A-G Ruddock [Australia's most disgraceful first law officer ever!] has probably satisfied hismelf that all is well and on track with the "prosecution" [persecution?] of David Hicks. Sadly it isn't, as Richard Ackland points out in his weekly SMH column:
"Is the United States performing the unsightly trick of talking out of both sides of its mouth at once? It looks like it. On Wednesday the US ambassador in Canberra, Robert McCallum, said that in relation to the David Hicks case, "Australians are understandably angry and distraught by the delay". This, he added, was a sentiment he shared.
The Prime Minister is not only angry, he is "very angry" - such a refreshing change from his earlier tough-guy "no sympathy for Hicks" line. But the funny thing is that in Washington, lawyers from the very department from which McCallum has sprung, the Department of Justice, are playing the delay game very successfully."
"Is the United States performing the unsightly trick of talking out of both sides of its mouth at once? It looks like it. On Wednesday the US ambassador in Canberra, Robert McCallum, said that in relation to the David Hicks case, "Australians are understandably angry and distraught by the delay". This, he added, was a sentiment he shared.
The Prime Minister is not only angry, he is "very angry" - such a refreshing change from his earlier tough-guy "no sympathy for Hicks" line. But the funny thing is that in Washington, lawyers from the very department from which McCallum has sprung, the Department of Justice, are playing the delay game very successfully."
Comments
The trials MUST NOT EMBARRASS THE PRESIDENT.
So that's why they have not happened - it's a Mexican Standoff.
I think Hicks is very guilty and very stupid and we should all worry about the other little Hickses who are out there in SA and NT and god knows where, BUT he has served enough time, hard time, for the stupidity of his being in a very bad place.