http://news.smh.com.au/close-guantanamo-bay-says-david-hicks/20080111-1lez.html

David Hicks wants the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to be closed, fearful his former fellow detainees will never receive justice, his father says.

Hicks was detained by the US at the prison in Cuba for five and a half years, mostly without charge, before pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism last year.

Rallies have been staged worldwide to mark the sixth anniversary of the incarceration of Hicks and other terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

He wasn't jailed for being a muslim sprint.

Being a Muslim and being a terrorist are not the same thing. Inability ot distuinguish the two is part of the problem.

http://news.smh.com.au/guantanamo-has-damaged-us-top-officer/20080114-1luy.html

The top US military officer says he would like to see the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay closed because its image has damaged America's international standing.

But Mullen, the chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said closing the prison posed major legal problems.

Many governments, including close US allies, have urged Washington to shut the detention centre for terrorism suspects, which took in its first inmates almost exactly six years ago.

Since then, only one prisoner - Australian David Hicks - has been convicted through the system of war crimes tribunals set up to try Guantanamo inmates, and that was the result of a plea bargain.

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Waterboarding 'would be torture': US intel czar

http://news.smh.com.au/waterboarding-would-be-torture-us-intel-czar/20080114-1lsy.html

US intelligence czar Mike McConnell equated waterboarding with torture in an interview released Sunday, but denied that the United States tortures terror suspects during interrogation.

"Waterboarding would be excruciating," the US director of national security, in overall charge of intelligence, said in the interview in the New Yorker magazine, speaking of the simulated drowning technique that many regard as torture.

"If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can't imagine how painful! Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition, for me it would be torture," he said.

When asked to define torture, McConnell replied: "My own definition of torture is something that would cause excruciating pain."

While denying that US officials sanctioned the torture of terror suspects, McConnell told the New Yorker that the Central Intelligence Agency's "special methods" of interrogation had yielded "meaningful" intelligence.

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No comment on Hicks profits, says Rudd

http://news.smh.com.au/no-comment-on-hicks-profits-says-rudd/20080201-1pep.html

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it's not his place to determine whether former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks should be allowed to profit from selling his story.

Hicks is reportedly fielding lucrative offers for his story and could be paid up to $1 million in a major test of proceeds of crime laws.

Up to 30 different TV networks and publishers, from Australia and overseas, have made contact with his Adelaide-based lawyer, according to The Australian newspaper.

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MPs warn Hicks not to sell his story

http://news.smh.com.au/mps-warn-hicks-not-to-sell-his-story/20080201-1pep.html

The federal government expects legal authorities to take strong action against David Hicks if the confessed terrorism supporter breaks the law by trying to profit from his story.

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland released a brief statement saying he would expect swift action from authorities against any Australian who broke the law.

"With the benefit of competent legal advice, David Hicks pleaded guilty to serious charges relating to his involvement with a terrorist organisation," Mr McClelland said.

"Australian law prevents a person from profiting from criminal conduct.

"We would expect the authorities to take swift and vigorous action against any Australian who breaks the law."

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Hicks doesn't support terrorism: Smith

http://news.smh.com.au/hicks-doesnt-support-terrorism-smith/20080204-1pwz.html

Convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks is a decent Australian who has never supported terrorism, adventurer and businessman Dick Smith says.

During Mr Hicks' incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, Mr Smith campaigned for a fair trial for the Adelaide man, who was transferred to a South Australian jail last year, from which he was released in late December.

Since his release, Mr Hicks has contacted Mr Smith and the two met last week.

"I was going to Adelaide so I rang David and said, `Can I come talk to you because you're looking for a job and I'm happy to help with that but I'd want to get some answers to some questions'," Mr Smith told ABC radio in Sydney.

"I believe he is basically a decent Australian like his father, that we know well, and I don't believe he's ever been a supporter of terrorism.

"I asked him why he was in Afghanistan and it was quite different to what we've heard about ... (it was) all about trying to help independence movements.

"One of my views has changed completely and that is ... he shouldn't earn any money from this.

"But I've changed my view completely now because he's said he's never supported terrorism and most journalists I talk to and all lawyers say that the particular plea bargain is just terrible because he would have agreed to anything to get out of there (Guantanamo)."

Mr Hicks is reportedly fielding offers from about 30 media organisations worldwide to tell the story of his capture in Afghanistan and his more than five years in Guantanamo Bay.

A media gag order on Mr Hicks, imposed by the US court, expires at the end of next month.