Torture account sidesteps gag on Hicks

* INSIDE STORY
A British document speaks for the terrorist and reveals what the US hoped to hide, reports Sally Neighbour

IT was in the chaotic weeks after September 11, 2001, that the bearded foreigner known as the "Australian Taliban" was captured by Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan. David Hicks, known at the time as Mohammed Dawood, was held by the Taliban's feared enemies for two weeks.

He was neither interrogated nor physically restrained nor abused, to his surprise, given the Northern Alliance's reputation for extreme cruelty and even killing of prisoners. Then he was handed over to the Americans.

"When the US interrogators showed up, my treatment changed," Hicks later recounted.

"My hands were restrained behind my back and I was forced to kneel during interrogations. US personnel would force me into painful physical positions. The US interrogators would question me and after my responses I would be slapped in the back of the head and told I was lying."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21516985-601,00.html