My Government Is Cactus, Part I: David Hicks
April 1st, 2007 by Adam
The virtue of being in Australia at the moment is this David Hicks fiasco—I don’t know how much attention American media is giving it, but it’s huge down here and fascinates me endlessly as the perfect example of government screwing the pooch so badly that an admitted terrorist doesn’t actually get punished for his crimes (not that our track record for such things is superb.) Mike Rann, the Premiere of South Australia, came out with a hilariously valid point the other night—why is a man that America has said for 5 years is incredibly dangerous being sent back to Australia to serve only 9 months of an otherwise suspended 12 year sentence? Somehow, America has managed to ass the situation up so outrageously that less than a year from now, a convicted terrorist will be absolutely free. (Maybe he could go to Harvard!)
What fascinates me even further is the amount of sympathy poured on him by the Australian public. To be quite honest, most people down here care far more that America held him without trial for five years (something very much illegal in both our nations), subjecting him repeatedly to torture (allegedly, though I find it hard to believe that homeboy sodomized himself for the attention.) and not allowing him to see the sun for almost a full year of his life, than the fact that he eventually plead guilty. Though, if you’ve been following the case for a while, it’s not hard to see why they’d be so damn frustrated.
I saw his lead defense counsel, Major Michael Mori, speak in Adelaide several weeks ago and it was quite the eye-opener to follow the trail of America’s barely legal inadequacies over the years; how laws were written and applied retrospectively, how charges were leveled for which the U.S. hadn’t a shred of evidence, how evidence gathered under certain “duress” would not be admissible yet the government refused to divulge which evidence was gathered that way. After all of this, and much, much more was made public, we couldn’t even pretend that whatever trial David Hicks got would be fair—after five years of being called “enemy” every day, could he possibly have been acquitted no matter how little evidence they had? Not a fucking chance. He had to be guilty, and he was smart, taking advantage of America’s situation and allowing them their pride in exchange for his freedom.
It’s sad because all America did was sit on its thumbs while the world fumed, creating this situation through its own stubborn stupidity. If someone is caught doing anything illegal, especially training with Al Qaeda, they need to be arrested, tried in a timely manner, convicted (if you can actually prove guilt) and punished. But if you dick around with someone’s life, deny them a trial, flout domestic and international law just because you can, then guess what? People are going to be pissed at you, and not them! For an administration that has built policy left and right on the personalization of fear and the vague notion of “Us vs. Them”, they’ve managed to completely fuck this up. If America had just tried and convicted David Hicks four years ago, on the best charges or plea bargain they could manage, he’d likely still be years away from freedom. At worst he might have gotten a similar amount of time to that he’s already served, only legally, and without all the fanfare and bad publicity we’ve suffered as the bastion of “Freedom” that pisses on the Geneva Accords and mocks the right to a fair trial. As it stands, America held a man some 1,500 days looking for the best way to convict him, couldn’t really figure out how or flat out refused to, and when he was willing to admit guilt, happily suspended 94% of his sentence– not exactly tough on terror are you now, G Dub? It was a face-saving tactic, plain and simple.
Similarly, Iran, after all its hard-line talk, was dumb enough to capture 15 British marines that it can’t do anything with. They don’t dare execute or otherwise punish them, but now they’re forced to ramp up the rhetoric and act tough while looking for a way out (maybe a few years of detention before releasing them with a slap on the wrist?). Meanwhile, Britain has taken an equally hard-line though they’re not no going to do shit but wait for Iran to save face and release the hostages so both sides can breathe a sigh of relief and go on national television to proclaim victory. The Iranian government just can’t afford to back down and admit mistakes, and in this respect Ahmadinejad and Bush (who’s got hard-line rhetoric for days) have a lot in common. This posturing is no more impressive to me than two dogs barking over a fence at each other
Hubris is really the issue here: a foolish, self-centered pride that allows a nation to act inconsistently with both logic and law, under the assumption that no one will notice or care. It leads to this– face saving tactics at the expense of reputation and security. America got burned badly this time, and Australia as well, and the whole free world, in a sense, because a man who hated the West in the first place and has been treated like shit by the U.S. for half a decade is only serving 6% of his sentence and will be free this time next year. Way to go, guys, at this rate all of Gitmo should be free by 2010 just so you can tout a 100% conviction rate.
David Hicks is just lucky he’s Australian; America has far fewer qualms about screwing over brown Pakistani nationals than they do about those quaint people “Down Under” with their cute little accents, and ‘isn’t it just a shame what happened to that Steve Irwin? –He was so wonderful and will be missed and his family is so strong and our hearts go out to them.’
Adam
Note: less than 72 hours later, a direct quote from the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran: “I declare that the people of Iran and the government of Iran — in full power to place on trial the military people — to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people and I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain.”
Surprise… fucking… surprise…