The Murdoch press are also pushing for him to ‘Say Sorry’. What the hell for?
I think that the Murdoch Press / News Limited (an outstanding name) have under-estimated public opinion – check out this poll result from their own site:
Hicks released from Yatala - but no apology just thanks
Address : http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22983853-5006301,00.html
Here is how the pricks from News Limited cover the story in their headlines
And this is how the Fairfax Press covers it:
The Age and SMH editorials run common sense opinion, and as usual the news is with out opinion or comment, just reporting the facts.
The editorialists of The Age pretty well sum it up:
IT IS 13 months since this newspaper called for David Hicks to be brought home, eight since the Howard Government gave in to growing public pressure in what appears, with hindsight, to have been a cynical (and ultimately doomed) attempt at electoral manoeuvring, as opposed to a genuine effort to right an injustice. The detention of Hicks by the US rankled many Australians — not all, it's true, but a broad constituency of odd bedfellows from blue conservatives to green radicals to pink liberals, united in their disgust that an Australian citizen could be imprisoned so long without charge or trial.
The fact that he was for more than five years kept in more inhumane conditions at Guantanamo Bay than are civilian prisoners on death row only adds to an injustice that Britain, for one, did not tolerate for its detained citizens. Today, David Hicks is free for the first time since his capture in Afghanistan in 2001. When he left prison in Adelaide yesterday, it brought us close to the end of a disgraceful and disturbing episode.
Address :
http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/david-hicks-is-no-hero-but-the-case-for-freeing-him-is-just/2007/12/29/1198778759202.html
And
Of all the hundreds deemed "unlawful combatants" by the US, David Hicks is the only one to have been convicted and only after a plea-bargain process that was clearly subject to political interference, which his military prosecutors later confirmed. The terms included an extraordinary year-long ban on talking to the media, which extends beyond his nine-month sentence. Hicks pleaded guilty at a hearing in March to having provided material support to al-Qaeda and of being associated with an armed conflict. He returned to Australia in May under a prisoner-exchange agreement and has spent his remaining months of incarceration at Yatala prison in South Australia, his home state. Fellow Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib, who was picked up in Pakistan, was released without charge in 2005.
Ultimately, David Hicks became a cause celebre not because of what he did but because of what was done to him and to the integrity of the justice system in the prosecution of the "war on terror". Hicks' long detention without trial, much of which was spent in solitary confinement, eventually caused widespread outrage. The Howard government failed at one of the most basic levels of a democratic state's contract with its citizens, which is to ensure that all accused promptly receive a fair trial in a properly constituted court, whatever the circumstances.
Address : http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/shoddy-justice-for-hicks/2007/12/28/1198778693419.html
Here is a typical News Limited article: I have high-lighted in red bits that I think are crap to see in a news paper.
Hicks whisked into hiding - Article from: Sunday Herald Sun
Author: Liam Houlihan, December 30, 2007 12:00am
A DEFIANT David Hicks was in hiding last night after refusing to apologise for working with Islamic terror groups responsible for killing Australians.
Hicks, 32, looking robust and with shoulder-length hair, walked out of Adelaide's Yatala Prison yesterday morning after nearly six years behind bars.
Almost a dozen police cars and motorbikes held back traffic and a no-fly zone grounded helicopters as Hicks made a quick getaway.
Read full story
WHAT A LOAD OF BULL SHIT! Gutter Journalism.
From other media articles we can tell that he is hardly defiant, rather broken, terrified, anxious and agoraphobic. Terrified of talking to the media in case he gets sent back to Guantanamo Bay. It is highly doubtful that he worked for ANY Islamic terror group. He did get roped in by the Talban, Afghanistan’s ruling government to stand by a tank and guard it. That’s about it!
Luckily I am not alone in protesting the bull-shit News Limited reporting. Recently the News Limited sites added comment support to their news articles. This is back-firing on them at the moment:
Comment highlights (naturally I have selected the ones I like)
At least the author of this piece could try reporting with the use of a little less sensationalism. To state that Hicks was 'defiant', 'in hiding', 'refused to apologise' (refusal can only come after an offer or request and we have done neither) and made a 'quick getaway' is pure adornment and does nothing to assist in lifting journalistic standards in this country.
