Yes Richard, our politicians can commit war crimes & proudly strut the land; our big businesses can kill, maim & steal the livelihoods of their employees; our elites can conspire to rob our citizenry of hundreds of millions of dollars, whilst being lauded as public benefactors.

And whilst our petty celebrities & their enablers can conspire to defraud us all through massive tax evasion; our spiritual guardians can traffic in racist fear & loathing; our sporting heroes can simultaneously be criminals & positive role models to our kids; our academics & other luminaries can cheat, lie, deceive, plagiarise & retire with ‘golden handshakes’; our corrupt bureaucrats can conspire to destroy our environment & our health – all with impunity. 

Whilst the former prime rattus & his fellow travellers could never bring themselves to express sorrow on behalf of a nation that deliberately engaged in genocide against its native people, some from the current crop have the gall to argue that Hicks cannot be redeemed unless until he ‘apologises’ for his behaviour.  

Never mind the inconvenient truth that he has never been charged with a crime, let alone found guilty, in a legally constituted court.

Never mind that he was kidnapped, rendered, imprisoned, tortured, denied his legal & human rights – all with the secret connivance of our trusted politicians & their criminal enablers in the feral police & so-called ‘intelligence services’ - escaping only after bowing to the combined might of two corrupt governments, bent only on extracting political mileage from his obscene treatment.   

David Hicks has nothing to apologise for. It is our shameless politicians & corrupt bureaucrats who should be bending their heads in shame for their foul betrayal of a fellow Australian citizen. 

Poor fellow my country indeed …..

David Hicks has been released from prison. 

A small crowd of mostly elderly supporters were outside the prison as Hicks left, many holding banners reading 'This could have been your son' and 'David Hicks is no threat'. 

His lawyer, David McLeod, later read a statement of Hicks's behalf. In the statement read to the media by his lawyer, Hicks said he didn't want to risk breaking the gag order placed on him as he didn't want to risk going back to Guantanamo. 

He also said he didn't feel that he could face the media at this point. 

He  thanked his lawyers, various politicians and organisations that had lobbied for his fair treatment. In the statement, Hicks, captured among Taliban forces in Afghanistan in December 2001, did not apologise for his terrorist-related conduct. 

"First and foremost, I would like to recognise the huge debt of gratitude that I owe the Australian public for getting me home. I will not forget, or let you down. 

"Next, I would like to thank my family and friends who have been so supportive of me. Words cannot adequately express the level of my feelings for them. I love them very much. 

"Also my team of lawyers: Major Dan Mori, Josh Dratel, Michael Griffin, Steve Kenny and David McLeod, as well as their legal teams in Adelaide, Sydney, Washington and London. Much of their work was carried out pro-bono and they know I owe my freedom to their efforts. 

"I also thank the legal profession within Australia, including the Law Council of Australia and the state Law Societies, and those abroad, who strove to uphold the ideal of a free trial for an Australian citizen. 

"Many thanks go to the Fair Go For David campaigners and organisations such as Amnesty International, GetUp, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Dick Smith, church groups including the Catholic Church, and various anti-torture and human rights groups. 

"The Red Cross played an important role by trying to improve conditions and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their efforts. 

"There are certain politicians I would also like to particularly mention and thank: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, Danna Vale, Sandra Kanck, Senator Bob Brown, Senator Kerry Nettle, Mark Parnell, Senator Linda Kirk, Nicola Roxon, Bob Debus, Rob Hull, Frances Bedford, Kris Hanna and many others who preferred to work behind the scenes. 

"A huge thank you also to the members of the media who wrote about and increased public awareness of my detention and treatment over the years. Without you, the court of public opinion would not have been as informed or influential. 

"There are many other groups, both large and small, and individuals involved in the campaign for my return to Australia, and to them I offer them my heartfelt thanks. 

"This list is in no particular order and to anyone that I haven't mentioned, I am very sorry. I hope to thank all of you personally at a later date.” 

Full Text Of David Hicks' Statement

Dr Brendan Nelson MP,

Leader of the Opposition. 

Re David Hicks 

Dear Dr Nelson, 

I am absolutely appalled by what I read in this morning's newspaper (The Sun Herald, 30/12) that you, the 'transitory' Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson thought Mr Hicks deserved a 'fair go' but he must first deliver an apology to the public. 

