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Originally posted by Iron Greasel:
quote:
Originally posted by johnny:
Since he walked with the Taliban, who are widely recognised as a bunch of terrorists, he is everything BUT innocent. Therefore he deserves just as much a fair trial as the Taliban themselves have given to their captives in the past, which is 0.0
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If he is not innocent, then what is he guilty of? Being a taliban? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is not, in my possibly biased opinion, a valid reason to shut someone in a box for three years.
Also, the fact that they mistreat their prisoners is no reason for you to. Well, possibly a reason, but not one that would give your actions international acceptance.
Quote:
Originally posted by Sir Krustin:
He's caught hanging out with taliban terrorists in a warzone, carrying a gun.
He's a terrorist.
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That definition can't be right. A person who carries a gun in a warzone he is simply a soldier. If he carries a gun in some non-military settlement, with an intention to shoot civilians, then he is a terrorist. [/QUOTE]It's NOT just a matter of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Here are the charges against him:
In the voided indictment of Hicks, the United States government had alleged:
that in November 1999 Hicks travelled to Pakistan, where he joined the paramilitary Islamist group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of the Faithful).
that Hicks trained for two months at a Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan, where he received weapons training, and that during 2000 he served with a Lashkar-e-Toiba group near the Pakistan-Kashmir.
that in January 2001 Hicks travelled to Afghanistan, then under the control of the Taliban regime, where he presented a letter of introduction from Lashkar-e-Toiba to Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda member, and was given the alias "Mohammed Dawood".
that he was sent to al-Qaeda's al-Farouq training camp outside Kandahar, where he trained for eight weeks, receiving further weapons training as well as training with land mines and explosives.
that he did a further seven-week course at al-Farouq, during which he studied marksmanship, ambush, camouflage and intelligence techniques.
that at Osama bin Laden's request, Hicks translated some al-Qaeda training materials from Arabic into English.
that in June 2001, on the instructions of Mohammed Atef, an al-Qaeda military commander, Hicks went to another training camp at Tarnak Farm, where he studied "urban tactics," including the use of assault and sniper rifles, rappelling, kidnapping and assassination techniques.
that in August Hicks went to Kabul, where he studied information collection and intelligence, as well as Islamic theology including the doctrines of jihad and martyrdom as understood through al-Qaeda's fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
that in September 2001 Hicks travelled to Pakistan and was there at the time of the September 11 attacks on the United States, which he saw on television.
that he returned to Afghanistan in anticipation of the attack by the United States and its allies on the Taliban regime, which was sheltering Osama bin Laden.
that on returning to Kabul, Hicks was assigned by Mohammed Atef to the defence of Kandahar, and that he joined a group of mixed al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters at Kandahar airport, and that at the end of October, however, Hicks and his party travelled north to join in the fighting against the forces of the U.S. and its allies.
that after arriving in Konduz on 9 November 2001, he joined a group which included John Walker Lindh (the "American Taliban"). This group was engaged in combat against Coalition forces, and during this fighting he was captured by Coalition forces.
So I will defer judgement on whether this makes him a terrorist or an armed combatant who can be held as a POW. It's clear that his life prior to Afghanistan isn't all clean cut either. In 1999, Hicks travelled to Albania (leaving behind a failed relationship and two children), where he joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a paramilitary organisation of ethnic Albanian Muslims fighting against Serbian forces in the Kosovo War, and served with them for two months. But the conflict in Kosovo was almost over by the time he arrived and he saw no fighting. After his return to Australia, Hicks converted to Islam and began to study Arabic.
I have to admit that my gut tells me to throw away the key on him; he sounds like a terrorist or at the very least a terrorist supporter, and it seems clear that he was involved with the Taliban at least to some degree.
But there's a bigger issue here and it's not a simple one either. The US has always stood for freedom and justice, and no matter HOW much it may be distateful for us, Hicks DOES deserve his day in court. If we allow his rights to be trampled on, what is to happen to ours? Yet calls for his freedom seem to be misplaced. His past actions do not speak well for him (at least going on what facts or information at our disposal).
Additionally, the Australian government doesn;t seem to want to go to bat for this guy. Surely, given the friendly relations between the two countries, the Australian government could secure his release for trial in his home country. You have to ask yourself, why not?
As an aside, but a pertinent one, here are the actual articles of the Third Geneva Conventions.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Third_...tion#Article_3
Read the definitions of what constitutes a POW there. [img]smile.gif[/img]