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Does David Hicks even know its Christmas?

This entry on radar blog speaks for itself.....

"So, David Hicks has been locked up in Guantanamo Bay for nearly five years. Britain and the US pulled their citizens out years ago, but John Howard doesn't see any need to avoid a trial by the US military commission that Britain, justifiably, feared would not try its citizens fairly. And how would someone react to five years of hellish, seemingly unending captivity? In particular, someone who, judging by his decision to fight alongside the Taliban, probably wasn't exactly tip-top mentally to begin with? Well, they'd have enormous problems. Which is why when I ask whether David Hicks knows it's Christmas, I don't mean it in the Band Aid sense of "can he, in his suffering, recognise that this is supposed to be the season of goodwill towards others". I'm asking whether, given his evident mental disintegration, he is even aware it's Christmas.

The news today is that he won't talk to his long-suffering, endlessly supportive Dad, which must be enormously hard for the man who's been tireless in his efforts to get something to happen. Clearly, David's doing it tough. And he's in solitary confinement, which is gruelling for anybody – let alone someone who's been locked up for five years and doesn't even get to contend with a normal, sensible, fair trial process."

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