It's hard to believe that one of your own could go over to the other side, but David Hicks did just that and has lived to tell the tale. He's written a book about his experiences "Guantanamo: My Journey" is out today. The book re-affirms his claims of innocence. "I have never been a supporter of terrorism" he writes, "I did not harm anyone - I have never attempted or planned to - nor was I accused of such." But to secure his release, he pleaded guilty to "providing material support for terrorism." So I can't work out if he was just a stupid kid, a misguided idealist or a menace to society.
From January 2002 until 2007 David Hicks was imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay US Military Prison in Cuba. His cage was 3 steps wide x 3 steps long. There was no standing up, no touching the wire, no talking, no looking around. If you did, you would be paid a visit from the Instant Reaction Force (IRF) whose beatings were known as being "earthed".
Hicks was in Camp X-Ray for only four months and remembers the first prisoner he saw being "earthed" - he was an Afghan man with a prosthetic limb. A military policeman asked him why he had scratched "Osama will save us" onto the concrete of his cage's floor. The MP came back with 6 more MPs in riot gear. One pinned him to the floor with a shield while the others beat him. Then one came in with a German Shepherd and the dog was encouraged to bark and growl close to the man's face while he was being beaten. When they had finished they chained him up and carried him out - his face was covered in blood. Later, Hicks writes, an MP told him he had scratched "Osama will Save Us" on the concrete himself. It was a brutal set-up.
The book took Hicks 2 years to write. He married social justice advocate Aloysia Brooks and works at a native plant nursery in Sydney after Dick Smith persuaded the owner to give him a go. He's now a manager.
He talks about his conversion to Islam after serving with the Kosovo Liberation Army. In 1999 he went to the Middle East and spent some time at training camps linked to al-Qaeda. His obsession with Afghanistan continued and in 2001 after fighting for the Kashmiri cause for independence, he was captured and handed over to the Americans.
I was under the impression that we had a law that states no money can be made from the proceeds of crime but a spokesman for the CDPP yesterday could not confirm or deny if this will apply to David Hicks and his book.
