The NSW Supreme Court has allowed freed Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib to pursue defamation proceedings against Murdoch's News Limited. One 2002 cartoon in Sydney's Daily Telegraph read, "The amazing journey of a suburban terrorist." In case the conservative echo-chamber forgets, Habib was released without charge in January.
The other detained Australian prisoner, David Hicks, remains at Guantanamo Bay. Gerard Henderson - clearly incapable of understanding the difference between defending the man and his alleged actions and his foul treatment at the hands of the Australian and American governments - today wonders why so many people express outrage over his treatment.
Let me give you a clue, Gerard. I've read much of the public accusations against Hicks, and he appears to be an anti-Semitic and troubled man. This attitude doesn't somehow preclude him from standing trial in a proper court of law. "All societies, Western and non-Western alike, should take gun-toting revolutionaries at their word", Gerard writes. If a person's personal letters were the sole determining factor of guilt, then many people would be locked up.
The other detained Australian prisoner, David Hicks, remains at Guantanamo Bay. Gerard Henderson - clearly incapable of understanding the difference between defending the man and his alleged actions and his foul treatment at the hands of the Australian and American governments - today wonders why so many people express outrage over his treatment.
Let me give you a clue, Gerard. I've read much of the public accusations against Hicks, and he appears to be an anti-Semitic and troubled man. This attitude doesn't somehow preclude him from standing trial in a proper court of law. "All societies, Western and non-Western alike, should take gun-toting revolutionaries at their word", Gerard writes. If a person's personal letters were the sole determining factor of guilt, then many people would be locked up.
6 Comments:
Yeah good on ya Gerry! Should we therefore lock up Joe Gutnick for funding ultra orthodox settlers in the Occupied Territories (whose treatment of and contempt for the local population is well documented)? What about expatriate Tamils and Indian Hindus who donate to the Tigers and Bajarang Dal respectively? Those organizations have been known for cold, calculated acts of violence responsible for numerous deaths.
Of course not. Centuries of jurisprudence has offered many significant insights into just and effective ways to deal with criminals. One of the most important of these is the principle of due process of the law. Another is habeus corpus. Even if you captured Lucifer himself you’d have to charge him with crimes, bring him before a court of competent jurisdiction, and follow the due process of the law.
Indeed, yes and watch them line up to deal with the "war on terror' or whatever it's called this week...
It's amazing how many of the usual suspects are so quick to abandon the rule of law, give almost unlimited power to govt and therefore expose their undemocratic soul...
Hicks doesn't just talk the talk, he runs the run (oops that's Habib and his son) walks the walk.
Oh so did you train with him eh?
Try Hicks? Sure. In Australia.
Oh so did you train with him eh?
Not knowingly.
Though I'm vaguely tempted to invite him or his son to do winter biathlon with me.
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