{"id":1320,"date":"2002-01-25T07:12:18","date_gmt":"2002-01-25T12:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2002-01-25T07:12:18","modified_gmt":"2002-01-25T12:12:18","slug":"double_standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/25\/double_standard.html","title":{"rendered":"Double standard?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Australians are getting irked<\/a> that one of their own, David Hicks, captured working alongside the Taliban, is still sitting in Guantanamo Bay with other Taliban prisoners, not in a civilian courtroom like John Walker Lindh. <\/p>\n

“Why the double standard?” they ask. Why should an Aussie face a military tribunal, while Lindh (or Walker, or whatever his lawyer says he wants to be called this week) gets a relatively cushy federal court hearing?<\/p>\n

Well, first off, Lindh is still (odiously) a US citizen. That excludes him from the military tribunal orders. <\/p>\n

“But then why not turn Hicks over to an Australian court?”<\/p>\n

Because we’ve got him. The US military captured him, as an “illegal combatant,” and so bears responsibility for dealing with him. Indeed:<\/p>\n

[Australian Attorney General Darryl] Williams says “neither the US nor Australia is in a position to begin a prosecution against Hicks,” acknowledging that he may not have committed any offenses under Australian law.<\/p>\n

That sounds like a good reason right there to keep him where he is for the moment.<\/p>\n

Some of this may be a tempest in a teapot, as public opinion in Australia seems against Hicks; only the Aussie pundits are getting on their high horse.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best indicator of the changing tone is the popular press, which a month ago labeled Hicks a traitor. This week, Sydney’s Sun-Herald said he was not a traitor but “a naive, patently stupid young man who chose the wrong heroes.”<\/p>\n

Yeah, that probably describes quite a few folks who still remain quite guilty of the crimes which they then commit, whether or not treason is among them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Australians are getting irked that one of their own, David Hicks, captured working alongside the Taliban, is still sitting in Guantanamo Bay with other Taliban prisoners, not in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/04\/actions_meet_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":1320,"position":0},"title":"Actions, meet consequences","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Dec-01 9:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"You could almost predict the headline. \"He\u2019s a really good boy.\" That was the reaction by the parents of John Phillip Walker Lindh, 20, who is among the captured Taliban...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1294,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/31\/beat_him_with_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":1320,"position":1},"title":"Beat him with a poll","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Jan-02 6:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent Gallup\/USA Today poll indicates a lot of animus toward John Walker Lindh. 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So ... back in January, a teacher got in trouble at a middle school in Maryland because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/american-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13556,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/17\/craving_pardon.html","url_meta":{"origin":1320,"position":3},"title":"Craving pardon","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Nov-08 10:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe they know something that we don't, i.e., that there's a load of presidential pardons likely to happen, so now's the time to jump on the gravy train. Or whatever...","rel":"","context":"In "Crime & Punishment"","block_context":{"text":"Crime & Punishment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/crime-punishment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/18\/perspective_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":1320,"position":4},"title":"Perspective","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Dec-01 11:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"John Walker, the American-turned-Taliban, has become the favorite whipping boy for various conservative pundits who see him as the archetypical leftist loonie from Marin County. 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