"Ah aqvarivs, are you totally illiterate, or do you just pretend to be?"

Iluvatar, aqvarivs has plenty of other qualities too. Ignorance, intolerance just for starters. Got it all covered, including the labelling bug. Damned lefties huh!

Kasra, Afghanistan is the most invaded country in history. The interesting thing is it has never been conquered. They lose the battles but just take to the hills and wait for the invaders to leave. They will do so again. They have a drug crop which the West and East wants desperately so they will get support forever.

Yes it was the US that invaded, and created Bin Laden's group. They armed them, trained them then betrayed them. Well done US. Another gold star to go with installing Saddam. What a great record. Never won a war, except against themselves, never bombed anyone, except everyone. Never bothered with the rules of combat. Too hard when those nasty opponents don't play properly.

The US has exposed their vulnerability which is exactly what Bin Laden wanted. Once in battle the US can't leave and will keep sending more kids to die until Bush leaves office. Let's hope he is the last to start a pointless war although the US is very good at that.

Zimbabwe by the way will be Howard's next "war" for the upcoming election. Forget how long Mugabe has been murdering his people, it's now convenient to oppose him. Oh, he did get invited to the Gold Coast remember? Perhaps a similar invite again? Appear for the Coaliton on ads this time?

So Hicks is to get nine months prison time, mostly in Australia and be out by the new year.

I don’t have a problem with that. And I wouldn’t have had a problem with it if he’d got seven years.

But I have a massive problem with some of the things that have gone along with it:

He has been prevented from speaking to the media for twelve months. This gag order is totally out of line. It fundamentally violates a basic principle of democracy - freedom of speech. It surely should have been beyond the role of the military commission to implement such a restriction, or to ‘request’ that Hicks sign it as part of his nine month sentence deal.

The commission’s role should surely have been restricted to the determination of guilt or innocence and declaration of the appropriate sentence.

This latest chapter of the Hicks saga remains outside of democratic principles to just the same extent as it has all along.

Neither should it have been within the role of the commission to ask (force) Hicks to sign away any rights to profit from his story. That should have been purely within the realms of Australian law.

And of course it should not have asked (forced) Hicks to sign a statement saying that he had not suffered any abuse in Guantanamo.

The message is clear – Hicks either did what the commission requested in regard to these things or receive a much longer sentence.

It is a total corruption of legal process to bring things like this into the determination of the ‘appropriate’ punishment.

The military commission does itself enormous harm with this sort of antics; it skittles its credibility in the eyes of millions around the world and of course that of the US government along with it.

Surely at this point in time, with the enormously bad worldwide publicity that Guantanamo Bay has brought the Bush government, this should have been of paramount importance.

But No! Their true colours have shone through: democracy counts for stuff-all in the eyes of the current US government.

Very interesting Ludwig,thankyou.

If I was not cranky before I am now.
The Americans certainly know how to win friends and influence people.
The whole system is corrupt, illegal, amoral, anti-democratic, authoritarian, cruel, bulling and built on an edifice of weasel words and bull-s**t in a house full of mirrors.

Do you know any other "fine print" details of the Hicks judgment?
I have not been able to find them on the web.

Still all we know about Hicks is that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Was he playing cowboys hanging out with the Mujahadien? Americas friends. Oh that was last week. Was he just hanginout, Afghanistan is a fancinating place, I wish I had stayed longer in '69.
The Northern Alliance rounded up all foriegners and sold them like slaves to the US. A million a head was a price bandied about and an immense amount of money in Afghanistan and quiet a temptation. Certainly enough to blur the truth.
It sad thing is that the US has shown themselves to be nothing but common criminals and slave traders. I feel the shame and sorrow of all descent Americans. Any other truth we will never know. I doubt that Hicks can speak out with out being assassiated.

Isn't this article a little premature since it precedes Hick's sentencing?

The realisation that a psychopath like Mirko is teaching law is very, very depressing.