Hi to all you good people...

Personally, I'm so very confused by all the erudite correspondence, opinion and 'expert' advice that have been generated, over the invidious position that has befallen David Hicks.

I also feel so very sorry, for the untenable position that Mr. Hicks senior has been involuntarily placed. And who has valiantly attempted to defend, the good fame and character of his son, David.

In NSW, there was legislation, the 'Consorting Act' that gave police power to arrest criminals who were found to be 'consorting' with other known criminals. It was not necessary to substantiate the offence of conspiracy. Or that they'd formed any intent to commit a crime. Only at the time they were detected, they were found to be consorting.

It would read something like thus...' (name) found in company of: (name) a known criminal/s, (and sometimes) whilst armed '... It was not necessary for them to have formed an intent to commit a crime. Only simply to consort.

I understand that is exactly what has been alleged against David Hicks. Further, it's also been alleged that he has uttered certain words, and made certain statements. Apparently, to the effect of what act/s he and others proposed to do. And what act/s they intended to commit, against the United States and her allies.

Apart from his grossly unacceptable, and protracted time spent in custody, WITHOUT charge, I really can't see that he has any capacity whatsoever, to rebut any of those charge/s, that have been widely published and described in the media.

The often used assertion that David was simply, an easily led, impressionable young fellow, given his reported activities in Bosnia, also amounts to nought, in my opinion.

Oh, by the way, when he is ultimately repatriated to Australia, David's economic future will be absolutely preserved. And that of Major Mori's too, I suspect. I reckon the Harry M. Miller's of the world will make particularly sure of that!

Cheers...sungwu.

Oh, O Sung Wu. Deeply sensitive, curiously motivated and perhaps idealistic... maybe, but hardly a "easily led, impressionable young fellow", is David Hicks.

I feel many citizens of the world feel confused about the "state of humanity" and especially before the war on TERROR ... as we know it today.I.e., there are some 101 wars occurring at anyone time throughout the world, causing dire poverty and dispair... not just the ones in focus through western politics.

I believe, many of the worlds most informed leaders were/are just as (culturally) confused and they had/have access to information which was/is supposed to give them true "intelligence"?

My interest here is on the subject of "community engagement" and what this term truly means. I believe David Hicks motives for going anywhere has been mis-communicated by those who denied him a fair trial... five years ago!

I believe many of us who are learning about how David was seeing things at that time.... explains most of what we need to synthersise... ourselves, and not what we each see as afterward... meaning now that we have been exposed, as a world population to the "spin" on these serious events.

If we don't get this right... God help other young men and woman who seek pathways that we fail to seriously understand.

God help the future of community engagement, anywhere... as it is the thing causing most of our human made problems... or the lack of understanding it - in all its complex forms.

I.e; The Australian Defense Force is one example of an institution wanning on this issue. I sense it has a important role to play in civilian issues at home as well as abroad and that in doing so... people like David perhaps would not be left wandering alone... for whatever reason. I need to see a "No Wrong Door" policy in the Defense Force just as I do in Social Services in general.

Engagement vs Dis-engagement over dis-connectedness, and rejection of those who feel they want to help but have nowhere to channel their potential knowledge and valuable energy.

“ ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore’. This is the sentiment right now across Australia and the malodorous Howard Government is gonna be savaged in the media, voting booths and worst of all HISTORY.”

Absolutely D B Valentine.

“One cannot be fairly judged by a system populated with persons who claim unstintingly that you are a terrorist when you have not been found guilty. The US system cannot deliver a fair trial or judgment.”

Quite so Freedoms.

It is time for Howard to demand that Hicks be sent home. Up until this point I have been calling for a fair trial for him in the US. But the US has indicated very strongly via their actions over five years and via the comments as elucidated by Freedoms that a fair trial would not be likely. They’ve had their chance. Hell, they should have foregone their chance after incarceration for one year without trial, let alone charges being laid.

The US has stepped so profoundly outside of the principles of democracy and basic decency over this saga that it must be relieved of its responsibilities (irresponsibilities).

I think Colonel Moe Davis said something like he and the US Government respects John Howard and his wishes and concerns regarding David Hicks.

So Mr Howard, just bring him home and be done with the whole bloody mess…..and hopefully regain a little bit of the condemnation that you will be forever burdened with through history over your promulgation of this totally unacceptable and antidemocratic debacle.

Yes, Hicks was in Kosovo, as a Muslim fighter: I hate to tell some of you this, but the USA and NATO got involved in Kosovo to aid the Muslims there against the ethnic cleaning activities of the so-called Christan Serbians. In effect, in Kosovo, Hicks could be seen as the same as those in the Spanish Civil War who went to Spain to try to stop Fascism. Therefore, according to coach and some others of you, George Orwell was a terrorist.

As for his activities in Afghanistan: When he went there he was fighting for the Taliban, which, unfortunately due to some very short-sighted foreign policy decisions made by the USA from around 1980 to 1995, was the generally accepted government of Afghanistan. Yes, he underwent military training, but in effect his situation is no different than that of an Australian taken prisoner whilst fighting for the French Foreign Legion (yes, there have been a few of those over the years). The Taliban are particularly unlikeable religious thugs, but they are also supported by that great ally of the USA, Pakistan. Why hasn't the US arranged for the illegal transport of the Pakistani war criminals to Gitmo?

Lastly, many men have travelled to foreign climes from their homelands and served in armed forces. A classic example being an Australian Vietnam veteran, who on his retirement parade wore not only the Military Cross that he had won in Vietnam, but the Iron Cross he won fighting for Germany in WW2. Or should that man have also been jailed as a terrorist and mercenary?

Good points Hamlet - but not much help in the case at hand.

How many soldiers of your example become Muslim knowing that the religion is a passport to terrorism and anti-Australianism?

The west makes mistakes - Afghanistan was one of them - but this is 2007 and we are faced with an enemy the likes you have never encoutered before in history.

For the first time a political supremacist ideollogy is turbo-charge by a supremacist religious belief.

The notion that that religion is false is not the point here. Muslim militants don't know better. They just follow what they are told, no questions asked.

Why do you think the US is in Iraq right now? There's is more than they are letting you know about the explosive situation of Islam in the world.

Hicks made a huge mistake and is paying for it.

So please don't make a martyr out of a coward deserter who joined enemy troups.

His dad obviously did not do a good job raising him... where was he when his son got off the rail and became a Muslim?

That is not a good point Coach- it is morally bankrupt comparing a uniformed soldier whether German or Australian is not a moral comparison to the virtue of Mohammad Daewoo aka Hicks.
The operative relevance is Defense force and deployment; that is not even an argument Hamlet, if anything it is testimonial to assimilation of previous migration policies and integrity placed upon new arrivals; un like the pre determined Apartheid of Multi Culti Utopia today. It is more like an enemy occupation without a war. Just fly the White Flags.

The same argument in that form would also apply to every other migrant pre dating the political decimation period of Whitlam, and beyond.

He would only have been permitted to ware the Iron Cross on his final parade as a mark of respect as a soldier and would never have been permitted to display it otherwise; He would not qualify as a Lobotomized terrorist; although there would be a moral outrage if he was Waffen SS which in kind would be a reasonable assumption that was not the case. People actually did high security checks back then. Un like now days.

Un less there is an inside job ?

Send Hicks strait to India for further charges of MURDER.

And as far as his Father goes; if anyone depends on Whitlam and fellow Proletariat idiots for Moral encouragement automatically qualifies as Intellectually bankrupt and no need for further interpretation and their meaning.

That it self is a damming testimonial.