From the ABC

Bush 'wants to close' Guantanamo
US President George W Bush says he would like to close the US-run prison at Guantanamo Bay but is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on where suspects held there might be tried.

Human rights groups have accused the US of mistreating Guantanamo detainees through cruel interrogation methods, a charge denied by the US Government.

They also criticise the indefinite detention of suspects captured since the military prison was opened in 2002 as part of the Bush administration's declared war on terrorism.

Mr Bush was asked by the German public television station ARD how the United States could restore its human rights image after reports of prisoner abuse.

"Of course Guantanamo is a delicate issue for people. I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on trial," Mr Bush said.

"Our top court must still rule on whether they should go before a civil or military court. They will get their day in court.

"One can't say that of the people that they killed. They didn't give these people the opportunity for a fair trial."

Read more at the ABC

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Trust Bush-the-Minus to come with some stupid explanation to justify his not closing Gitmo... Did he give any of the Iraqi people killed by his bombs the opportunity of a fair trial? for what?

Most people in the Gitmo circus have not killed anybody (even if some had trained to do so) so why be disingenuous and claim : "One can't say that of the people that they killed. They didn't give these people the opportunity for a fair trial."

What a moron... Why do the courts "argue"? Because The-B-Minus wants (decides) the prisoners hanged by fully-rigged military courts while the US court system might see that as a pox on the US justice system?

Bush's America — you're standing in it... White House sewage that is.

Bush-the-Minuscule has gone potty.

‘The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is set to trigger a
diplomatic row between Britain and the United States by calling for Guantánamo
Bay to close. 

The decision by the government's
chief legal adviser to denounce the detention centre in Cuba as 'unacceptable'
will dismay the Bush administration, which has continually rejected claims that
the camp breaches international laws on human rights.’ 

Attorney
General Calls For Guantanamo To Close

‘The Australian and United States
governments have reached an agreement that would allow the Guantanamo Bay
prisoner David Hicks to serve his sentence in an Australian jail should he be
tried and convicted by a US military commission. 

The Transfer of Prisoner Arrangement, one of the few concessions negotiated
by Canberra in the case of Hicks, was signed in Washington by Australia's
ambassador, Dennis Richardson, and a legal aide to Brigadier-General Thomas
Hemingway, who is in charge of the US military commissions.’ 

Deal
Will Let Hicks Do Time In Australia

meanwhile .....

‘Prime Minister John Howard has
brushed off Britain's strongest criticism of the US military prison in Cuba,
saying Australia would go its own way in the handling of terrorist suspect
David Hicks. 

British Attorney-General Lord
Goldsmith has called the Guantanamo Bay camp's existence
"unacceptable" and says it should be shut down. 

It is the strongest condemnation
of the prison by a British government official.’ 

PM
Dismisses Guantanamo Criticism

--------------------- 

Having long ago abandoned any
pretence that Australian foreign policy is nothing more than a footnote to the
global ambitions of the fascist bushit regime, the Howard government has now
confirmed its willingness to be an American judas goat. 

In spite of the fact that
Guantanamo Bay & the corrupt US Military Commission process have been
universally condemned, even by “aussie tony”, the prime rodent continues to
slavishly defend the indefensible. 

If David Hicks is tried, found
guilty & sentenced by a US Military Commission “show trial”, & then
returned to Australia to serve out his sentence, the Howard government will
have deliberately & knowingly rendered itself an accomplice to the denial
of his legal & human rights. 

Australian citizen, David
Hicks, will be incarcerated in an Australian prison by his own government,
notwithstanding the fact that he has committed no crime & that the
standards used to try him are an anathema to the legal systems of all western
liberal democracies. 

So much for our Australian “values”.

Press Release from the Law Council of Australia

May 11, 2006 

Hicks Agreement Cannot Legitimise Military Commission
Process, Law Council Warns 

The Law Council has warned that allowing Australian Guantanamo Bay
detainee David Hicks to serve gaol time in Australia will do nothing to
legitimise the US military commission process. 

Law Council President John North has questioned the merits of
making Mr Hicks serve in
Australia a prison sentence handed down by a process the Law Council and many
others regard as unfair and unconstitutional. 

“We have been saying for many years that the US military commission
system is unjust and would never allow Mr Hicks a fair trial,” Mr North said. 

“Bringing Mr Hicks to Australia to serve any sentence cannot be seen as
condoning the military commission process – a process which simply isn’t fair,”
he said. 

