US files terrorism charges against 'Australian Taliban'

Who are the Terrorists, remind you of Sadams trial.,

RAW STORYPublished: Thursday March 1, 2007

The United States has filed terrorism charges against an Australian who has been accused of aiding the Taliban, even though Australian authorities have been pressuring the Bush Administration to release the one-time skinner of kangeroos.

"The Bush administration has filed charges against David Hicks, an Australian citizen suspected of aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan and the first terrorism-war era detainee to be charged by the Pentagon under new rules for military commissions," the Associated Press reports.

Excerpts from article:

The decision was made even though officials of Australia already had asked the United States not to bring such charges. Australia has been a steadfast ally to the Bush administration in its war on terrorism. Hicks is a former kangaroo skinner captured in Afghanistan in December 2001. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than five years without trial.

According to government officials and documents, the Defense Department will announce that Hicks is being charged with "providing material support for terrorism." Hicks would have a trial in a special military tribunal, established in a law that Congress passed last year, rather than a civilian court. Opponents have vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the military tribunal proceedings. An earlier formulation of such military tribunals was declared unconstitutional last year by the Supreme Court.

Hicks' legal status has been a sore spot for Australia. Last month, nearly half the members of Australia's Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. Congress appealing for help repatriating him.
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