It's such a shame the damage the political knee jerk reaction to terrorism has done to our society. The leadership seem content to chase petty revenge rather than achieve justice and a practical security. The value of both real and apparent justice to society is much greater than the loss from a terrorist attack. The miscarriages of justice and misguided attacks in an attempt to appear active against the 'enemy' can and will do more harm than any simple terrorist action could.

The only fair thing to do is to release David back into society as there is no possibility of a fair trial now. Given the two possibilities of guilty and innocent, we are now at a loss with both. If he is the guilty as claimed by the Americans, we have a monster loose in our society with no just action that can be taken. Worse, if he is not guilty then we have become the monster ourselves.

No doubt there will soon be a set of comments reminding Greg Bams about Hicks's letters to his parents. What I would like to know is what he is supposed to apologise to Australians about. To Indian soldiers on the Kashmiri front, maybe. Perhaps to the Afghanistan people. But even though he intended to support the murderous, rights denying Taliban, he took no action against Australian troops.

Expect nothing less than this vomitous paean from Greg Barns.

Like most of the raptuorous bile written by the Left since Hicks' release, Barns fails to acknowledge the gravity of any of Hicks past deeds and conveniently overlooks the hate-filled writings of the man himself.

It is a pity such insipid and misleading commentary is repeated on OLO.

I also note that Greg Barns has removed choice details about his own past from his CV.

Nothing so golden as a selective memory Greg, something you and your beloved David appear to have in common.

One of the many things that put me off Howard as a party member of thirty years standing, is the lack of guts he had shown in defending Australians who got in trouble overseas.

The guilt or innocence of the individual was irrelevant to me, the only fact that I was interested in was that proper legal representation would be given to them through our embassy in that country.

The fact that Hicks was detained without trial whilst American, Canadian and British suspects found in the same circumstances as Hicks were let go. this in my view was not only scandalous it made the whole incident into a big joke that David paid for with his liberty. .

So I think you are right we should be the ones to say sorry not only to David but to the whole Hicks family for letting them down.

Hicks didn’t have a trial because he pleaded guilty to the fairly innocuous crime of supporting terrorism. Had he not done so, he could very well have remained locked up for ever.

Not unexpectedly, Barns decrees that Hicks does not owe Australia an apology. After all, he only consorted with and trained with the most evil murderers on earth and became a threat to his own country and the Western world in general. Poor old David!

I will never cease to be amazed how some ratbag Australians, including Barns, like really bad people; and Hicks is a really bad person who should have been put down like the mad dog he is on the spot he was captured. Don’t worry about the thousands of innocents slaughtered by the likes of Hicks – let’s bleat and moan about what a rough deal this little animal got.

I really would like to see Barns and other rotters who support Hicks become victims of terrorism; not killed, just maimed so that they sit around for the rest of their miserable lives contemplating their stupidity

Hicks was either a volunteer or a mercenary soldier fighting for an outlaw group intent upon forcing its rule and its religion upon us, the Australians, as part of the so-called "infidel world".We, the Australians,have participated in the recent religio-tribal wars in the Balkans and all across the Middle East as far as Afghanistan, playing our part in opposing the forces which David Hicks has supported in an active, warlike role.
At best, Hicks is a renegade; at worst, a traitor to his country and his people.Hicks was captured in a war-zone and imprisoned as an enemy operative.

Hicks was a prisoner of war, and a traitor or a renegade to boot, whichever you think best fits the case. He is not a hero, nor has his suffering been of an order higher than that of any other prisoner held in military detention after capture. Australians do not expect or require any sort of apology from Hicks. Australians in the majority will treat Hicks with the curious contempt which it is his fate to suffer for the rest of his life.

No doubt Wilfrid Burchett was another of Greg Barnes's special heroes.What a sad, silly,chip-on-shoulder bunch the looney lefitists of Australia all are.

Asimana