SubscribeAussie Terrorist Hicks To Serve Only 9 Months
From a joyous Reuters:
Guantanamo’s Hicks to serve nine months
March 31, 2007
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (Reuters) — Australian al Qaeda foot soldier David Hicks was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday but will only serve nine months, a U.S. military tribunal said.
Hicks, who became the first war crimes convict among the hundreds of foreign captives held for years at the Guantanamo prison camp, had pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism in an agreement with U.S. military prosecutors.
The deal allowed all but nine months of the sentence to be be suspended, meaning he could be free by New Year’s. Hicks will serve his sentence in Australia. The United States will send him home by May 29 after holding him for more than five years at the Guantanamo base in Cuba.
In Australia, Hicks’ father said Saturday he was relieved his son would soon be home. “The bottom line of all this is that at least he’s back home. He’s out of that hell hole,” Terry Hicks told local media.
The younger Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner from Adelaide, acknowledged that he trained with al Qaeda, fought U.S. allies in Afghanistan in late 2001 for two hours, and then sold his gun to raise cab fare to flee to Pakistan.
Hicks, 31, denied having advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. His attorney, Marine Maj. Michael Mori, portrayed him as a now-apologetic soldier wannabe who never shot at anyone and ran away when he got a taste of battle.
The prosecutor, Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Chenail, said Hicks freely joined a band of killers who slaughtered innocents. “We are face to face with the enemy,” Chenail said.
Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and was among the first prisoners the United States sent to Guantanamo a month later. Washington considers them dangerous and unlawful “enemy combatants” who must be detained in the war against terrorism.
Hicks had previously said he was abused by the U.S. military but said in his plea agreement that he has “never been illegally treated while in U.S. custody.”
Hicks was the first person convicted in a U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War Two. He is also the only one charged in the tribunals created by the U.S. Congress after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version that President George W. Bush authorized to try foreign captives on terrorism charges.
A convert to Islam who later abandoned the faith, Hicks agreed to cooperate with U.S. and Australian intelligence services and testify in court against his former al Qaeda and Taliban colleagues.
Hicks’ plea agreement bars him from speaking to the media for one year and requires him to give the Australian government any money received for the rights to his story.
Rights groups who monitored the trial said the deal seemed aimed at shielding the United States from scrutiny over its treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.
“If the United States had nothing to be ashamed of, it would not need to hide behind a gag order that would be illegal in our own courts,” said Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union…
Hicks admitted conducting surveillance of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul more than a decade after it closed, as a training exercise for one of four al Qaeda warfare courses he took in Afghanistan.
He acknowledged meeting bin Laden at one al Qaeda camp and asking him why there were no training manuals in English. Hicks also admitted guarding a Taliban tank at Kandahar airport for a week, while “a fat al Qaeda leader” on a bicycle brought him food and updates about the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001…
Australian consular officials at the hearing declined to comment. But Lex Lasry, a senior barrister with the Law Council of Australia, said the tribunal process failed to meet international standards.
“I’m satisfied that David Hicks got a reasonable deal today so that’s good for him. As to the rest of the process, the Law Council remains far from satisfied,” Lasry said.
Nine months for helping the enemy during a shooting war?
Sure, that’s justice.
But don’t forget, Hicks won’t be able to cash in with book and movie deals for a whole year.
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30 Responses to “Aussie Terrorist Hicks To Serve Only 9 Months”
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March 31st, 2007 at 11:09 am
“The bottom line of all this is that at least he’s back home. He’s out of that hell hole,” Terry Hicks told local media.
Yes sir. Now your wonderful son can get about the business of turning Australia into a real hellhole. Not that anyone who has been in Gitmo could possibly ever intend to hurt anyone. They are all innocent after all.
March 31st, 2007 at 11:23 am
I have a feeling young Mr. Hicks will not be warmly welcomed by the vast majority of Australians
He might want to keep a low profile, for health reasons..
March 31st, 2007 at 11:31 am
He’s out of that hell hole,” Terry Hicks told local media.
Mr. Hicks, Is that the same Hell Hole where he gained over 40 lbs in weight?
March 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
al-Hicks will return to the Adelaide area after serving out his light sentence, never to be heard of again. If he survives his stint in prison that is. He is a minnow in a sea of Great White Sharks. A wannabe terrorist, probably too stupid to fire the weapon he tried to sell for taxi fare.
March 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Gag orders are illegal in our courts?
Does the ACLU even know American law anymore?
Amazing these scumbags are allowed to breathe…
March 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Any bets on how long he lives?
I am wondering what the boys were doing training with Al Queda. Was it some anthropology project? I don’t get it. Two blond, white aussis?
April 1st, 2007 at 2:20 am
If war criminals are just ‘criminals’ then they get treated like this…
Expect more of the same from the (D)emocrats…
April 1st, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Jesurgislac,
Well, Duh!
If I were the judge he would be hanged.
April 1st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I think you had better do a little more figuring……How could he have been arrested and jailed for post 9/11 war in Afghanistan in 12/2000?
April 1st, 2007 at 3:59 pm
He was jailed in December 2000. You quote that yourself, too.
Who quoted that?
