David hicks.

[jules]

We have solders over seas risking their lives to give Australia and our children a better life free of this terrorist rubbish going on over seas.

i'm interested in whether you can understand people's concern with the process around Hicks' trial. basically the yanks are just making the rules as they go. this is what concerns people you refer to as "hicks supporters" or "terrorist supporters".

some people (i would suggest you give some indication of this) believe western democratic govt. is an immoveable object, will always be there to protect them.

others (i.e. me) believe it is their duty and right to ensure the govt. stays within its boundaries and does not get any smart ideas about eroding democratic rights.

it's a reasonable argument to make that the US or australian govts. are not about to turn into dictatorships, but is it a good thing when they even take one step closer to it? i would suggest it isn't, and that they have.

the Hicks debacle is a clear example of the US taking a soft target (australian citizen) and making an example of him, bending all the rules (their own supreme court has blown the whistle on them on multiple occasions) and scapegoating him because he's an aussie (rather than one of their own).

Hicks deserves punishment. he's no hero of mine and if you believe i have some admiration or liking for him then i suspect you don't fully understand what worries people like me about his case. John Howard certainly does, and that's why he has recently started to express his anger at the case. he knows his original line (let him rot) isn't impressing most australians any more.

 

[minux]

I think what most people are missing here is his case was a little different, the american military tried to charge him over and over again only to have people appeal over and over again. if anything blame the do gooders trying to get him better charges.

 

[jules]

that's not true. there was no special treatment for Hicks. the US supreme court kept rejecting the US military's closed tribunals as unconstitutional. the delay was caused by the time taken for the military to come up with a process that was acceptable to the courts over there.

note no one gave two sh**s what australia thought.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

It wasn't Australia that was holding him. He just happened to be an Australian citizen, which he tried to change too. If he did what he did then he has no right to call himself Australian only to fall back on that once he got caught. I wonder what he would be doing now if he didn't get caught? Would he be trying to come 'home' to Australia? I doubt it.

 

[jules]

here's the thing - australia was and is supposed to be a partner with the US in afghanistan and the WoTerror.

Hicks is an australian citizen, regardless of his crimes. he certainly isn't American.

it would have made perfect sense to hand him over to Australia. not so we could let him off, but to try him for terrorism offences.

why should the yanks be the only ones who can capture, jail and punish people? it would be one thing if we were too hopeless to do the job and just handed him over, but that's not what happened. they just took him and never gave us a say in the matter.

they're all buddy-buddy with us when they're after our help, but we don't get a say in how to run stuff. if you're so puffed up about our troops and our great nation, doesn't that concern you? it concerns me.

 

[DANS_S4]

If they are going to send him to prison, all I ask is that he gets put in a small cell with one bed and his room mate is 400lbs and called 'Bubba' with a liking for skinny men

 

[DANS_S4]

why should the yanks be the only ones who can capture, jail and punish people?

At least here you deal with that part of things properly. The PC brigade in the UK (in particular that half wit married to the prime minister) seem to think terrorists have 'rights' to be out in the community and do their utmost to get them off, despite hard evidence to prove their guilt.

This is one guy (I think he's guilty as charged by the way) and he is still making massive headlines 5 years after being caught. There have been dozens in the UK, some of whome are now walking free.

Makes me sick that these people call themselves human. They are nothing more than dirt

 

[shumway]

once a terrorist always a terrorist,we should lock his supporters up with him,nothing but c4 wearing family wreckers,in australia we should have the right to shoot terrorists in the street.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Why is it such a big deal that he is Australian? He was in Afghanistan, changed his name, as I see it-renounced his citizenship by taking up arms against the allies and all these civil libertarians are crying foul. He forfeited his rights to called Australian by joining a terrorist group.

 

[shumway]

Why is it such a big deal that he is Australian? He was in Afghanistan, changed his name, as I see it-renounced his citizenship by taking up arms against the allies and all these civil libertarians are crying foul. He forfeited his rights to called Australian by joining a terrorist group.

here here hes guilty admitted it now it time to execute him 20c for a bullet is cheaper than keeping him in jail for life treat him like he wanted to treat other non musilums with death.