Posted by: Sickofthedrivel of Brisbane 7:09am today
Since the man has never been convicted of any crime in Australia and his US trial was just a scam snow job based on questionable evidence obtained under illegal methods that most civilized countries call torture and would disallow in open court ! Please remember his five minutes of fame has come and gone ! The time has come to leave the man alone in peace and leave him to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and if possible partially recover from the evil deeds done to him by persons seeking revenge in the name of blind justice ! What price a choice indeed for he has to come to terms with these demons , could you?
Posted by: ian of 34 heath cr hampton 6:15am today
No Guantanamo inmate should have to answer to anyone for anything, other than to a legally constituted Civil trial with untainted evidence. Water-boarding, my government's favorite means of obtaining "confessions", involves pouring a stream of water in a thin plastic condom down a prisoner's throat until drowning sensations and vomiting attempts ensue. The typical US agent in training lasts under 10 seconds before panicking against his restraints. Ask yourself, if you were water-boarded, what would you confess to? Anything, everything? You bet! Are many/most of the Guantanamo prisoners very bad, dangerous men? You bet. Can anyone rely on my government's statements regarding any of them? No way. Watch Hicks, but otherwise, leave him alone.
Posted by: Common Tator of USA 4:56am today
At least the author of this piece could try reporting with the use of a little less sensationalism. To state that Hicks was 'defiant', 'in hiding', 'refused to apologise' (refusal can only come after an offer or request and we have done neither) and made a 'quick getaway' is pure adornment and does nothing to assist in lifting journalistic standards in this country.
Posted by: Sickofthedrivel of Brisbane 7:09am today
And from Adelaide now:
Typical Murdoch press. You got instructions from your boss to do a beat up did you? The Sunday Mail like many other papers appears to have forgotten it's their job to report news and not make comments on it. A pity you didn't make comments when a man was imprisoned by the Yanks for over 5 years without charges and then finally railroaded by them. Pehaps one day you'll get back to being what you profess to be... A News Paper.
Posted by: Zorro of Noarlunga 10:29am today
Lindy Chamberlain revisited? What trash the Murdoch press is. The Brits have got rid of Blair, we have got rid of Howard and Bush is politically dead (lost the House and the Senate). Get the message, Mr. Murdoch? We do not want your world. We want solutions to the world's problems, by dialogue and starting with Isreal and Isreal existing within its internationally consituted borders, without nuclear weapons. If Isreal have nuclear weapons why should not Iran, as a counter balance. This is the reason the USA retain a nuclear capacity, to hold onto "power" by making other afraid. With Hicks, the Order should be on the media - not to persue him and not to attempt to locate him.
Posted by: Peter Stokes of Vale Park 8:53am today
Then man spent five years in jail. Most of those were in solitary. No charges were laid until the last minute in a 'face saving' deal for the benefit of Bush, and his deputy Howard. He did wrong and stupid things. He was a clown for the Taliban, and I hope he learnt from his idiotic mistakes. Wrong was done on both sides of this pathetic equation. If Hicks has to apologise to appease the jackals at News Ltd. then an apology is also required from Bush and Howard for the prostitution of legal principle and basic (and I mean basic) human rights, not necessarily to Hicks but, rather, their respective electorates. In all we are better off to let the silly bastard try to invent a new life for himself, sans islamic extremism. We should concentrate on creating a system where such obvious abuses of OUR human rights are much less possible.
Posted by: ben porter of clare 10:28am today
Pathetic excuse for "JOURNALISM" from the Lackey scribblers at the Advertiser Yet Again (they should be ashamed of themselves"... Is there only ! source of so called "NEWS" in Australia, sounds more like Government Propaganda to me"The suede jackboot and the Cultural Cosh....are you fooled...Leave Hicks alone, he has suffered enough at the Hands of the corrupt criminal murderous Cabal in the White house and their cronies worldwide.
Posted by: Louise of Adelaide 10:21am today
What is it with Australia and bloody apologies??? What on earth does it matter if he says sorry or not?? Further what does it matter to me, living in good old south of adelaide, that some bloke got locked up in Afghanistan? There is absolutely not one ounce of anything he has to say sorry to me about. He should say sorry to his dad and his wife and thats about it. Who first brought up this bollocks of saying sorry in the first place?? Probably the editor of some news ltd paper no doubt as the Oz public don't give a damn!!!
Posted by: Tim of adelaide 10:14am today
Address : http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22983853-5006301,00.html
And there are PLENTY more where they came from!
