by Howard has seen him overtaken by the electorate and he is now in catch up mode. He is under constant pressure from an increasingly vocal electorate to bring David Hicks home to Australia from Guantanamo Bay. Now, Tony Blair has overtaken him in his surprise announcement to bring British troops home from Iraq.

POOR SENSE OF TIMING, JOHN.

Will David Hicks ever come home?

John Quiggen raises the question that even if David Hicks is tried and found to be not guilty that he would not necessarily be released from Guantanamo Bay. Quiggen quotes documents here, here, and here.

The United States of America throws justice out the window and expects the world to take it seriously as an exponent of democracy and freedom. They are not even up to caped crusader standard.

Bring David Home - 3

Last night, Miss Eagle joined more than 300 other Melburnians at a Civil Rights Defence dinner at the Coburg City Hall.

Terry Hicks, father of David Hicks, was the guest of honour and guest speaker.

As can be seen below, Terry was honoured.

Terry has won the admiration of many Australians for his tenacity and courage in battling for his son against not only the powerful USA but his own government. He has done this with modesty and integrity.

You make parents proud, Terry!

Join the campaign to bring David Home by emailing bringdavidhome@theage.com.au

From memory, there were three standing ovations for Terry including one before he spoke!

The crowd honours Terry with a standing ovation.

Three speakers: well known civil libertarian Brian Walters SC

Les Thomas, brother of Jack Thomas

Omar Merhi, brother of Abdulla Merhi, one of the Barwon 13

As Miss Eagle listened to the speakers, she could not help but think - as a mother of sons - there but for the grace of God go many of us.

These families are ordinary working families. The are not wealthy nor do they dwell in the halls of power and influence. They have been caught up in the defence of their children and siblings and their love and determination is something to behold.

The representatives of the Hicks, Thomas and Merhi families were saw speaking last night are fine examples not only of values Australians hold dear but of the greater family of humanity.

MAY JUSTICE REIGN

AND

MAY THESE SONS BE RESTORED TO THEIR FAMILIES

Jack Thomas with baby son Gabriel conversing with Terry Hicks.

Jack and Terry were very gracious allowing a photograph for The Eagle's Nest

An intransigent Australian Government continues to fail to lobby for the release of David Hicks who is continually subject to harsh, inhumane and unjust treatment by the government of the United States of America at Guantanamo Bay.

This shirt says it all!

Free David Hicks and bring him home

"America would not tolerate this for one of its citizens,"

says [DavidHicks' military lawyer, Major Michael] Mori.

"Nor would it tolerate any politicians sacrificing some American citizen to the whim of a foreign country, regardless of whether they are our ally or not. It just doesn't happen."

Read more here

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David Hicks has broken no Australian law, albeit that one school of thought is that it would be possible for David to face some kind of charges. Australia has not stood by its own. Miss Eagle believes that Howard, Ruddock et al clearly display vengefulness mixed with a dog in a manger attitude.

Australia can't convict Hicks so he will be left somewhere where he can be convicted. Justice, mateship, Australian values. None of this is wasted on David Hicks as the Australian Government seeks to reek vengeance upon him. A fair go? Not for David Hicks.

David has obtained British citizenship and the United Kingdom has not, apparently, lifted a finger to get him out of Guantanamo Bay as it has for all other British citizens.

************************

In Melbourne,

The Sunday Age is becoming involved in the campaign to bring David home.

The Sunday Age is inviting readers to register their support to bring David Hicks home, and it will pass it on to the Federal Government.
Send your messages to bringdavidhome@theage.com.au

Enough is enough!

One week from to-day there will be a National Day of Action in support of David Hicks.

An increasing number of Australians are outspoken in their demands to bring David home from Guantanamo Bay.

Enough is enough!

