There are two problems.

1) We are making the assumption that because Americans are civilized people, therefore their government is also civilized with regard to war/clandestine activity. That is both a dangerous and less-than-thoughtful assumption.

2) We are ascribing a value system to the military leadership which we hope is how they think, but is not how they think. Indded expediency is the order of the day--it always is with time-sensitive material, sensitive intelligence and military action.

I am not arguing right/wrong; I am saying that it can be costly to think the other side has your (one's) motives. Civilian authority stops at the gates of military establishments.

Charles Ng was a killer who was arrested in Canada and held here for armed robbery. We refused to deport him to California because he faced the death penalty there. He was eventually deported to another state to face charges there, and that state then sent him to California. I don't feel the world lost much when Ng was killed by the State of California (if indeed he's dead), but the method by which he arrived in California certainly plays games with the spirit of the law. I guess what I'm getting at is that AUTHORITY and bureaucracy see things as quite black and white. People see lots of grey in the mixture. If you're (one's) going to view the potential release of Hicks as a possibility, the situation should be viewed through the eyes of the Australian and American governments and their militaries, not through the eyes of people who see his detention as being wrong and therefore he should be free. I agree he should not be being held without trial; but, the pressure on governments has to come from the Australian people and the American people. They are the players involved. It is unfortunate that Australia is in bed with the USA.

Sorry to sound so cold. I think he should be returned to Australia and dealt with there. Not dealt with by Americans and Australians at a military base in Cuba.

It may seem hopeless, what with Australia's terrible civil rights record. I think Amnesty International can help, and don't rule out the United Nations. I don't know whether Mr Hicks is innocent or guilty of crimes against Australia or the USA. But he does deserve a fair trial to determine whether or not that's so. He may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons, but he may also simply be an idealist who was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time for the right reasons.

Bruce M