The deal was simple: Go home. Shut up. If you dare to say you had no choice but to plead guilty, the US Military Commission will find you guilty of perjury and will call in a full seven-year sentence, over and above the five you've suffered unconvicted and uncharged. That will mean the Australian Attorney-General may not release you on licence for another seven years, or will — with the additional gags of control orders and other available means — make sure you cannot tell anyone what happened.
Apart from the loss of fundamental guarantees of freedom, another freedom — speech — is garrotted.
He believes that one day in the not to distant future, the Australian politicians who stood by and let this happen, may pay a price themselves.
The best thing one can say about the process is that one day there may be a reckoning for this despicable episode, in which Australian ministers, all the way down from the Prime Minister, have been party to the commission of grave crimes under the Australian Criminal Code 1995, divisions 104 (Harming Australians Overseas) and 268D (denying a fair trial), because they have been criminally complicit under section 11.2.
It's been quite disgraceful to watch Alexander Downer, the Foreign Miniser, and John Howard jump through moral hoops trying to justify the USA's handling of this affair.
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