Hicks Bush’s problem – Howard

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called on the United States not to free terror suspect David Hicks, but to quickly find an alternative way to try him.

Howard said that as the military commission trial intended for Hicks had been found unconstitutional, there had to be another method, suggesting a court martial or a civilian trial.

"What we'll be putting to the Americans is not that he should be released — rather that he should be brought to trial in a manner acceptable to the Supreme Court as soon as possible," Mr Howard said yesterday.

The gist of the matter is that Howard say Australia does not have laws under which this ‘nasty piece’ of work can be punished.

That would be fine if David Hicks wasn’t just a pathetic character, shunned by his fellow detainees as a half arsed adventurer with few redeeming features. Although he has won the fight to get his British citizenship back the Blair government doesn’t want him.

They were quick to rescue other citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay but have fought hard to resist Hicks’ call.

Even Australia’s Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the Federal Government should tell the Bush Administration it must try Hicks in a civil court. "US civil court processes are among the best in the world and that is where justice may be obtained," he said.

Poor bastard, nobody really wants him, except his family perhaps.

Howard agreed the Hicks affair had gone on too long. But "he trained with al-Qaeda, and in full knowledge of the terrorist attack on September 11 (2001), he returned from Pakistan to rejoin al-Qaeda. Now I don't think somebody who has admitted having done that should be lightly let back into this country," he said. "If he's freed, he is an Australian citizen and he would be able to return."

Hicks had committed more serious offences than most people held in Guantanamo Bay, he said. "I think most people would believe that if somebody has committed the sort of offences that they believe he has committed, then he is a threat to the United States."

Bearing in mind that justice delayed is justice denied, all these heady accusations must be put to the test, in the US or elsewhere, and soon.

I suspect, in an open court, the whole set of dramatic charges will be ripped to shreds. What will be revealed in the end is a social misfit who is really no great value to anyone, as a terrorist or otherwise.

Hicks is just another piece of human flotsam, but one who has endured over four years of illegal incarceration. The whole story should be put to the legal test without delay.