April 1st, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I hate to burst your bubble troll, but when you’re a POW, you get no time off for timed served or good behavior. He’s lucky he got what he did, and not like 1st suggested, a noose. Personally, I wouldn’t want him executed. I think a few years to life in a Pakistani cell would be more appropriate. Then he could hang with his mooselimb hoddies.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Personally, I would have let him go scott free. Let him fight on, the great cause of Muslim Murder by Jihad….the greatest excuse to kill people since the dawn of mankind itself. Nah, you see, when he is let go….someone then can hunt him down, and eviscerate him with a dull coping saw.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:26 pm
“Jailed”??? He was taken on a battlefield, was armed, and had been using said weapon against American troops. The SOB is lucky he wasn’t shot on the spot!!!
The Geneva Conventions apply to SOLDIERS, NOT terrorists! Hicks is a traitor to western society and deserved to be dangling from a rope, not get a few months in a civilian prison. Those piles of pus in Guantanamo…from KSM to the lowest Taliban/al-Q scumball, should all be taken out and fed to sharks!
So should their sympathizers…such as Robustly Abominable and the whole crowd of Code Pinko and the rest.
April 1st, 2007 at 5:06 pm
If you were a Taliban judge, no doubt you would: they would impose the death sentence for “crimes” like that, too.
So shooting at American military is not a crime to you? Why am I not surprised.
I sure hope to meet you face to face one day.
April 1st, 2007 at 5:35 pm
People can consider themselves fortunate indeed that they dont meet face to face with armed and pissed off men like 1st, War, Sharps, Dez…..to name just a few. Judges wouldnt be necessary in combat. This isnt a god damned bank robbery, this is armed conflict against the United States of America. The rules dont apply on the battlefield like they do in our liberal courts. That is why I ernestly encourage our troops to NOT TAKE PRISONERS! This goes for journalists too.
April 1st, 2007 at 6:26 pm
jerkalistic….it is easy for you to sit there pounding away bravely too. Shooting at the enemy is the easy part. Finding them is the hard part. you are no exception.
April 1st, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Oh boy here we go.
Hicks has made enemies on both sides, I am not sure if he shot at Australian troops,
But he did shoot at their allies, Thats not called freindly fire its called treason.
After a whole 2 hours of fighting, He sells his gun and runs.
And then he has renounced Islam, This guy just likes to collect enemies.
As far as being a terrorist, He admits to training with and fighting with al Qaeda.
Thats close enough for me.
The 101st Fighting keyboarders, That’s really clever.
Did you come up with that while your mom was changing your diaper?
Or while you were trying to drive the sqaure peg in a round hole with your plastic hammer?
Or was it while you were reading the Quran and licking the snot off your upper lip?
Nobody here cares, But I know what really scares you, A job and an education.
April 1st, 2007 at 6:57 pm
So you think that the US military ought not to be shot at?
Apparently you think they ought to.
That pretty well says it all, doesn’t it?
April 1st, 2007 at 7:17 pm
“Warmonger Infidel: but when you’re a POW, you get no time off for timed served or good behavior. And if he were a PoW, sending him to Guantanamo Bay was illegal.”
That is just not true…..if he were a true POW we can send him anywhere we want to send him. Now of course I know he wasn’t a true POW, because he wasn’t attached to any nations military. I thought you would be bright enough to get my subtle inference of what the inmates at Gitmo WANT to be…POW’s so they can have G.C. protections. There….that make you feel better now?
As to the 101st Fighting Keyboarders……I’ll only speak for myself here. Retired Master Chief Seabee….27 years active duty. That’s all you need to know. May I ask your branch of service?
April 1st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
A little research into our friend jesurgislic reveals that he/she is a great fan of Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon. He/she (not sure which) is also very pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-anti America, and most likely an anarchist. Always helps to know who you’re dealing with when it comes to trolls.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Oh now after referring to me as coward, You wanna play victim.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:01 pm
jesurgislic:
You can try to be a smartass all day and pick flyshit out of the pepper on POW issues but it just doesn’t matter because you really don’t know what your are talking about. You have come to the gunfight (so to speak) without any ammo, with no credibility, with no credentials. Now the only reason I’m personally not on active duty is due to my age, not because of any fear of fighting. You see, I’m still in very good condition, working an average of 60 hours a week building the infastructure of America in the construction industry. It’s just that federal law prohibits me from still “playing in the sandbox” with my big toys. So don’t try telling me the difference between typing and fighting…..because there is half of that equation that you haven’t experienced. The others you have mentioned here have experienced both halves and have earned the right to take what is in their minds and transfer it, through a keyboard, to the record here at S & L. Until, and unless you decide to become “whole”, so to speak, my advice to you would be STFU as you are outgunned and really outmanned here.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:06 pm
…pick flyshit out of the pepper….
LMAO!!!!
April 1st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Apparently meeting face to face is now considered a threat by CS liberal crybabies. Who knew?
April 1st, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Heck 1st, The troll wanted a fight with people who were silent.
And too stupid to see W.I. was handing her/his/Its ass.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:18 pm
“pick flyshit out of the pepper”
An official Navy/Marine Corps term.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:45 pm
WI: Heard it in the AF, too…maybe the Navy also uses it?
April 1st, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Back to being silent.
April 1st, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Well looks like Jerkalistic ( Thanks SJ ) got broomed.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
He’s a “former kangaroo skinner”??? That sounds like tough work. I mean, I bet they wriggle around like anything.