Guantanamo defenders should hang their heads

[cal04]

Richard Ackland
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/guantanamo-defenders-should-hang-their-heads/2008/05/22/1211182996658.html

I wonder if, in the time-out room of their souls, the former government's doughty little foot soldiers of freedom feel the odd shiver of embarrassment or shame.

The extent to which Messrs Howard, Ruddock and Downer were prepared to subvert some sacred principles might have brought normal mortals unstitched. But by all appearances they have kept their chins up and their rectitude unexamined.

The principle that they nearly wrestled to the ground and choked to death was that of the "fair trial".

As they abandoned David Hicks, an Australian citizen, to the spectacularly bogus "judicial" regime at Guantanamo Bay, we were told repeatedly that our fears were baseless, that the system the Americans had devised for the detainees there was fairness itself.

(snip)
The military prosecutors themselves are saying Ruddock's and Downer's entirely "fair" trial system is unfair. Here are the most recent developments.