Dosn't seem strange that the US will only give Hicks a trail if he pleads guilty. One would have to be a dingbat not to spot the fraud. The Northern Alliance sold any foriegners they could find to the yanks now that the dust has settled the US is suck with people they have tortured but have not conmitted any great crime so they can not give them a fair and open trial. The only thing we know about HIcks for sure is that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am glad that the US did not invade whilst I was a lad wandering around Afghanistan. It is a facinating and dramatic place but not without peril

Numbat ur a dingbat
Alanpoi

Notice that this is the first time Johnny Howard has been firm towards the US. Not a surprise really seeing that he may have panicked a bit about his chances in the coming election. Also his firmness about bringing Hicks home, however, coupled with a public still too dumb to realise that if it was not for Blair and Howard backing George Dubya, the illegitimate invasion of Iraq would never have gone on.

Yet with our cagey PM with even more up his sleeve and despite many global historians ready to write further flop to US unipolar imperial endeavours in the Middle East, persons like Bush, Howard and Blair, will still insist that America's command of the seas, worse luck, as well as her massive ultra modern nuclear arsenal, backed by tiny but devilish little Israel, can still repair the damage they have done - even though it is a safe bet unfortunately, that America is not only ruining her own future, but also possibly the future of those who back her.

Maybe as Vladimir Putin of Russia mentioned recently the world might have been safer under bi-lateralism, held in order by the equilibrium brought on by the fear from both atomic powered sides that whomsoever side might win, the global damage wrought might also destroy what we now know of mankind.

Therefore it is so historically ironic that it may take an alliance between Russia, China and India, with France and Germany staying neutral, to force the Anglopholic or English-speaking nations to agree to the global political equilibrium that Putin has mentioned.

To numbat "save dear David from the horrible Americans" It is not the Americans but the Bush administration and Howard clearly in breach of war crimes. Creating aggressive war was the charge levelled at the nazis in Nurenberg. Then there is illegal detention which is a war crime - irrespective of making up dubious ad hoc charges as they go along. Hicks has been illegally detained for 5 years!

Numbat, you certainly have Hicks guilty before he is any where near a courtroom.
Of course, it is not just Hicks in Guantanamo but hundreds more all denied Red Cross access, legal access, the right to be charged in a reasonable time, even access to the courts, denied due status as prisoners of war, or even family visiting. That alone the backward thuggery dished out as torture in Guantanamo. Then there is all the other psychological torture including drugs, waterboarding, lights, noise, chained to the floor in blackness for weeks with the skin going yellow, and various degradation practises. All cowardly denied by the military and politicians despite the glimpses, photos, evidence, and testimony that has emerged.

It's impossible in the shadowy world of terrorism to garner the scrupulous evidence that could lead to the prosecution of someone who has been involved in jihad under the present legal processes of the West. Those who seek such evidence live in a world of the will-o'-the-wisp.

Moreover, George Williams is an INTELLECTUAL OPPORTUNIST. While in the past he vehemently opposed control orders as UN-AUSTRALIAN(see The Age, August 30, 2006), he now proposes control orders on David Hicks(see The Daily Telegraph, March 7, 2007) on his return to Australia to allay the concerns of the Federal Government in regards to the possibly continuation of the nefarious activities of the "heroic" detainee with his return to Australia.

For more intellectual opportunists see POWER POLITICS-http://power-politics1.blogspot.com

As of today there is a report Hicks is going to trial on the 20th of this month - so i suppose nobody will know until then! I still believe his best way of coming home is to basically appeal through the Commonwealth law, so at least he can be dealt with through a fair Australian legal system rather than the biased military court he will be in front of. Watch this space!!