Rod Quantock at David Hicks protest - Friday 16 February : Melbourne Indymedia

Shannon Price, from CRD, Casselden Place, 16 February:
"... with every day that passes we see more and more heat on John Howard to get David Hicks out of Guantanamo Bay ..."

The Sunday Age, 18 February -
"JOHN Howard is bowing to mounting pressure over the David Hicks debacle and is working to bring him home before this year's federal election, highly placed sources have revealed to The Sunday Age." (http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hicks-coming-home/2007/02/17/1171405502399.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)

Rod Quantock:
(Speaking first as a comedian, and recalling the effect on his career of the exit of Jeff Kennett): I've got a mortage and a family, and I'm torn between human rights and the dignity of humanity in general and having a stable economy with low interst rates. And so it's a difficult thing ... I guess my position is 'Get David Hicks home, but please keep John Howard in power ...'
More seriously: Today the Americans announced new charges against David Hicks which include spying, talking to an Englishman that took a shoe bomb on a aeroplane, being on the frontline for two hours with a rifle before he left ... no matter how many times you gather here.. the US are not going to find David Hicks [not] guilty - they have to find him guilty.. The credibilty of the US ... rests very heavily on finding David Hicks guilty...
I'm optimistic to a point, but I'm very well aware that the most powerful empire in the world has brought the entire weight of its dishonesty, its almost Stalinistic approach to dealig with dissent and those people who they have in their gunsights, and David Hicks has suffered, and suffered beyond any imagining that I have, unfortunately [he] is now the 'white terrorist', the Australian terrorist Howard's terrorism campaign, Howard's stance as being 'tough on teror', of being the 'Man of Steel', of being the man with the guts and the heart and the courage to pursue terrorism wherever it goes depends on David Hicks being found guilty ...
It's not a particularly funny topic, but it is ... a pivotal topic in terms of how we behave as a nation. The rights of one Australian are the rights of every Australian. There are people here with beards and long hair who could be at any moment taken off the streets - Scott Parkin was taken off the street, still doesn't know what he was charged with ... As we fight terror we become more like the terrorists themselves ...

(An MP3 of Rod Quantock's address is attached as a comment to this posting.)

The other speaker was a relative of one of the "Barwon 13" - as placards and Shannon Price reminded us, they will shortly have been in detention for 500 days in conditions apparently deliberately modelled on those at Guantanamo Bay. While describing these conditions, he expressed a fear that having spoken out he would no longer be allowed to visit:

[he] is in solitary confinement for up to 20 hours a day, 21 hours depending on the guards, how they're feeling. Fot the 3 hours he's allowed outside of his cell he walks up and down a cricket pitch - it's 11 metres long - and then back into his cell... Intimidated, harassed, the guards try time and time again if they can get the men to turn on each other, to get them to fight, argue, turn each other in. But these men are unbreakable. They know they're devout Muslims and they're there because of other agendas ... Before any visit ... [he] gets strip seached before and after. Any court appearances ... shackled, handcuffed ... Guantanamo Bay jump suits, orange .. It's unbelievable ...

Meanwhile, activist group Getup has started a campaign of orange billboards in support of David Hicks. This one was photographed on Friday aternoon on building at the corner of LaTrobe and Spencer Streets
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/02/139806.php

Also on Friday, campaigners from Melbourne's Refugee Action Collective were down at Federation Square in the heat collecting signatures on a petition opposing the construction of Australia's latest contribution to the history of human rights abuses - the new ultra-high tech detention centre being built out of the way on Christmas Island - Alcatraz and Devil's Island rolled into one and brought up to date - see the images and other details on the RAC website - http://www.rac-vic.org

There was in fact a RAC presence throughout the three days of the Sustainable Living Festival. Well done, I reckon.

MP3 - 383 KB, 6min.31

"I got to fire hundreds of bullets. Most Muslim countries impose hanging for civilians arming themselves for conflict. There are not many countries in the world where a tourist, according to his visa, can go to stay with the army and shoot across the border at its enemy, legally."

- David Hicks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has denounced the erosion of civil liberties in the United States.

"Civil liberties are increasingly being curtailed. Even the privacy of the individuals is fast losing its meaning,” said President Ahmadinejad.

After referring to Abu Ghraib in Iraq and the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he stated: “I have no doubt that the American people do not approve of this behavior and indeed deplore it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/world/middleeast/30iran.html?ex=1322542800&en=6dd7ff435f9a8c44&ei=5088...

'Anglican', but we are all sure you had a real name prior to being brainwashed. It is irrelevant what another group of relgious fanatics thinks .. your war with them and theirs with you is not OUR concern .. Hicks is an Aussie ... DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IMPLIES????

free him or hang him HE IS ONE OF OURS, has the penny dropped yet OR Are you too a cringing, identityless, Johnny Howard, coward? Obviously a rhetorical question!

> I guess my position is 'Get David Hicks home, but please keep John Howard in power ...'

I understand the sentiment,
But is that the reason why coWARd keeps sitting there?
Is that how majority of Aussies feels?

Alas...

quite a few participants booed when a woman speaker from Unions started talking about IR at the protest for David Hicks on 9th of December 2006 at the Federation Square.

They cannot relate to those who could suffer from it.
And they cannot see the roots of these problems are the same.

Just like River says:

I know that looking at her, foreigners will never be able to relate. They'll feel pity and maybe some anger, but she's one of us. She's not a girl in jeans and a t-shirt so there will only be a vague sort of sympathy. Poor third-world countries- that is what their womenfolk tolerate. Just know that we never had to tolerate this before.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#117192450286818012

But still so many cannot relate to even, our own.

OK, nowadays luckily and FINALLY David Hicks issue has grown this big.

*I don't mean to brag but I went into the cage at the local protest when Terry and Stephen(Mamdouh's lawyer) couldn't make it due to some fog back in 2004, then I met them when we organized the same thing again.

But what about Mamdouh?
He suffered so much, and got NO compensation whatsoever.

Even when he finally returned to his country,
Many Aussies STILL believed that he was a terror suspect. And that was AFTER the US couldn't find anything to charge him for!

Wasn't that because he's an Aussie but Egpytian Aussie? so people cannot relate to him?

Also to my amazement, many at the protest(09DEC06) including those who were selling badges didn't understand 9/11 at all.

That's the day that has made all the Muslims and Arabs 'terrorist,' or 'terror suspects.' And they don't get it at all. Incredible...

At least, a lot more participant(ordinary citizens) knew it well! and that was really encouraging.

Photo attached is my placard I used on the day.
I know I should have put Jack's name as well cause they are still harasing him.

I really wish David to come home immediately
(LONG DUE)
But I hope many Aussies will still fight to get some compensation for the new and uncounted victims of 9/11.