Australian lawyer criticises release of details about Guantanamo inmates

The Pentagon has released new details of allegations against three high-profile terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in a move condemned by a defence lawyer as a tactic to inspire moral condemnation.

Detailed allegations against David Hicks, an Australian accused of fighting for the Taliban; Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a US Army Special Forces soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan; and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of supporting al Qaida operatives, have been posted recently on the US Defence Department website.

All three had charges sworn against them this month in a preliminary step toward them being tried by military commissions at the US naval base at Cuba where they are held prisoner.

The charges must still be approved by the US Department of Defence legal adviser and another official who oversees the tribunals.

Hicks’ Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori, said it was curious that the details were made public before the offences were officially approved as the ones the terror suspects would be charged with and tried for.

“I think what they’re trying to do is that they want people to morally judge and make a moral decision and get away from the legal aspect,” Mori told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

US military commission prosecutor Air Force Col. Morris Davis said he expected the charges would be approved within two weeks.

Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, is likely to be charged with attempted murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism.

The Muslim convert had pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding the enemy before the US Supreme Court ruled in June last year that the previous military commission system was illegal.

The charge sheet released by the Defence Department alleges that Hicks “engaged in hostile action” in Albania in 1999 as a member of the paramilitary Kosovo Liberation Army.

He is also accused of engaging in “hostile action against Indian forces” in Kashmir in 2000 as a member of the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, also known at LET.

LET allegedly helped him travel to Afghanistan in 2001 where he trained with al Qaida, carried out surveillance on the US and British embassies in Kabul on the organisation’s behalf, and met its leader Osama bin Laden.

After the September 11 terror attacks, Hicks is accused of holding the front line in Afghanistan with al Qaida and Taliban troops who included American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh.

Lindh is serving a 20-year prison term after pleading guilty to terrorist offences in a US court in 2002.

Both Mori and Hicks’ father, Terry Hicks, said there was little new information in the new charges against the lone Australian at Guantanamo.

“There is nothing substantial in the allegations at all,” Terry Hicks said of the charges against his son, who was captured by the Northern Alliance while fleeing Afghanistan in 2001.

Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally in the war against terror, has criticised the United States over delays in bringing Hicks to trial and is under mounting political pressure to bring him home.