Both Assange and Hicks have been treated unjustly. Apparently there have been phony charges against Assange, and his fear is that the Swedish authorities will extradite to the US where he will presumably feel their wrath for exposing them.

Hicks was fighting for a foreign entity. However, in doing so, he committed no crime under Australian law, and he was involved with that entity before the US entered the war. He was captured in a war zone and should have been treated as a prisoner of war. Under the Geneva Convention which the United States should have observed all the information a prisoner of war is obligated to give his captors is the name, rank and serial number. He may be interrogated, but he is not to be tortured. He also may be obligated to do a reasonable amount of work for his captors. He is not to be treated in any way except for confinement worse than a US soldier. I was a US soldier in WW2, and that was how we treated the enemy soldiers we captured. Hicks was entitled to the same treatment, and the Australian government should have protested when he did not get that treatment.

Rache, if you are going to dream up your own reality based around my words please put in a caveat that states “what I say is fabricated as I go”.

I never said Aussies fought in Pakistan or Albania/Serbia/Croatia. I said Hicks trained in these places with the intention of murdering young Aussie soldiers in whatever theatre of conflict they are assigned to when he came across them. He knew our boys were in Afghanistan at some stage sport, and he still persisted.

Anyone with a fifth of a brain knows what Afghanistan is about, in fact the whole Middle East agenda is resources grab by the banks, which fund the West’s military industrial complex.

I said that Hicks was an imbecile, he was certainly being manipulated by the Moslems, as are all the Caucasian poster boys and girls who look towards Islam for direction because the Islamists certainly love their prodigal infidel Caucasian sons and daughters. Turncoats are always welcomed, but rarely accepted.

David, just so you know where I am coming from let me say I believe 911 was a black op. The real political powerbrokers and financiers of America assassinated their own president in 1963 and the Americans disregard the Geneva Convention on combatants when it suits them.

But that does not mean that Hicks is an innocent.

A final question on your WWII soldiering claim, How well are you holding up mate? Given that at a minimum you must be at least 90 years of age, congratulations for mastering the computer and internet. Do you have little grandpa snoozes during the day granpa David?

sonofgloin,

David f. to my knowledge is in his late eighties...but I'm sure he'll elaborate on that in the not too distant future : )

Poirot, did I jump the gun?

Perhaps, if so apologies to you David for my sledgehammer wit. But you are an active and with it bugger, no signs of dementia in your ramblings. Again if I was wrong I retract my slings and congratulate and admire you for going the distance

It seems an appropriate point, sonofgloino, to pop back and acknowledge your name contractions ending with 'o' – or, as I like to think of them, exceptions to the rule.

However as an alternative this is much less useful. For example, with Poirot we are left with nowhere to go except Poirot-o which could be confused with a stutter.

At least with the 'ee' sound ending we can have 'rotee which sounds much more Australian than un.

With respect to david f (who doesn't make me feel inadequate because he's 86 but because he is still lustful with it), as I've indicated earlier, this leaves us with 'effie' which is nice and affectionate. Whereas…

With your system we end up with 'eff-o' which isn't.

Dear sonofgloin,

I will be 87 in October and enlisted in the US Army in 1943 when I was 17. I also think David Hicks is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but that is no excuse for not treating him fairly. Whether or not a person is a good person or I approve of that person's actions everyone should be treated fairly.

I have no false teeth, can read and drive without glasses, have no problems with any internal organs, go hiking and on field trips with the Queensland Mycology Society, am married and have a plethora of descendants. my only ailment is hay fever. I have heard that it disappears when you get old enough so I am waiting.

I am a skeptic and think one should question authority. One should also be kind even to those who are not innocent. Although there are real conspiracies I think most conspiracy theories are the product of paranoia.

As far as mastering the computer I have been involved with computers off and on since since 1951 when I worked for the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation which produced Univac, the first commercially available computer. I have designed computers, programmed them and developed mathematical algorithms for them. I have taught courses in computers and mathematics in Downstate Medical Center, Long Island Community College, Bridgeport Engineering Institute, New York University and Brooklyn Polytechnic. Except for the first position the others were part time in addition to my work.

I am concerned with uncontrolled population growth, environmental destruction, the arms trade, economic oppression, discrimination against people on ethnic, national, religious or non-religious beliefs or sexual identification and the lack of support for the public school.

Go to http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/author.asp?id=4977 for some of my essays.

Your reference to me as grandpa is patronising. Only six individuals are entitled to call me that. Since I am still alive at this moment I haven't yet gone the distance.