Sorry episode needs right apology

Dear David,

Despite what South Australian Premier Mike Rann and some newspapers might think, you do not owe the Australian people an apology.

In fact, it is your country which ought to be compensating you for subjecting you to five years of inhumane and illegal treatment at the hands of the US and Australian governments.

As you face calls for some form of apology, perhaps you might find it useful to remind those making that call of the following facts about your case.

First, to describe you, as has become commonplace in the media, of "pleading guilty to supporting terrorism" is grossly misleading. The circumstances of your plea of guilty last year should leave no one in any doubt it is unreliable and based on evidence that has never been tested in any court.

As your own former lawyer Stephen Kenny correctly observed last week: "It's very clear, considering David is the one and only prisoner that has been processed in Guantanamo Bay, he was made essentially an offer that he couldn't refuse to get him out of there."

As Kenny said: "If I spent 5½ years in Guantanamo Bay in the conditions that he was in - with a great deal of uncertainty about the outcome and an expectation that you would face an entirely unsatisfactory tribunal - and you were offered six months in an Australian prison before you were released, I have no doubt I would have taken that offer as well."

In other words, David, many insightful Australians understand you pleaded guilty only to get the hell out of the gulag of Guantanamo.

Second, there is doubt you would have been convicted of providing material support to terrorism if you had been tried in accordance with correct procedures in the US or Australia. What's the evidence against you?

According to the US military and security sources, you trained with al-Qaida and met Osama bin Laden a number of times. You have never had the chance to test those allegations and, worse than that, according to the affidavit you swore you were regularly tortured by your investigators and captors. If that is the case, then any evidence helpful to the prosecution adduced as a result of any such torture or oppression could not be used against you in a real court of law.

Further, as the former military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, James Yee, said last December 31, when asked by the ABC if he got the impression you were a true believer in al-Qaida's ideology, he "saw no indication that he was even extreme in his general beliefs. His beliefs mirrored mine with regard to believing in one God, praying five times a day, fasting during the month of Ramadan. As an American soldier wearing the US Army uniform, as a US military officer who met with him on a daily basis, you know, we had a personal relationship. He treated me with respect, I treated him with respect."

Others, including US law enforcement officials, have described you as a "lost soul", rather than as a terrorist in training.

David, you might also care to let those calling for an apology know you wouldn't mind getting one yourself.

In case Mike Rann, editorial writers and others have forgotten why, it's worth reminding them of the Howard government's and Bush administration's gross neglect of your rights.

Here we had a former prime minister in John Howard, his attorney-general Philip Ruddock, and foreign minister Alexander Downer, sitting on their hands while they allowed an Australian citizen to languish, without trial, in Guantanamo Bay year in, year out. In fact, you would still be there if Howard hadn't read his polls closely and realised even harder-hearted Australians thought you deserved a fair go.

In fact, so disgraceful was the treatment meted out to detainees at Guantanamo Bay that even the Bush administration's faithful friend, former British prime minister Tony Blair, thought it too much and brought some of his citizens, who were captives there, back to Britain.

David, if you had been given a fair trial in the US or Australian courts and found guilty, an apology from you might be in order - presuming there was no miscarriage of justice. Yet that's not the case here.

In fact, I would be looking at how you might be able to get the Australian government to pay for the intensive psychiatric and other medical help you will no doubt need to try to overcome the impact on your health of living in hell for six years.

David Hicks, your country failed you - and that should never be forgotten.