THE stream of eagerly awaited Letters to the Editor this week, unsurprisingly, contained several dealing with Saturday’s public conversation by high-profile ex Guantanamo prisoner, David Hicks.
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All are a welcome addition to the ongoing debate involving arguably the most prominent Western detainee held at Guantanamo.
In particular, my question to Mr Hicks about his 1999 conversion to Islam, his association with militants in northwest Pakistan, and the use of the appellation “blossom” directed to his wife, Aloysia, during the question and answer session, appears to have caused disquiet if not outright dismay by some of our readers. I value your opinions.
First, let me deal with the use of the moniker “blossom”. During the talk I was standing several rows back from the stage and unable to identify the source of an interjection while replying to a question from Mr Hicks. It came from his wife.
Ms Hicks whom I was unable to see was seated at the very front of the hall hence my spur of the moment use of a generic vernacular term of endearment. Be assured no disrespect was intended. If I had been in a position to identify Ms Hicks, I would have used her name.
I also reject as misinformed the claim of another letter writer that I am anti Islamic, working to undermine multi-culturalism or some kind of right-wing stooge. Nothing is further from the truth.
Now, to the issue of my question (only one and not a “barrage” of questions as one writer claims) to Mr Hicks, which he declined to answer.
I paid $10 to hear Mr Hicks speak because I was genuinely curious to learn what he had to say about his detention at Guantanamo and his time in Afghanistan leading to his arrest.
I also reserved the right along with other audience members to respectfully ask a question when the opportunity arose.
It is nonsense to suggest (as some letters claimed) I had covertly slipped into the talk as an undercover reporter. And to the writer who complained about my “journalistic” question. Sorry, but that’s what journalists generally do.
I was not alone among those in the paying audience who noted that not once during the “Conversation with David Hicks” did Facilitator Dr Richard Hil, question his involvement with Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“We seem to be getting only half the story here,” said the lady next to me.
She was right. It was disingenuous of Dr Hil not to question David Hicks involvement with extremists - the key to understanding why he (Hicks) ended up in the appalling circumstances he later found himself.
Promotional guff released prior to his “conversation” conveniently skates over this chapter of his life, merely referring to an “overseas trip” in which Mr Hicks “became aware of the human rights abuses facing civilians in Indian-controlled Kashmir.”
That is the understatement of the decade. Some backpacker, Mr Hicks turned out to be. He trained with militant groups to kill people and his own account of this period in his book is vague, evasive and fundamentally dishonest.
And could I refer to the account of another Guantanamo detainee, Feroz Abbasi, whose testimony on insurgent training undermines Hicks recollections.
Yes, Mr Hicks was treated harshly after his capture. Yes, Mr Hick’s human rights were violated during his incarceration and yes, the Australian government should have acted more forcibly in seeking his release from Guantanamo.
But Mr Hicks did not somehow magically land in Guantanamo, delivered by a bunch of garden fairies having a bad day.
What was he doing roaming around the lawless regions of northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan? And what of the company he was keeping? Mr Hicks continues to refuse to provide a coherent account of this key interval.
Thankfully, his career as an aspiring gunslinger (his application to join the Australian Army had been rejected) was cut short following his arrest in northern Afghanistan in 2001 when he was turned over to US Special Forces by the Northern Alliance.
It is no surprise that the Hicks cheer squad does not want a light shone on their hero’s past links with al-Qaeda, Lashkar-i-Tayyiba and other murderous thugs who have scant regard for human rights, the violation of which formed the main theme of Mr Hick’s rambling discourse about his later treatment at Guantanamo.
Of course Mr Hicks does not want to be reminded of his past association with Taliban extremists who shoot Pakistani girls (15-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Malala Yousafzai ) for the crime of wanting to attend school, or cut off the nose and ears of child brides (18-year-old Afghan teenager Bibi Aisha) for wanting to escape an abusive relationship.
Their sick ideology includes support for public floggings and executions of Afghan women or most recently the use of child suicide bombers like the teenage boy who attacked my friend David Savage, a civilian AusAID official working in Chora district helping improve the lives of ordinary Afghans. He faces months of painful rehabilitation and is lucky to be alive.
The list goes on. And to letter writer Katherine Stuart may I suggest this is what counts for “hideous torture.”
As someone who has reported on assignment in Afghanistan on four occasions since 2006, the most recent being a month spent in the field, I think I can fairly claim some familiarity with my subject matter.
In justifying his refusal to answer questions about his past, Mr Hicks accused me and every other reporter who has covered his case, of being biased. That’s a cheap cop-out. “I’ve been screwed over, every single time,” he trumpeted, to scattered applause. But it is a lie.
Mr Hicks, his father and defence lawyer US Marine Major Michael Mori, the latter two, arguably the real heroes of this sorry saga, made extensive use of the media including this reporter to draw attention to his Guantanamo plight. The online record is there to see.
Finally – with ANZAC Day approaching, I would like to draw the attention of Mr Hicks and his supporters to the most recent name on our own Bellingen War Memorial – that of Sergeant Mathew Locke MG, killed in action in 2007 in Afghanistan fighting Mr Hicks former comrades in arms, the Taliban.
Bellingen-born Sergeant Locke from the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) gave his life in order to help Afghanistan become a democracy free of tyranny and of violent extremists, a country where boys and girls can go to school, vote freely for a government of their choice, and voice their opinions at Saturday public meetings without fearing an assassin’s bullet. I cannot think of a worthier endeavor.