David Hicks

Hicks's lawyers had plenty of time:

"Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has rejected claims by lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks that they will not be ready for next month's military commission."

Mr. Ruddock has made his position patently clear. A pre emptive guilty judgement. Considering world lawyers have considered the military commission to be illegal and considering David Hicks is not guilty of anything under Australian law and considering other countries had got their people out of Guantanomo Bay, Mr. Ruddock has now put his cards on the table. Well, no surprise, really. The lawyers have not had 4 years at all. No one knew what David Hicks was supposed to be guilty of in America until his case was put forward recently and then the lawyers had not been able to work with any stable, accessible channel. Then the international lawyers were discussing the validity of it. So there has been no easy legal path here and his lawyers are not dolts. At least when Alexander Downer speaks he either stays right out of it or he tries to ascertain from the country what the siuation is as best he can. He does not speak before he is in control of as many facts as he can muster. If he cannot muster them he always says. Amnesty believes David Hicks and the others in Guantanamo Bay have some serious human rights issues. The Australian government did nothing to clarify the position with David Hicks when he was first arrested. Had they clarified the situation then, this part of it would probably already have been resolved.