This is remarkable coming from a Minister who served in the Howard government.

That same man & that same government, who were unable to say 'SORRY' to Aboriginal/Indigenous people over an issue of abuse that spans in excess of 200 years.  

That same government which was happy to conspire with the USA to befriend the Taliban & then later to disown them when they no longer served their purpose (the USA & Australia followed suit - this is nothing new & films & books & history will record the way it was NOT the way Bush or Howard (or Mao) would have liked it to have been.)

Who, then conspired to put people like Mamouud Habib & David Hicks into tortured confinement in Guantanamo Bay (a sad & shameful part of Cuba for the Cuban people who want nothing more than Guantanamo returned to its original state) & which confinement breached the Geneva Convention. 

After 6 odd years (5.5yrs in Guantanamo - you remember the place where the naive half-witted American soldiers had a lot of fun with cameras & electrical wire & dogs...you remember those good country men & women & how you made them that way?) 

Well, Brendan, you still think that David Hicks should apologise to the Australian public for causing them so much angst?  

Well, I have visited Guantanamo, in April this year, amongst the locals (who would, by the way, like their piece of Cuba back) & I have watched through good media & seen your government rob innocent people of their lives & seen families divided & children & young men & women go almost insane (& others commit suicide) behind the barbed wire you called 'detention'... some solution?  

Frankly Brendan, I imagine you possibly can sleep at night (if you disassociate yourself from your forbears).

But I wouldn't want to share a room with Ruddock or Howard. I suspect their spirits will be dealt with in due course. 

So, apart from Guantanamo, apart from the stale smell of Howard's too long 11 years in reign...you have a chance for a fresh change & what do you do? You come out with a really dumb statement about David Hicks. You say he owes the Australian public an apology.

How can you be so ignorant & small minded: like your predecessors, you just don't get it. I, like many other Australians are opposed to the war in Iraq....it was so unnecessary that I feel enormous guilt about our soldiers who are there. I also feel enormous guilt about the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens who have needlessly died. 

David Hicks has nothing to apologise for. In fact, he didn't start any wars. If anything, he was an innocent product of your political bastardry, encouraging young men to go fight against this weird enemy 'terrorism'. (Well, there ain't an enemy or a country called 'terrorism' that anyone can fight or invade...so you totally bombed that one!! And all the young people have seen through it!)  

Howard & your government in collaboration with Bush did exactly that. I fully expect George Bush Jnr, J Howard, Blair, Ruddock, & probably certain others will be tried for war crimes within 10 years.  

Brendan..your name could be on that list....so think very carefully what you say & how you judge others. 

What were you doing when you were 23 (the age Hicks was when he went east)? You've been married 3 times.- what does that make you .... a philanderer, a serial womaniser or a sexual pest or predator??? I'm not judging you...so.... 

Don't you be so quick to judge. 

Sincerely, 

Jackie Kane (Mrs) 

PS I am a retired teacher.& just personally,  I always felt uncomfortable when you were the Minister for Education, because you understood very little about that portfolio - education, & clearly were not interested in learning from the wonderful resource of hundreds/thousands of teachers Australia-wide who could have taught you in 30 minutes some educational diplomacy which you so sorely lacked. Teachers never stop learning - they open their hearts to that. Politicians - some care about changing society for the better, but most seldom learn, & most only care about their own career.

The Editor,

Sydney Morning Herald.                                           January 1, 2008.  

Gerard Henderson must have had a particularly unhappy Christmas, given his latest whinge about David Hicks: ‘Hicks fan club is in denial’, Herald, January 1. 

It would seem that most media shock-jocks & their redneck political cousins would be happy to see Hicks locked-up in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his life, simply on the basis of his alleged beliefs. 

What Henderson & his ilk seem incapable of understanding is that the motivation of the majority of members of the so-called Hicks ‘fan club’ had nothing to do with his alleged beliefs or actions, but everything to do with the very deliberate actions taken by both the US & Australian governments to deny him & so many others their legal & human rights. 

Like him or loath him, Hicks was everyman in the eyes of those who believe that our politicians should not be above the law or able to twist its application to suit their political ends. Perhaps it is the refusal of so many to give-up their belief in that fundamental democratic principle that is the true source of Henderson’s sour disposition?   

John Richardson