Welcome home, David Hicks!

[Spiff]

David Hicks is back in Australia. I don't know if he's a Maiden fan so he might not end up reading this post.

There hasn't actually been that much discussion here about him, which is strange considering we talk about pretty much everything else. What are everyone's thoughts on him and his situation?

 

[salty]

So funny if he WAS a Maiden Fan...and that was the nicest thing he's heard since he got back.

 

[mattt]

I don't like him.

 

[Taliwakker]

don't you mean welcome home Self Confessed Terrorist David Hicks.

 

[Spruce Goose]

I don;t really know why there was such a huge outcry to get him home and look after him... He is a terrorist.... I'd be just as happy for him to remain living the way he was. It's good that the aussie tax payers paid $500 000 so he could watch a movie on a private jet on the way home. Good shit

 

[mattt]

I don;t really know why there was such a huge outcry to get him home and look after him... He is a terrorist.... I'd be just as happy for him to remain living the way he was. It's good that the aussie tax payers paid $500 000 so he could watch a movie on a private jet on the way home. Good shit

 

[Shannow]

He confessed to charges that weren't even on the charge sheet, but were made up after he plead guilty to laws that weren't in existance when he was handed over by Pakistani border guards who were recieving bounties for handing people over.

Oz Govt dropped him, while our coalition "partners" told the U.S. that their treatment of their citizens was unacceptable.

Using a hercules would have cost twice as much.

The charter service in question is usually "hired" by the CIA to fly people off to other countries where their rules on "questioning" techniques aren't so stringent as those of us who signed the Geneva Convention.

He should have been tried (for something), in a system whereby his lawyer could review the charges and the evidence, and not have his interviews with his client recorded and passed to the prosecution, ages ago. Shouldn't have been locked in a room lit 24 hours per day for 5 years...Oz Govt should have stepped in like the U.K. did.

 

[Winmar]

But is he a terrorist? Where's the dividing line?

He's probably a knob and I probably wouldn't like him if I met him, but that's not the point. The way he was treated before even being sent for trial was disgraceful. I wouldn't expect anyone to be treated like that.

Edit: Shannow posted his while I was writing mine. Nice post.

 

[Shannow]

but in brighter news, Oz govt has scrapped their $620,000 plans for revamping the Parliament House dining rooms...$60k in consultant's fees so far.

Least they aren't building a new dog house.

 

[Goreripper]

Hicks was an easily-led loser and a coward who sucked at life. But he was treated inhumanely and found guilty of things that weren't even crimes when he committed them, as Shannow has said. The question I have always wanted answered, and no one has answered it, is: does fighting on the side of the Taliban automatically make one a terrorist? The Taliban weren't even considered to be a terrorist organisation while they were fighting to keep Afghanistan free of the communist menace, and no one cared what they did to the Afghan people until they started harbouring bin Laden and his bunch of crazies. When does one stop being just a foot soldier and start becoming a terrorist? Was Hicks caught with bombs strapped to himself on a school bus? No, he was caught fleeing from battle against an invasion force. That makes him an enemy combatant, not a terrorist unless, as I said before, every enemy combatant is automatically a terrorist.

 

[Taliwakker]

The Taliban weren't even considered to be a terrorist organisation while they were fighting to keep Afghanistan free of the communist menace, and no one cared what they did to the Afghan people until they started harbouring bin Laden and his bunch of crazies. When does one stop being just a foot soldier and start becoming a terrorist?

When the Intelligence Agencies of one country decide they want to take control of the production and distribution of heroin of/from another country.

 

[Goreripper]

Yes, there is that.

 

[Southy]

Well according to the world police these days, all enemy combatants shall now be called terrorists

From what I can tell anyway

 

[Winmar]

You're either with them or against them, remember...

 

[chrisvp]

Hicks was an easily-led loser and a coward who sucked at life. But he was treated inhumanely and found guilty of things that weren't even crimes when he committed them, as Shannow has said. The question I have always wanted answered, and no one has answered it, is: does fighting on the side of the Taliban automatically make one a terrorist? The Taliban weren't even considered to be a terrorist organisation while they were fighting to keep Afghanistan free of the communist menace, and no one cared what they did to the Afghan people until they started harbouring bin Laden and his bunch of crazies. When does one stop being just a foot soldier and start becoming a terrorist? Was Hicks caught with bombs strapped to himself on a school bus? No, he was caught fleeing from battle against an invasion force. That makes him an enemy combatant, not a terrorist unless, as I said before, every enemy combatant is automatically a terrorist.

Could not have said it better myself , Hicks was found guilty by a kangaroo court that in the US is deemed unconstitutional, but in Cuba its fine heh heh ,anyone would plead guilty to the plague to get out of there instead of waiting for the military court to come up with more rounds of charges just to hang the bloke , as for the plane trip , it was the request and order of the US from what I have read that required Hicks to be sent by private jet , the US would not let a plane with him in it go over their soil.
Its a disgrace either way you look at it , even the media has alot to answer to this because for so long they have led a subliminal propaganda campaign based on a photograph that was taken when Hicks was in the Balkans conflict , now would that make him a terrorist , think about it , because if it does then it would make the many people from both sides who reside in Australia from this region who went there to fight in the conflict terrorists as well heh heh , eat your money mankind

 

[Southy]

well, they did strike 'terror' into each others hearts...isn't that what a terroists do, sorta puts the world police in a strange posistion then

 

[Winmar]

Just as well the Coalition of the Killing declared war on terror, because those night terrors I've had on and off since I was 10 have really been a burden. Thanks, coalition.

 

[Priest of Evil]

I like the flotila the US sent to Iran, maybe they should put Hicks in a canon and fire him, hahah.

I dunno, he left his country to fight in another, which in turn became a fight against his country. He gave up without a fight so he isnt completely stupid. If the war on terror didnt kick off there would be nothing said of him. Its sad for that he's been held without trial for so long but war is hell, no? Life just isnt fair.

 

[Priest of Evil]

Honestly, I wish the Govt would spend more money on hunting down and punishing people who hurt children. In fact dont just punish them, kill the gutless wonders! The sooner I stop hearing about Hicks the better.

 

[Winmar]

If Hicks had been treated properly in the first place, you would have stopped hearing about him years ago.