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Who needs a unifying theme anyway?

I also do Stuff My Girlfriend Says which is a lot funnier than this. Mostly because my girlfriend is funnier than me.

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FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has written an account of his life that will be published next month despite the possibility of action under proceeds-from-crime legislation. In Guantanamo: My Journey Hicks tells the story of his early days in Adelaide leading up to the 1999 overseas trip that included training in al-Qaeda-linked camps and ended with capture in Afghanistan in December 2001. He subsequently spent more than five years in the American prison camp at Guantanamo. In March 2007, Hicks pleaded guilty to the charge of ”providing material support for terrorism”. He was sent back to Adelaide and served another seven months in prison. Since his release, the military commission system has been declared invalid by the US Supreme Court.

Hicks tells his side of story

I’ll buy this book if only as a very small contribution back to a man who was shamefully betrayed by his country. I don’t care what Hicks did –– he was an Australian citizen whose country left him to rot and be tortured in Guantanamo bay. He deserved due process, and access to the rule of law. Our failure to demand that for him is a stain that needs cleansing.

EDIT: His guilty plea ought to be set aside, given that the court he faced was illegally constituted, and that his confession was almost certainly coerced after torture.