April 10, 2005
Australia Uneasy About U.S. Detainee Case
By RAYMOND BONNER
SYDNEY, Australia - The Australian government, which has been one of the strongest supporters of the Bush administration's policy on the detention and prosecution of people suspected of being members of Al Qaeda, is growing uneasy with the handling of the case of one its citizens who has languished in the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay for more than three years.
In late March, the Australian ambassador to Washington went to the White House and Pentagon to express concerns about the status of David Hicks, 29, who has been at Guantánamo since January 2002, Australian and American officials said.
"We are very frustrated," a senior Australian official said. "The process is taking much longer than people might reasonably have expected."
"We don't want this guy in limbo forever," he added.
Two years ago, the United States sought to dispose of the case by having Mr. Hicks returned to Australia to face charges; the Australian government said that even though he had trained with Al Qaeda, his activities were not in violation of any Australian law at the time. It took an additional 18 months before the United States, under pressure from the Australian government, filed charges against Mr. Hicks, one of the few detainees formally charged.
Mr. Hicks, who initially cooperated with his interrogators, but stopped when he realized it was not leading to his release, alleges that he has been tortured at Guantánamo, that he has had his head slammed into the pavement while blindfolded and that he has been offered the services of a prostitute.
The Australian ambassador, Michael Thawley, has also expressed concern that the Bush administration may eventually drop the Hicks prosecution, either because it does not have a strong case - there is no evidence that Mr. Hicks shot at any Americans during the war in Afghanistan, American and Australian officials have said - or because it is worried about what would come out in a trial.
Several Australian officials, from different agencies or departments, agreed to talk about the Hicks case on the condition that they not be identified, because it touches on intelligence information and delicate diplomatic matters.
A Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Michael Shavers, said in an e-mail response to questions that the United States "has had fruitful discussions with the government of Australia." He declined to provide details, saying it was "inappropriate" for the Defense Department "to comment on the status of specific negotiations between the two countries."
He added that the Australians had previously said publicly that the military commissions "can provide full and fair trials and have consented to the United States bringing David Hicks to trial in military commissions proceedings."
Regarding Mr. Hicks's allegations that he has been tortured, Major Shavers said they "seem to fit the standard operating procedure in Al Qaeda training manuals."
Underlying the recent activity, and the concerns of the Australians in the Hicks case, is the case of another Australian detainee, Mamdouh Habib, who trained with Al Qaeda, was picked up in Pakistan a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, and was whisked away by the C.I.A. to Egypt, where he says he was tortured before being taken to Guantánamo Bay.
After promising for more than three years that it would charge Mr. Habib, the Bush administration told the Australians in January that it would not prosecute him because the C.I.A. did not want the evidence about Mr. Habib being taken to Egypt, and his allegations of torture, raised in court, Australian officials said. Mr. Habib was returned to Australia, and is now a free man, though closely monitored by Australia's domestic intelligence agency.
Contributing to the pressure on Prime Minister John Howard and his government to do something for Mr. Hicks is the view that Mr. Hicks is less culpable than Mr. Habib, and that if Mr. Habib is free than surely Mr. Hicks should be.
An Australian official who investigated the Hicks and Habib cases, described Mr. Hicks as "a bit of a fool, naïve." Another official described him as a "young kid looking for adventure." The C.I.A. and Pentagon consider Mr. Hicks less of a potential terrorist threat than Mr. Habib, Australian officials said.
Mr. Hicks, who grew up in Adelaide, was expelled from school when he was 14 and began drifting, skinning kangaroos in the Australian Outback and training horses in Japan. In 1998, he decided he would join the Kosovo Liberation Army in the war against Slobodan Milosevic. The war ended soon after he got there.
Back in Adelaide, Mr. Hicks attended Bible study classes at an evangelical church, and when that did not bring him whatever he was looking for, he started going to a mosque. Soon, he headed to Pakistan, where he joined Lashkar-e-Taiba, a guerrilla group that had the backing of the Pakistani Army in the conflict against India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
At some point, he went to Afghanistan and trained at Al Qaeda camps. He was the most highly trained Caucasian, an Australian official said in a recent interview.
He was in Afghanistan when the United States invaded after the Sept. 11 attacks. He was captured by the Northern Alliance and turned over to the Americans, presumably for a substantial reward, Australian officials have said.
At Guantánamo, Mr. Hicks says, he was beaten "before, after and during interrogations," and while blindfolded and handcuffed.
"I have had my head rammed into asphalt several times (while blindfolded)," he said in an affidavit he signed last August.
"Interrogators once offered me the services of a prostitute for 15 minutes if I would spy on other detainees," he wrote. "I refused."
Australian officials have said they have received reassurances from the Americans that Mr. Hicks has not been mistreated.
Prime Minister Howard has been one of President Bush's most steadfast allies since Sept. 11. He has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and his government has accepted the legitimacy and fundamental fairness of the military tribunals, which most other Western democracies - most notably Britain - have not, and Australian officials looked the other way when the C.I.A. took Mr. Habib to Egypt.
Australian officials are reluctant to speak harshly about the Bush administration, but at the same time they recognize the need to act to protect the rights of an Australian citizen.
"We have an ongoing concern about how long this has taken," one official said. "This is a classic case of 'justice delayed is justice denied.' "
