weekend of hypocrisy

"The Australian public have been told now for five years that David Hicks is a dangerous terrorist," Mr Rann said. "What I want to know from the Federal Government is, what are the conditions of his release? What are the parole conditions? Will he be under supervision?"

Alexander Downer said yesterday that being involved with terrorists "is a very, very serious matter". But then, as a sceptical attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union said, he was "given a sentence more appropriate for a drunk-driving offence".

"Whether he was a foot soldier or more important than that, none the less he was definitely working with the terrorists who were seeking to destroy our civilisation,"Mr Downer said.

Treasurer Peter Costello is also taking a hard line. "For those people who say poor David Hicks, I say the poor dead and their families that died in the World Trade Centre," he said.

"I consider anybody who goes and fights for al-Qaida to be dangerous," Mr Downer said.
"I mean, al-Qaida is the world's most vicious terrorist organisation."

from ever so demure herald-sun "SYMPATHY is wasted on David Hicks, who abandoned his family in Australia for terrorism training in Afghanistan, a man who conspired to identify Western targets for Osama bin Laden's fanatical al-Qaida. It was his intention to be an agent of Islamist terror -- which means he was prepared for Australians to die in the name of his adopted cause." What a pity none of any of that was ever raised as a charge, or even insinuated (except in a statement obtained under torture by another detainee whose testamony was proven false by MI5 and who repudiated all he said once out of Gitmo, still a false hearsay convictions better than no conviction at all)

Hypocrisy of the week though goes to:

GW Bush

his outrage over the 15 Britons captured by Iran (maybe in Iranian territorial waters, maybe not), while neglecting the 6 Iranian diplomatic staff kidnapped in Iraq by US forces, over the strenuous objections of the Kurdish PM who invited them to be there, and the, at least, 20 more Iranians kidnapped by US forces in Iraq, all of whom have disapeared into that legal black hole of US/Iraqi "justice" or whatever it is that they are calling it now. What ye reap so shall ye sow, eh King George.

From Terry Jones, an English perspective:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2047110,00.html