Well the sentence in the David Hicks case has been brought down. This terrible, dangerous man, who was caught consorting with terrorists, hanging with Osama, and providing material support to terrorists will serve nine months in prison in Adelaide.

Gosh, the case against him must have been compelling for this result. Hardly a case of do the crime, do the time. It doesn’t seem the crime was very serious after all.

Bush, Howard and all their cronies should hang their collective heads in shame. The serious and terrible crimes of which he was accused (that we never really got to the bottom of) were worth a measly nine months in jail? Are they serious? Seven years was pleaded down to nine months?

Can we get these fools away from the levers of government? They really don’t deserve them. [more]

Janet Albrechtsen and the rest of the Howard cheer squad were out in force late last week, misrepresenting the views of many people who were more concerned about justice than his guilt or otherwise. But all of us have apparently got ‘egg on our faces’ because Hicks pleaded guilty. Well they must be suffering a bit of egg blowback tonight! This dangerous man they have all be demonising for the last five years will be walking among us early in 2008.

How will we protect ourselves from such danger? WEE are astonished that Howard can, in the light of this result, stand with his straight, serious face on and tell us that due process has been observed and justice has run its course.

WEE mentioned that it was a sad chapter in Australian history earlier this week. Well, it’s starting to descend into farce. WEE only hope the electorate can see through this sham.

Either the man is a dangerous terrorist (the government position) who deserves to be locked up behind bars for a long time, or he was a naive adventurer (the rather extreme left view) who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and so was only guilty of misadventure… which WEE don’t think is a crime.

Gosh, when is this farce going to end? Now we have to wait until early next year (and after the election… how convenient) to really hear what Hicks is all about. And of course it will be dragged on and on in the media. Couldn’t they have put us all out of our misery and released him now? Then it could all be over in a couple of weeks, or at least the real issue in all of this could have been brought into focus, the role the Australian government played in colluding with the Americans to lock Hicks up without trial for five years.

Alas, the media will now be clamouring over each other to court Hicks for his story over the next 9-12 months. And the distraction of these media games will ensure that Howard and his government avoids any awkward questions about his disgraceful handling of the Hicks case from the day he was apprehended by the Americans.

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