Hicks sticks around

There's no pleasing some people. David Hicks gets back to Australia soon, effectively serving what I have heard even right wing commentators say may be a fair enough time for what he did, but the cries of "farce", or worse, continue.

Robert Richter's column in The Age said:

The charade that took place at Guantanamo Bay would have done Stalin's show trials proud.

Comments like that make me yearn to have a TV reality show where lawyers or commentators who make odious comparisons of Bush to Hitler and Stalin actually have to live for 6 months in a re-created old Gulag or concentration camp.

As for Australia's possible role in seeking the sentence deal Hicks got, all I can say is that last night's interview on the 7.30 Report with Major Mori, and then Phillip Ruddock's interview on Lateline, both indicated that direct political involvement was not very plausible at all, despite the good timing for the government. Major Mori was most interesting, in that he was promoting the gag order as a benefit to Hicks himself, so that he wouldn't be harassed by the media. This seemed his genuine, and somewhat surprising, take on the matter. He also seemed enormously happy with the result, as if to indicate he couldn't care less if it was a political deal anyway.

Mori also denied ever having used the word "torture" in describing Hick's treatment. He also saw no issue with how the deal was negotiated. Kerry O'Brien's problem seemed to be a complete lack of familiarity with American military tribunal procedures, so that what surprised him seemed to be of no great significance to Mori.

Ruddock expressed the view that the gag part could not be enforced by the Australian government, and that there was no prospect of extradition back to the USA for breaching it either. That would seem to mean that only if Hicks voluntarily re-entered that country that he would be at risk (if he contravenes the order.) Somehow, I don't see Hicks wanting to visit Disneyland in the future anyway.

I think The Age must be really upset about the finalisation of the matter, as it means they will have to start finding about a 2 pages a day to fill with other stories for a change.