Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has confirmed that a US Embassy official recently visited Australian terror suspect David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Downer had earlier declined to identify the source of reports that Mr Hicks was in good health ...
Mr Downer says he has also received assurances from the United States that new charges will be laid against David Hicks within weeks, following the release of trial rules late last week for Guantanamo detainees.
Australia's Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has urged the US to issue charges without delay ...
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1830439.htmHe's being done over to protect politicians
Major Michael Mori
January 14, 2007
WHEN I was assigned to represent David Hicks, I knew the US Administration and those within the military commissions system, such as Colonel Morris Davis, chief prosecutor for the US Office of Military Commissions, would resist providing an Australian the same rights and protections as an American. I never imagined Australian ministers would actively support the United States' hypocritical treatment of an Australian.
In The Sunday Age last week, the Attorney-General tried to defend the indefensible treatment of David Hicks. It was the Attorney-General who permitted David to languish in Guantanamo for two years without legal counsel, permitted 2½ years to pass before he was charged, permitted the prosecution to charge him with offences made up after the fact, and permitted him to be tried in an illegal commissions system that was unacceptable for American and British citizens.
The Attorney-General says David cannot come home because "Mr (former Australian Guantanamo inmate Mamdouh) Habib and the released UK citizens had neither been charged under the military commission process nor been designated as eligible for trial". The truth is Habib and two released British citizens were designated for commission by President Bush in July 2003 but are now free. Being designated for trial or charged does not prevent detainees from being released from Guantanamo.
The Attorney-General also claims David cannot come home because the US made it clear early on that a detainee would not be repatriated unless he would be prosecuted. More than 300 detainees have been released from Guantanamo without prosecution, including the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan and detainees who fought with Osama bin Laden ...
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hes-being-done-over-to-protect-politicians/2007/01/13/1168105227930.html