But the part that I find might be of particular interest, and perhaps spur Barend into leveling the fucking whitehouse with the power of his post count, was this little gem:
The U.S. government denied those claims, and before accepting Hicks's guilty plea it required him to affirm that he had "never been illegally treated." But the tribunal's rules, written under principles Cheney advanced, would have allowed the Australian's conviction with evidence obtained entirely by "cruel, inhuman or degrading" techniques.
Shortly after Cheney returned from Australia, the Hicks case died with a whimper. The U.S. government abruptly shifted its stance in plea negotiations, dropping the sentence it offered from 20 years in prison to nine months if Hicks would say that he was guilty.
I love how his lawyers file affidavits describing his interrogators sodomizing him, and then the government tells him to get released all he need do is admit to being a filthy terrorist and say that they never tortured him. What the fuck kind of doublespeak is that. If you torture someone enough that they'll admit guilt AND say you never tortured them, then the whole world can be fucking sure you tortured them. You're not covering your ass, you're admitting guilt to this man's countrymen and to your own.
To any Aussie on these forums I apologize on behalf of my idiotic and evil government, and I look forward to the day that Howard is removed from office and someone is put at the head of your government who has a very keen interest in capturing and holding members of this administration "under guidelines that gave legal cover to the infliction of pain and fear" And fucking lots of it.
This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 25 June 2007 - 04:10 AM