David Hicks bullied into guilty plea at Guantánamo kangaroo court

Hicks is the first prisoner illegally incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay to be brought before a military commission. The vague charge, the commission itself, and Hicks’s guilty plea are all legal travesties, which not only violate the Geneva Conventions but centuries-old basic legal principles.

The real guilty parties are the Bush administration and its political accomplice, the Australian government. Prime Minister John Howard and his ministers have violated the legal rights of one of their citizens and endorsed the Guantánamo regime where fear and intimidation, sensory deprivation and other torture techniques are routine.

Both Washington and Canberra immediately seized on Hicks’s guilty plea as a vindication of their actions. US defence spokeswoman Major Beth Kubala claimed Monday’s hearing demonstrated that the “process is transparent, legitimate and moving forward.”

In the Australian federal parliament, Howard read the charge sheet, while Justice Minister David Johnston gloated, “When you plead guilty you put yourself in the dock and you don’t go home that night.” In line with its failure to defend Hicks’s basic rights throughout his ordeal, the Labor opposition has refused to make any statement until the proceedings are finished.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/hick-m28.shtml