By Flint's standards, this stuff is Shakespearean. If you want to check him out at his awful worst, check out his recent article in the Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20876,20192985-7583,00.html

Which I wrote about on my blog if anyone is interested.

http://blistersandweeds.blogspot.com/

somebody who writes about legal issues should at least make an attempt to embrace concepts of justice accepted for hundred of years in the Western culture
'presumption of innocence' is one of them.

With background in mathematics I can not fully accept this notion: a a 'not-yet-established' status would be logical to me.

But the phrase used by the author referring to Hicks
> A trial of an accused terrorist,

flies both in face of logic and the justice culture of our society

1. you assume he IS a terrorist
2. who is accused of - whell - what?

I do not know if Hicks is a terroist or not; did he want to co-opearate with Al-Quida of was just doing everything to escape.

I just would like to see a fair trial.

Is it too much to ask?

Don't you undestand, that by prostituting the very culture of justice, you are strneghtenning terrorist position who can say: 'the Westerners pay only lip service to justice and fairness. When they see anyone who sympatises with us, they revert to torture and lies ...

I go a bit further ....

Free Hicks he is innocent of everthing except licking the lapdog and the shrubs fudamental individual orifices.....

Lock up Flint and Leigh together in a small room - they really deserve each others company - and they are both evenly matched intelligence wise (if you will pardon the missuse of the words of intelligence and wise in the same sentence....)

Kekenidika

While I have no idea of Leigh's appearance (and don't really want to know) the image of him locked in a (padded?) cell with Flinty has brought me the biggest laugh today.

Some marriages are made in heaven, some deserve their patch of hell, am having happy subversive thoughts...........thank you for making my day.

PS On topic

War is no excuse to justify inhumanity - and flinty should know better.

Free Hicks - he has served his time.

I can't believe the naivety of almost every post here.

It sounds as if many are so removed from having truly thought about our values that they don't know that in order to protect those values (shared by about 5% of the world's cultures, by the way) one must break those values.

Sounds hypocritical? Well, yes.

But then, one doesn't fight the Taliban on equal terms. I'd guess that many here probably have no problem with Iran having nukes either.

If so, such people are devoid of logic.

How can one have sympathy for a bigot like Hicks who was caught in the McJihad (yes, this Muslim terrorism thing is the same as Colombine High, they want to be on the cover of the newspapers....for some Muslims, Jews (Hollywood) truly do run their lives!)

Hicks was caught with the immoral filth that, according to Dr.Mahatir, were the purest Islamic people on earth, scum that had one export - heroin.

Real religious, huh?

You know what though? If Hicks had repented and realised that he was hanging around with animals and denounced their ideology, the forgiving nature of Australians would have seen him through.

Instead, he has written to his father, whilst in Guantanamo Bay (which should be expanded if anything, to all western lands for scumbags like Mamdouh Habib - who walks around town drawing your taxes while he brings his kid up to kidnap women and shave their heads as Allah don't allow hair on a woman in his eyes) saying that Muslims will EXTERMINATE Jews & Christians.

Nice bloke.

Real repentent.

My only concern is that extremist leftists which truly do create division, and are the role models for these bigots, the Pilger's, the Chomsky's, who write books without thinking of context (the west armed Saddam because his neighbours are utterly devoid of humanity, those Iranian monkeys hang 16 yr old girls from cranes for God's sake) aren't in Guantanamo with them.

I believe the CIA needs to do a lot more assassinations if you ask me.

Mr Flint, an excellent article.