Australian Guantanamo inmate's mental health in decline, lawyer says (IHT)

[struggle4progress]

The Associated Press
Published: January 29, 2007

SYDNEY, Australia: ....

"Since I saw him early last year ... there has been a deterioration in David's condition," lawyer David McLeod said by telephone after meeting with his client at Guantanamo Bay.

"He shows all the signs of someone who has been kept in isolation for a very long time."

McLeod said Hicks is locked up for 22 hours a day and has only been outside three times since December ...

Hicks' family have expressed concern that he may have developed a mental illness during his extended incarceration. Those fears increased when the 31-year-old prisoner refused to accept a telephone call from his father last year — a rare contact that took months to organize ...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/30/asia/AS-GEN-Australia-Guantanamo-Inmate.php

[Redstone]

1. I'm surprised that they're not ALL fucking nuts...

being held, apparently FOREVER, with NO reason stated, NO due process of law, and NO hope.

I'd have lost my mind LONG before now, being caught in such an Orwellian, not to mention Stalinist web.

Redstone

[bdrube]

2. ...and I'm sure Bush butt boy PM John Howard gives a shit. n/t

[cyberpj]

3. Does anyone have a concise history of this particular prisoner? I know it's around somewhere... nt

[cyberpj]

4. Nevermind... found him in Wiki land:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks

[struggle4progress]

5. Queen refuses to help free Hicks

January 30, 2007 11:15am
Article from: AAP

THE Queen has rejected a plea by an Australian journalist for her to intervene in the David Hicks case saying she does not involve herself in such matters.

Barry Everingham wrote to the Queen on December 12 last year urging the monarch to exercise her power as Australia's head of state to get Hicks out of a US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

In a letter from Buckingham Palace received by Mr Everingham today, the Queen's correspondence officer Sonia Bonici said the Queen had asked her to thank him for the letter.

“Mrs Bonici wrote, this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene,” Mr Everingham said ...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21141508-5005962,00.html

[cal04]

6. Ruddock asks for urgent report on Hicks

The Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says he has requested an assessment of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.

Mr Hicks's Australian lawyer visited the terrorism suspect today, and has told the ABC's PM program that it is extremely confronting to see how much his client's condition has worsened since the last time he saw him last year.

David McLeod says Mr Hicks is chained to the floor of his cell and has not seen sunlight for months.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1836625.htm

[Matilda]

7. According to the ABC tonight,

Ruddock also said that the psychiatrists should be chosen by the US.

Military personnel I presume, just to make sure they come up with the
"correct" diagnosis.

Public opinion is swinging solidly against the government on this issue,
and it could be one of the things that will bring them down.

I'd like to see Kevin Rudd make it more of an issue; so far he's been
pretty mild.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Oh, jeez.Who better else to evaluate someone's mental health than someone from a totally different

country altogether?

This is like watching someone being kicked to death.

By god, he'll never commit another act in his lifetime which could possibly irritate the mighty will of the American right-wing, Emperors of the Universe, or he'll feel the wrath they can command from U.S. soldiers!

With idiots like this, who, when they have access to power, ALWAYS will use it to hurt others. They don't seem to understand respect comes from awareness people CAN harm others but chose NOT to do it. It's seen as wisdom, and self-discipline. They go for the fast gratification first. Nothing else matters to them. Nothing. I pray they lose it forever.

[Heidi]

8. Kick.

:kick:

[Swagman]

9. 'It's like a Nazi camp': Hicks (Guantanamo Bay)

'It's like a Nazi camp': Hicks
January 30, 2007 - 8:04PM

"Accused terrorist David Hicks has told his lawyers that conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for five years, are "like a Nazi concentration camp".

In other developments, the Queen has replied to a letter sent by an Australian journalist pleading for her to intervene in the Hicks case, however she has declined to become involved.

Hicks, a 31-year-old father of two, met his lawyers today inside the newly-created Camp Six at the US military prison in Cuba."
****
Queen replies to letter

"Barry Everingham wrote to the Queen on December 12 last year urging the monarch to exercise her power as Australia's head of state to get Hicks out of the prison.

In a letter from Buckingham Palace received by Mr Everingham today, the Queen's correspondence officer Sonia Bonici said the Queen had asked her to thank him for the letter.

"Mrs Bonici wrote, this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene," Mr Everingham said."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/its-like-a-nazi-camp-hicks/2007/01/30/1169919319298.html

[eShirl]

10. "this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene"

et tu, Betty?

[LostinVA]

11. HM isn't legally ALLOWED to intervene

on edit: I misread the article, and didn't realize it was Australia. Is she under the same restrictions there as she is in the UK?

[ShortnFiery]

13. With all "the fluff" don't ya think that she could have at least denounced

the conditions at GITMO? Or would that be asking too much of royalty? :puke:

[Matilda]

17. I don't know how it's formally worded,

but I'd expect she has the same rights as she does in Britain, which is generally to advise and to
warn - but not to interfere.

if she did warn or advise, I'm sure it would be privately.

[GeorgeGist]

12. How indecent ...

of her :puke:

[B3Nut]

14. No human being

should be subjected to this kind of treatment. Even if they're rightfully accused, with real evidence pointing toward guilt, of the most heinous of crimes, a human being is still entitled to decent treatment and a fair and just trial, so that an accurate accounting of their deeds can be openly made and an appropriate punishment decided. It is an absolute disgrace that we have sunk to this level. We should be taking the moral high ground and setting an example of how an enlightened, humane, and intelligent nation treats humans. As it sits, we have sunk to the level of the inhumane brutes we purport to be fighting, and are no better morally than they are.

And for human beings to languish without recourse with no evidence against them and no charges filed is beyond unspeakable. It sickens me to think that America is committing the kind of horrific acts we used to berate the former Soviet Union and other rogue regimes for committing. Hypocrisy, anyone? I want my country back!

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[cal04]

15. Hicks charges expected by week's end

AUSTRALIAN terror detainee David Hicks is expected to be charged by the end of the week, according to the US prosecutor in the case.

Colonel Moe Davis also today denied Hicks was being held in harsh conditions and rejected reports he was shackled to the floor of his cell in conditions described as resembling a Nazi concentration camp.

"I just wanted to make sure that that was bogus, so I called to check on his condition and I'm told everything's fine," Col Davis said on ABC radio.

(snip)
"I don't want to see you," Hicks wrote in the letter to the visiting Australian official.

"I am afraid to speak to you."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21146831-1702,00.html

[Matilda]

18. The US Prosecutor says everything is fine??

Well, I guess we can all rest easy on that score then. :sarcasm:

No doubt the American who impersonated an Australian Consular official was the one who assured
Foreign Minister Downer that Hicks was in good physical and mental health - the official that
Downer declined to name, as well he might.

No amount of spin, lies or hypocrisy can disguise the fact that the Australian Government has failed
to stand by one of its citizens who is being held without charge in a foreign jail. That is the
crux of the whole matter.