“Lord Goldsmith’s call for Guantanamo Bay to be closed down because it
is a ‘symbol of injustice’ should resonate with the US and Australian
governments. It is no longer tenable for the Australian Government to defend
the military commission system. It is entirely indefensible, as Lord
Goldsmith’s measured comments clearly establish.” 

The Law Council’s comments came as a prisoner transfer agreement was
signed that would apparently allow Mr Hicks, if found guilty, to serve his
prison term in his home country. 

However, Mr North said that the Law Council’s preference had always
been for Mr Hicks to be spared any form of trial by military commission and
instead have his case heard by a legitimate and fair court or, failing that, to
be released.  

“The Law Council has
consistently argued that detainees such as David Hicks should be afforded basic
legal rights, but the military commission process is demonstrably incapable of
delivering fairness and justice,” Mr North concluded.

Media Contact: Elenore Eriksson
Director, Public Affairs - 02 6246 3716/0419 269 855

‘A former Scottish police chief has given
lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing
trial was fabricated.  

The retired officer - of assistant chief
constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment
of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270
people.  

The police chief, whose identity has not yet
been revealed, gave the statement to lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed
Al Megrahi, currently serving a life sentence in Greenock Prison.  

The evidence will form a crucial part of
Megrahi's attempt to have a retrial ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases
Review Commission (SCCRC). The claims pose a potentially devastating threat to
the reputation of the entire Scottish legal system.’  

Police Chief- Lockerbie
Evidence Was Faked

Given the attempt by the
London Metropolitan Police & MI5 to cover-up the circumstances surrounding
the cold-blooded murder of Jean Charles de Menezes, this latest revelation
highlights just how far the US is prepared to go to achieve its criminal ends. 

What chance David Hicks
will ever enjoy freedom?

‘The United States has again refused the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to terrorism suspects held in secret
detention centers, the humanitarian agency said on Friday. 

The overnight statement was issued
after talks in Washington between ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger and senior
officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. 

"Mr. Kellenberger deplored
the fact that the U.S. authorities had not moved closer to granting the ICRC
access to persons held in undisclosed locations," the Geneva-based agency
said. 

Kellenberger said: "No
matter how legitimate the grounds for detention, there exists no right to
conceal a person's whereabouts or to deny that he or she is being
detained." 

The former senior Swiss diplomat
said that the ICRC would continue to seek access to such people as a matter of
priority.’ 

Rice,
Rumsfeld Block Access To Secret Detainees

MR1106
EMBARGO 18 May 2006 

Howard Deceptive About Hicks Delay 

The Prime Minister is engaged in blame-shifting about delays in
bringing David Hicks to a military commission hearing when he says Mr Hicks and
his lawyers have impeded his trial, according to the Law
Council.  

Speaking from Washington, Law Council President John North said, “David
Hicks languished powerless in custody, principally at Guantanamo Bay, for a
period of 30 months before he was even charged with any offence. The Government
did nothing during that period to expedite proceedings against him.” 

“In fact, comments made at the time about Mr Hicks by former Australian
Government Ministers like the then Attorney-General Daryl Williams and former
Defence Minister Robert Hill indicated their complete indifference to his
fate.” Mr North said. 

“Mr Hicks remained completely at the mercy of the Pentagon’s faux court
until the US Supreme Court’s June 2004 ruling that US courts have jurisdiction
to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals
captured abroad and held at Guantanamo Bay.” he said. 

“It is perfectly understandable that Mr Hicks then sought access to the
US court system as an alternative to a military commission.” 

But even then, the Law Council points out that it was other cases, in
some of which Mr Hicks had no involvement, that have led to US authorities
granting a stay in the military commission proceedings against him. The case of
Hamdan v Rumsfeld, not involving Hicks, has gone all the way to the Supreme
Court and a decision in that case is expected in a few weeks. 

If the Supreme Court finds that the military commission process is
fatally flawed, then there will be no hearings against Mr Hicks or any other of
the detainees who have been actually charged with offences.  

“The Prime Minister is seeking to rewrite history by shifting the blame
about delays on to Mr Hicks himself. But it has been the US authorities, under
no pressure from Australian authorities, who have presided over a drawn out
process designed to avoid real judicial scrutiny of the disgrace that is
Guantanamo Bay.” Mr North concluded. 

Media Contact: Elenore Eriksson,
Director Public
Affairs - 02 6246 3716/0419 269 855 

www.lawcouncil.asn.au 

The Law Council of Australia exists to represent the
legal profession at the national level,
to speak on behalf of its constituent bodies on national issues, and to
promote the administration of justice, access to justice and general
improvement of the law.