International Day of Action for David Hicks - Melbourne
2pm Saturday 9 December
Federation Square, Melbourne

(with simultaneous events in Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide, as well as in the UK)
Speakers include:

Major Michael Mori, David Hicks' US lawyer

Les Thomas, CRD member and brother of Jack Thomas

Nicole Bieske, Amnesty International Australia

Lex Lasry, QC

Nicola Roxon, Shadow Attorney General

Brian Walters, Liberty Victoria

Michelle O'Neil, Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union
Rob Stary, civil libertarian and lawyer
David Hicks : Five years in hell : Close Guantanamo! Bring David Home!
Organised by Amnesty International, Liberty Victoria and Civil Rights Defence

For more information, call 0407 856 628

For more about David Hicks:

Fair Go for David

Amnesty International: Send a letter to the PM: Bring David Hicks home

Amnesty International : Campaign focus: Guantánamo Bay and David Hicks
Get Up!

David Hicks details abuse in Guantanamo Bay

David Hicks: affidavit on abuse and mistreatment
The 'Australian Taleban'

Let's Bring David Hicks Home by Danna Vale

David Hicks: Five Years in Guantanamo

Plea from churches for Hicks :

Catholic Cardinal George Pell & Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen

How long is a piece of string?

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, David Hicks, & Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell

How long is a piece of string? How long is imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay? How long until David Hicks is tried before a just and fair tribunal? How long until David Hicks comes home to Australia?

Whatever David Hicks has or has not done, the Australian community is tired of the attitude of the US and Australian governments on this matter.

The latest people to speak out on the matter are the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney - arguably Australia's most senior churchmen. Miss Eagle agrees with Nicola Roxon of the ALP and Bob Brown of the Greens:

Opposition shadow attorney-general Nicola Roxon and Greens leader Bob Brown said the Government's handling of Hicks amounted to the complete abandonment of an Australian citizen.

Geneva 1 - Bush 0 in the latest ball game

Justice and plain old fashioned common sense is alive and well in The Supreme Court of the United States of America. Read the decision in Hamdan v Rumsfeld here. But justice and plain old fashioned common sense is frequently conspicuous by its absence in the Bush Administration. That's inhabited by the nutters who thought up the term "illegal enemy combatant", decided to abrogate the Geneva Conventions in relation to the treatment of prisoners of war, and didn't stop to think of the Christian tradition of The Golden Rule and that the GCs cut both ways - you do this to others and someone else will do it to your own.

What's Miss Eagle rabbiting on about?

The fact that the US Supreme Court has ruled

the military commissions illegal

and that the Geneva Conventions have to prevail.

Australians have been guilty of a sin of omission. We have never forced the Australian Government to discuss its attitude to the Geneva Conventions. The Howard Government has stood shoulder to shoulder with the US on the military commissions. Where have we forced either John Howard or the ghostly Phillip Ruddock to defend the Geneva Conventions? Where has the RSL been in defending the Geneva Conventions? Where has the Australian community or the RSL or the defence community demanded that the Australian Government declare and debate its hand on the Geneva Conventions and the fiction of illegal enemy combatants? Why is the Australian Government alone in the Western world in its support of the now illegal military commissions? For clarification of the issues, go here.

Have we shut up because:

1. The US is the most powerful military power in the world
2. The US pulls Australian strings
3. This has occurred when we are fighting people whom we see as "The Other"
4. This has occurred because the context of the abrogration of the Geneva Conventions and the institution of the fiction of "illegal enemy combatants" touches the racism inherent in Australian society

Australians need to reflect that before the League of Nations, before the United Nations, there were the Geneva Conventions.

Australians need to recall what happened in World War II in regard to those nations who were not signatories to the Geneva Conventions. Japan was not a signatory and imprisoned Allied Forces - among them significant numbers of Australians. Look at how Australians were treated by someone who cocked a snoot at the Geneva Conventions.

Germany was a signatory to the Geneva Conventions as were the Allied Forces. German prisoner of war camps were not highly desirable places but a modicum of humanity prevailed. Russia, though, was an example of a non-signatory whose forces were treated abysmally by the Germans because there was no accountability under the Conventions.

This "do unto others" at the basis of the Geneva Conventions has been raised in Senate committee hearings in the US.

