Hicks Up

Well, the Australian newspapers finally found something better to whinge about than a kangaroo in Canada - that being the fact their government spent $500,000 (yes, half a million bucks) transporting a convicted terrorist from Guantanomo Bay back to Adelaide.

David Hicks was, I believe, only the second accused (after American John Walker Lindh) held at Guantanomo to be convicted. It took five-and-a-half years, mostly because his lawyers did everything they could to stall the process (when it came time for his trial, he suddenly entered a guilty plea). In that time and despite the fact at one point he tried to claim British citizenship, he became a cause celebre in this country, for some God unknown reason.

It should be noted that unlike most of the scum at Guantanomo, including Canada's Omar Khadr - who the Americans can keep forever as far as I'm concerned - Hicks didn't actually do much of anything except act as a kind of gofer for al-Qaida/Taliban before being captured. He actually comes across as a total simpleton; a high school dropout who just kind of drifted, got sucked into radical Islam and then ended up in NATO hands. Which doesn't mean I have any sympathy for him; anymore than I would the simpleton who ends up acting as a supporter for murderers.

The Aussies, though, expressed plenty of sympathy for him; at least the far-left ones and his dad has become kind of an Aussie Cindy Sheehan. In fact, while his son was enjoying a ride home in a chartered Gulfstream aircraft, munching down on his choice of chicken or beef, chatting with security guards and watching movies, dad was at a "peace" conference; no doubt, one of those events where the US, Israel and other western nations are guilty of everything and the islamic world is just misunderstood and only needs a group hug to get along with us.

But, even the most sympathetic Australian seemed unimpressed with the tab run up to get him home to serve the final 7 months of his sentence. I doubt very much they were overly impressed with the fact that his lawyer then said being in an Adelaide jail was like being in the Hilton compared to Guantanomo Bay. A fine piece of rhetoric that as Hicks himself has admitted he was not mistreated by his American jailers.

Hicks has declared that he intends to finish his high school equivalency while in jail and then go to uni (as they call it here) to become an environmental scientist. From destroying the Earth to saving it, how very honourable. No doubt, the taxpayer will find themselves on the hook for part of that, too.

Now, the only question remaining is: how much are the Aussies willing to spend to repatriate their kangaroo?