AUSTRALIAN TO BE TRIED FOR ALLEGEDLY CONSPIRING WITH AL-QAIDA

AP ^ | June 10th 2004 | AP

[Nennsy]

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			National

AUSTRALIAN TO BE TRIED FOR
ALLEGEDLY CONSPIRING WITH AL-QAIDA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 10, 2004

FILE PHOTO: Australian David Hicks is seen holding a bazooka in this undated photo taken in Kosovo. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON - An Australian held at the Navy's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will face a military tribunal for allegedly training and fighting alongside members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The military charged David Hicks with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the Pentagon said in a news release. Hicks will plead innocent, his military lawyer said.

Hicks is not specifically accused of hurting or killing anyone. In justifying the charge of attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent, the Pentagon alleges Hicks participated in fighting in Afghanistan as an illegal combatant.

Hicks' "did not violate any of the laws of war. He did not commit a crime," said the lawyer, Maj. Michael Mori. "David Hicks has not injured any U.S. citizen or service member."

Hicks, a former cowboy who converted to Islam, will not face the death penalty, according to a U.S. agreement with Australia.

The military alleges that Hicks attended several al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and fought alongside al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks until he was captured in December 2001 near Baghlan.

Former cellmates of Hicks and the other Australian at Guantanamo, Mamdouh Habib, have alleged that both were beaten while in captivity. Mori would not disclose any discussions with Hicks about his treatment. The lawyer described Hicks as feeling isolated during his 2 1/2 years in captivity at the prison.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said President Bush told him that allegations the two Australians had been mistreated were false, but that U.S. officials would investigate.

Representatives of the Australian government and two members of Hicks' family will be allowed to attend the trial, the Pentagon said.

Hicks, 28, converted from Christianity to Islam while in Australia. In 1999, he went to Albania and joined the Kosovo Liberation Army, a paramilitary organization that fought Serbian forces in the Balkans, according to a military document detailing the charges against him.

In late 1999 and 2000, he went to Pakistan and joined Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a militant group, the charge sheet says. He trained at camps in Afghanistan and fought Indian soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region between Pakistan and India. He started attending al-Qaida camps in January 2001.

He also adopted the names Abu Muslim al Austraili and Muhammed Dawood, the charge sheet says. It says he had personal contact with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida lieutenants Mohammed Atef, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi and Saif al-Adel.

Mori declined comment on many of the details in the new charges. He suggested the government had mischaracterized an alleged meeting between Hicks and bin Laden.

"If you're in a room with 75 people, is that a meeting?" Mori asked.

The charge list says Hicks trained in various weapons and military tactics, took an "advanced course in surveillance" while training in Afghanistan, and conducted surveillance against the U.S. and British embassies in Kabul.

But Mori noted that those countries have not had functioning embassies in Afghanistan for many years. It was not immediately clear if Hicks simply scouted the buildings that formerly served as the embassies.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Hicks joined an al-Qaida unit near Kandahar and guarded a Taliban tank near the airport for a week, the charge sheet says. Before his capture, Hicks had traveled north toward Kunduz, site of a major battle with U.S.-backed anti-Taliban forces.

Last February, the Pentagon brought war crimes conspiracy charges against two men alleged to be associates of terror leader Osama bin Laden and said they will face the first U.S. military tribunals convened since World War II. Hicks would be the third defendant.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan allegedly was a paymaster for al-Qaida and Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen was a propagandist for bin Laden, according to an official list of charges released by the Pentagon.

The announcement of charges against Hicks came as the Supreme Court nears a ruling on legal challenges from Hicks and other Guantanamo prisoners.

The high court is expected to rule by the end of this month whether the prisoners can use U.S. courts to contest their captivity. The Bush administration maintains that the Guantanamo prison camp is outside the jurisdiction of U.S. federal courts.

___

On the Net:

Charges against Hicks

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2004

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[Nennsy]

guys, ping others. I don't have a ping list on this computer.

[RandallFlagg]

Have they blamed Bush yet?

[Fred Nerks]

As an Australian I want this jerk hung out to dry. He had a nice girlfriend, loving parents and lived in a wonderful free country. What possible excuse could he have for choosing to go to Kosovo to kill Serbs for the muslims? To train in an Al-Qaida camp and take up arms against US soldiers? His parents are beside themselves trying to understand. His father has been all around the world looking for answers. He even went to the madrassa in Pakistan, and pulled that pathetic stunt with the cage in New York. Hicks has not only shown himself to be a killer by choice, but he has totally ruined the lives of his family. I am sorry that our government has asked for assurances from the US that the death penalty not apply. If found guilty - he should be stood up against a wall and shot. He wanted to be a soldier, let him die like one. A bullet in the head. He has disgraced the entire country. (rant over)

[endthematrix]

Maybe him and the Hamburg terrorist can get together and emigrate to the US where it is quiet on the terror front. Sick, just SICK!</p>

[eleni121]

It would be interesting to find out what made him flip? Money? Personal?

[Fred Nerks]

"It would be interesting to find out what made him flip..."

Sure would. One of our broadcasters showed a documentry on some of his life. Interviews with the parents and the ex-girlfriend. Hicks was a horse-lover. He spent time in Saudi as a jockey. His father travelled extensively throughout Pakistan, retracing his son's footsteps in an attempt to understand...typical parent, he believes his son is innocent. Blame the government and blame Bush! (Naturally) All I can gather from his story, and those of others like Hicks who went to Afghanistan, is that there is something about islam that appeals to sociopaths who have been prevented from acting out their aggressive, potentially murderous instincts. Islam gives them a 'ticket to kill' and makes it easy...

There's a kind of link between the english born Australian citizen Roche, who is now in jail. He is married to an Indonesian muslim woman - they lived in Perth. He was what we would call a drop-kick...a nobody. Recruited, he found himself with enough money to fly where ever he was sent, it must have made this useless jerk feel very important. He said he had lunch with Osama. Pretty heady stuff for a lump of filth living on the dole. At least, he was useful to the authorities because he sang like a bird. He made it clear that the islamists are recruiting caucasians because they have easier access to areas where a person of ME appearance would not be able to obtain entry. Roche's task was to identify potential terror targets in Oz, one of which was the 2000 Olympic Games. (That attack was called off, he says, because they could not recruit enough people in time to carry it out.)

Hicks wrote numerous letters to his parents from Pakistan - which the father read on camera. Lots of nutty passages about how great allah is and how islam will change the world. What would I give them both? 72 virgins, for a start!