It is time for Australians - the RSL, the defence community, the broad community - to demand from their government solid backing for the Geneva Conventions and its application and hem Howard and his cohorts in until they confess that the term "illegal enemy alien" is a fabricated fiction.

~~~

It is not known what the implications are for David Hicks and Miss Eagle waits - but is not hopeful - for Australian and British Governments to provide a response in his matter based on the US Supreme Court decision.

The horror against humanity that is Guantanamo Bay is unaffected by this decision.

David Hicks: citizenship and freedom

The stage is set for Australian David Hicks to become a British citizen. Hicks has been left by the Howard Government and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to moulder in Guantanomo Bay. Currently he is being punished in solitary confinement by the vengeful United States Government.

Press Tony Blair - particularly while he is under political pressure on many fronts - to expedite the citizenship of David Hicks and, as a consequence, work to set him free as, previously, other British citizens have been. Contact details are here.

Guantanamo Bay to be sold....

Over at the National Nitwit, Subcomandante Bob has let us in on the news that the US government is about to sell Guantanamo Bay to Disney. Go read all about it.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Guantanamo Bay

Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury,

has spoken out against Guantanamo Bay

and the breaches of human rights that are occuring there.

Phillip Aspinall, Anglican Primate of Australia and Archbishop of Brisbane

has spoken out to-day.

Who will listen in the USA? Who will listen in Australia?

Australia has one of its own, David Hicks, incarcerated there:

left to rot by Howard, Downer, Ruddock and co.

Very moral people these people -

at least it is my guess that this is how they think of themselves.

Can't believe that they would try to match it with the Archbishops though.

But if they do reflect on the their actions,

on the morality of their actions

and the spiritual counsel they might seek

in regard to their power over the life of David Hicks

and the delegation of that power to a foreign power

what does their conscience tell them?

Valuing our birthright

Peter Costello is to-day sounding off about Australian values and citizenship. There is much in what he says - but it has a singular point of reference: those who do not accept the secular rule of law in a pluralist democratic society. Costello says, amongst other things:

No one is going to respect a citizenship that is so undemanding that it
asks nothing. In fact our citizenship is quite a demanding obligation.

I think this is the heart of the matter: that by and large there has been little or no respect in Australia for citizenship - and I am not singling out terrorists or any ethnic group. I just do not believe we truly value what we hold. Look at the track record: the number of people who live here as permanent residents, who could take out Australian citizenship, who reap the benefits of living here and expect to cherry-pick what they want from our society - but they don't take out citizenship. How many British and New Zealand citizens are in this group? Look too at the teaching of civics in our schools. Look at the erosion of so many things that we have taken for granted:

1. The attempts by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Nick Minchin, to take away compulsory voting. Does he really want Australia to be like the USA where the President almost never receives the votes of the majority of Americans?
2. Attempts - and in some areas of the law this has already occurred - to do away with trial by a jury of twelve with unanimous verdicts to supplant it with hearings by a judge or a jury of fewer people or majority verdicts.
3. The rights of all citizens to access the law - when access to the law has become more a right of the rich.
4. The right to have government assistance when abroad. Things may have improved in this regard but it is still a hit and miss afair and if you fall foul of the politics of the Australian government as David Hicks has done, forget it. Blair and the Brits can extricate their citizens from the madness of Guantanamo Bay, the US takes umbrage if any of their citizens are threatened, and yet we leave a young citizen to rot with none of the legal rights that Australians take for granted - and certainly no access to rights under the Geneva Convention.

We Australians also need to recognise our historic exclusion of people - Aborigines from civil rights until 1967, selectivity in immigration under the White Australia Policy, and continuing selectivity by herding some immigrants into concentration camps known as immigration detention centres. We are happy to control and/or manipulate access of some to Australian law.

Our right to free speech and the democratic hallmark of transparent governemnt is limited when major social organisations in Australia are forced, if they want to receive any government funding, into silence as a condition of funding and when governments can indulge themselves in secret dealings of dubious nature and claim commercial-in-confidence dealings.

Lastly, we won't look to closely at flawed business and educational immigration programs where we have been only to happy to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage allowing criminal elements to infiltrate and unqualified people to conjure up Mickey Mouse courses while our own students are increasingly priced and placed out of university places.

Citizenship. I'm in favour of it. I am a sixth, possibly seventh, generation Australian. I am proud of the place. I just wish I saw governments, both state and federal, value it as much as I do.