Cheney, Howard 'did deal on Hicks'

[Swagman]

Source: Big Pond

US Vice-President Dick Cheney agreed to a deal with Prime Minister John Howard to release former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, a US media report says.

The report, published in Harper's Magazine, cites an unnamed US military officer saying that a military staffer was present when Mr Cheney interfered directly to seal Hicks's plea bargain deal.

"He did it, apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard," the unnamed source is quoted as saying.

"I kept thinking: this is the sort of thing that used to go on behind the Iron Curtain, not in America.

"And then it struck me how much this entire process had disintegrated into a political charade. It's demoralising for all of us."

After five years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, a deal was sealed for 32-year-old Hicks to serve a nine-month prison sentence in Australia, subject to him pleading guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism.


Read more: http://www.bigpond.com/news/topstories/content/20071023/2067496.asp

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With approval levels plummetting for the past year, Howard will be consigned to history's dustbin by December-and possibly make further history by losing his parlaimentary seat in the process.

Over to Americans-who hopefully will do the same with the Republicans in 2008.

(edited for spelling)

[alfredo]

1. I'm hoping for war crime charges against bush, his junta, and all who

became willing partners world wide.

[dickbearton]

2. Exactly, bring Bush and Chaney up on charges of war crimes.

[alfredo]

5. We must also look at other leaders too. They knew the war was

illegal and went ahead in the hope of cashing in on the oil bonanza. Sure, maybe they were duped by bush, but who would want to admit to that?

[rodeodance]

3. I read Howard was making a comback--promises of tax cuts: work on enviroment.

[Swagman]

4. he had a 2% rise-but polls today put Kevin Rudd on 57%

as prefered PM..Howard is doomed as is his party. It's going to be an electoral wipeout. His lies have finally caught up with him.

[Hissyspit]

6. Cheney 'Interfered Directly' to Get Terror Plea Bargain

Source: Harper's / Australian Broadcasting

Cheney 'interfered directly' to get terror plea bargain
David Edwards and Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday October 23, 2007

Vice President Dick Cheney cut a deal with the prime minister of Australia to orchestrate a plea bargain with an Australian terror suspect that would keep him out of sight until after Australia's national elections next month, an Australian television station reported.

Cheney "interfered directly" to secure Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks' guilty plea to material support for terrorism, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported Tuesday. Cheney's intervention, according to a Harper's article cited by the ABC, was "part of a deal" with Prime Minister John Howard, who is facing a re-election fight next month.

Howard denies the deal.

Hicks will be released from an Australian prison on Dec. 29 as part of a plea agreement reached in March. The first detainee convicted by a Guantanamo military tribunal, Hicks was given a seven year jail sentence but a judge suspended all but nine months of that. Hicks was held at Guantanamo for five years before going to trial.

An unnamed military official told Harpers, "One of our staffers was present when Vice President Cheney interfered directly to get Hicks' plea bargain. He did it, apparently as part of a deal cut with Howard." "I kept thinking: this is the sort of thing that used to go on behind the Iron Curtain, not in America," the official continued. "And then it struck me how much this entire process had disintegrated into a political charade."

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_interfered_directly_to_get_terrorist_1023.html

[aquart]

7. Howard and Cheney. Separated at birth?