Hicks Returns To Adelaide

The Newspapers have called it Hicks's 'Return home'. I wont call it that. I don't feel that someone who chose to join the enemies of Australia has the right to call this country home anymore.

However, here is an update for you all...

Hicks touches down in Australia May 20, 2007 AFTER five years in Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks has touched down at an Adelaide air base, and will be transferred shortly to a South Australia jail to serve the rest of his nine-month sentence. The confessed supporter of terrorists boarded a government-chartered Gulfstream G550 jet at the American base yesterday amid heavy security, sources said. Sky News reported that the chartered plane landed at the Edinburgh RAAF base, in South Australia, at 9.50am (Adelaide time). Also on board the plane were Hicks' lawyer, David McLeod, Australian Federal Police officers, Correctional Services officers and officials from the Attorney-General's department. The plane flew back to Australia via a long route becaue the US would not allow the Guantanamo Bay detainee Hicks to fly into its airspace. Hicks will now be transferred to the Yatala Labour Prison to complete his sentence for providing material support for terrorism. Link

And I added a few related stories for you..

No soft landing Facing a new prison regime when he comes home will be easy for David Hicks, compared to dealing with his infamy and his many detractors, write Jamie Walker and Verity Edwards May 18, 2007 TERRY Hicks says his son might yet salvage something from the five lost years he spent in Guantanamo Bay prison. He believes David is a very different person from the feckless young man who left Adelaide in search of excitement, who embraced Islamic extremism and ended up on the wrong side of the war on terror. He's resolved to rebuild the life he nearly squandered when he threw in his lot with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, his father says. Hicks is keen to complete the high school correspondence course he started while imprisoned by the Americans in their controversial Cuban terrorism jail and to qualify for university. He wants to revive his relationship with the two children he abandoned - teenagers now, who are estranged from his side of the family. Terry Hicks, perhaps daring to hope, says his boy seems determined to make a fresh start. "He just wants to get on with his life ... to get back here, live normally ... that's what he's really focused on now. It's the difference I see in David," he tells The Australian from his home in Adelaide's north. Link

One of the downsides to living in this country is we often appear all to happy to let bygones be bygones. Rarely do we hold a grudge even when it seems entirely appropriate. Well, in this case the government has barely let up with their obvious dislike for this would be Terrorist. While Terrry Hicks repeatedly calls for Australians to 'give David a chance' the politicians serve as a constant reminder for what this man stood for. He chose to fight alongside our countries enemies. Never should he call Australia home again. Though he may choose to reside here he has given up the right to consider it his home.

This part of that editorial really got to me..

If the AFP applies for a control order against Hicks it is likely to be under the category of "a person who has received training from a listed terrorist organisation", informed sources say. Terry says that would be the ultimate injustice for his son. After all that's happened, he still won't accept that Hicks did anything wrong when he teamed up with the Taliban. "David's got nothing to apologise for ... or to be remorseful about as far as I'm concerned," he says, speaking with a father's unqualified love. "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could happen to anybody."

When I was growing up my mother instilled in me and my brothers the importance of personal responsibility. Be big enough to admit your mistakes then try to rectify them. I think this is perhaps one of the greatest lessons she ever taught me. I learnt when to shut up and take the consequences to my actions, but also that when I was in the right I needed to defend my position.

What Terry Hicks seems unable to comprehend is that David's treatment is neither unfair nor unjust. It is the consequences to his actions.

Stop slurring my son: Hicks dad Jeremy Roberts and Mark Dodd May 14, 2007 TERRY Hicks has challenged the Rann Government to stop calling his son David a "convicted terrorist" ahead of his imminent transfer to a South Australian prison. "All the statements from the Rann Government show they haven't really looked at the charges," Mr Hicks said. "There's nothing in the charges that say he pled guilty or that he's a terrorist. There's nothing that says David tried to hurt anyone." In March, Hicks was sentenced to seven years' jail, with all but nine months suspended, after pleading guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism at a trial by a US military commission. The Adelaide-born Muslim convert, captured among Taliban forces in Afghanistan in December 2001, admitted having trained with the al-Qa'ida terrorist network. But the plea followed US military prosecutors dropping a charge of attempted murder. Link

Somehow it has just never seemed to have sunk in to Terry Hicks that his son is the enemy of this country. Anyone with any level of intelligence will simply not adopt a 'Live and let Live' attitude in this situation. This man was convicted of aiding our enemies. There are no slurs here, the politicians are simply calling it as they, and a rather large percentage of this country, see it.

Mr Hicks's challenge was in response to the latest attack on his son by the Rann Government. On Friday, Acting Premier and Treasurer Kevin Foley labelled him a "convicted and self-confessed terrorist". "He will be brought back to Adelaide, to Yatala labour prison, with thehighest possible security," Mr Foley said. "As (Premier Mike Rann) has said, we have serious and grave concerns about how the federal Government intends to monitor Mr Hicks when he leaves prison." Asked to clarify his statement on Hicks's record, he said: "Somebody who provides material support for a terrorist, in my book is a terrorist."

It would also appear, that the politicians will stand fast with their opinions and comments, as well they should. This is one of those rare occassions where they do actually speak for most Australians.

A_C