David Hicks, by Michael Mori - Hick's US Gitmo lawyer

Above, David Hick's Australian father protests his son's confinement in New York. He confines himself in the same sized cell as his son.

I've long been on about in obscenity that the US and Howard gov's injustice to Australian citizen David Hicks was, who Howard described as the "worst of the worst"; being those locked up in Gitmo.

David Hicks was held there for 5 years without charge (that number again - five). He was eventually released in 2007 when the Howard gov was fucked and trying to make up for amends. Howard did a deal with Bush. In usual Howard fashion, a mans life became politics.

Hick's lawyer during this time was a US military lawyer, Michael Mori. He has now written a riveting book about his experiences during that time, publishing an excerpt online. 

In this bit he tells some of Hick's treatment during that time. Hick's, who'd never been charged with anything. 

This is what the US has become. Thanks USA, "light on the hill" and all......

In 2006, I made four trips to Australia, with the major goal of raising public awareness of the unfair treatment of an Australian citizen. During 2006, the public became more willing to look past Hicks being "over there" and focus on the broader issues of fair treatment for an Australian. Public opinion was swaying strongly. More Australians were writing to their members of parliament, including PM John Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Ruddock. Downer continued to repeat the same media buzz lines, such as, "There have been serious accusations made against Mr Hicks arising from acts allegedly committed by him whilst overseas." 

A Newspoll showed that 67 per cent of Liberal voters (John Howard's own party) wanted Hicks returned, "even if he comes back a free man". As I visited four cities, strangers came up to give me letters they had written to Hicks, to help sustain him in solitary confinement. Some had been written by children. They carried one key message: "Australia hasn't forgotten about you." Howard might have been feeling the pressure mounting because, late in 2006, he admitted he could have had Hicks brought home, but chose not to. 

As for Hicks, he ended the year feeling suicidal. He was still locked up in solitary confinement, spending 23 hours a day in his cell. Following repeated requests, his lights were dimmed during sleeping hours. He didn't trust the guards, who, he believed, were reading and photographing his legal material while he was in his cell. Hicks's back problems were worsening, and when he was told a physical therapist would come to treat him, the therapist did not turn up. 

Hicks became increasingly institutionalised, and despaired of ever getting out. His mental state was back to when I first met him: confined to immediate issues of daily routine and survival. I could see this was a result of his hopes having been bounced around from possibility to possibility with all the legal developments going on, on a roller coaster between expectation and depression. Under the influence of solitary confinement, his mind had shrunk into a tiny circle. 

Every Christmas, he had been allowed a phone call with his family. In December 2006, he was too depressed to handle even that phone call. As the new year began, Hicks had spent five years in US custody. But the campaign to free Hicks gathered momentum. Terry Hicks was a recognisable, sympathetic face for most Australians. A top Australian military lawyer, Captain Paul Willee, said the commissions breached "every single precept of natural law and justice in the criminal context". Brigadier Lyn McDade, the Australian Army's Director of Military Prosecutions, said the treatment of Hicks was "abominable", while former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser said Hicks had been "totally deserted by the Australian government". more