Western Resistance

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February 20, 2008

Australia: Convert's Diary Shows Admiration For Jihad, Bin Laden

32-year old Australian David Hicks gained fame as a Guantanamo detainee who was convicted under the US Military. Commissions Act 2006.

Hicks was born in Adelaide to parents Susan and Terry Hicks on August 7, 1975. He dropped out of school, and worked as a kanagaroo-skinner before he became a convert to Islam, calling himself Muhammad Dawood. He fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army and joined the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistani Kashmir in November 1999 before arriving in Afghanistan in 2001. Here he became involved in training exercises at Al Qaeda-run camps and joined the Taliban.

Hicks was captured by the Northern Alliance at a taxi stand in Baghlan in December 2001 while he tried to flee the country after the American invasion.

He was sold to the United States for $1,000 and arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002. In October 2005, a year after the US had announced he would be charged with conspiracy to assist Al Qaeda and attempted murder of coalition forces, he tried unsuccessfully to gain British citizenship. His mother Susan had been born in Croydon, south London.

Hicks' faith at Guantanamo was said to be "lax" and in June 2006 it was revealed that Hicks had been denounced by a fellow inmate who belonged to Al Qaeda. The accuser was Uthman al-Harbi, a Yemeni Al Qaeda member, who said Hicks was not a Muslim and swore before Allah that he would not communicate with him. This was reported by former detainee Moazzam Begg, who said: "I wouldn't describe him as a dedicated Muslim. I don't think he was before and he certainly isn't now."

In June 2006, a US security expert claimed that inside Guantanamo, Hicks had received psychological torture. Professor Alfred McCoy said: "David Hicks has suffered untold psychological damage that will take a great deal of care, a great deal of treatment and probably the rest of his life to move beyond. To say that David Hicks has not been tortured, to say that David Hicks is only suffering from a sore back.. I think that just flies in the face of fact." He said that Hicks had been kept in extreme isolation for 244 days.

In 2006, the original US charges against him were ruled unconstitutional. In February 2007 he was charged with "providing material support for terrorism" under the Military. Commissions Act 2006. Hicks pleaded guilty in March and was given a seven year jail sentence, with all but nine months of this suspended. An arrangement was made with Australian authorities and in May 2007 he was returned to Australia to serve out his time in an Australian jail. On December 29, 2007, Hicks was released from Yatala prison in Adelaide. He was immediately subject to an interim control order which was issued by a magistrate eight days before his release.

Warren Donald, the magistrate who issued the order, said: "I'm satisfied that coupled with the defendant's views expressed and his capability and training ... that the defendant is a risk of taking part in a terrorist act."

The control order stated he should observe a curfew, have restrictions on his associates and on his mobile phone ownership, and report to a police station three times a week. Additionally he was barred from leaving Australia.

On Monday this week some realaxation of the control order was announced by Australian Federal Police. Hicks was given a prepaid mobile phone, and his curfew hours were to be shortened by two hours. He was also allowed more space between police station visits, making him liable to report only twice a week.

The changes were accepted by Federal Magistrate Warren Donald on Tuesday. Hicks did not appear before the magistrate as, his lawyer stated, he was in a "fragile state" and she found it hard to get instructions from him. However, the magisrtate said that he believed that Hicks still posed a risk of committing terrorist activity. The control order is valid for 12 months.

On February 19, the day the control order was finalised, Magistrate Warren Donald officially released documents which related to Hicks' activities before he was taken into US custody.

One of these items was an "Eagle" brand notebook, which Hicks had written in while he was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistani Kashmir between March and June 2000. This had been sent back to Adelaide before he went to Afghanistan.

Other documents included letters to his parents, particularly to his mother Susan. Some are 40 pages in length. He calls the Himalayas "breathtakingly beautiful", but reports that when Indian soldiers open fire on civilians "the singing turns to crying or screaming and so the perfect picture is shattered."

He mentions children shot by Indian soldiers, and then writes of killing two soldiers in a bunker as revenge. He writes to his mother: "I want you to understand so you are not turned off from Islam, for fighting is not exactly an attractive thing. May Allah forgive me for trying to explain it without knowledge in case I do a bad job."

The documents reveal that when in Aghanistan on a visit in late 2000, Hicks had a knife pressed to his throat by Taliban. He then called the Taliban "blood-hungry idiots". He wrote: "They might be implementing Islamic law, an Islamic state, but they completely waste their time because they do it in a totally un-Islamic way. So many of their actions clearly go against Islam... and when I mentioned it they held me and were going to kill me. They went as far as to put a knife to my throat."

He was in awe of Osama bin Laden, whom he referred to as a "lovely brother". He wrote of the Al Qaeda leader: "Only reason non-Muslims call him the most wanted terrorist because his (sic) got the money to take action which was given to him by Allah."

His lawyers have tried to downplay the distasteful content of some of these documents, claiming that they should be viewed in context. They state that Hicksis no longer a Muslim, and these documents were made more than six years ago.

One of his lawyers, David McLeod, has mentioned that Hicks receives public support. McLeod said: "On every occasion that he has gone out, whether it's to catch a train or a bus, go to a restaurant or go to the shopping centre, people have actually come up to him and congratulated him on his strength and his endeavour to return to a normal life as an Australian citizen."

No matter how "lax" Hicks' faith in Islam would eventually become, nor how emotionally traumatised he seems to have been after his time in Guantanamo, the notebook shows that in 2000, before he went to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Hicks was fully committed to the notion of violent jihad.

The diary contained diagrams and instructions on the best means of killing "a vip" and those who would be protecting such an individual. He made copious notes on weapons, such as the Heckler & Koch submachine gun, the M-16 assault rifle, RPG-7 grenade launcher and anti-tank rockets.

Hicks' notebook also contains strong anti-semitic passages, and displays a hatred of Western society, which was aligned with Satan and "full of poison". Some of the pages were reproduced by the Australian newspaper.

These are transcripts of some of the pages, providing an insight into the mindset of the jihadist:

".....for these coming days example. Hear [sic] is a page from a book of hadiths.
Muslims fight against jews and they kill them
In the last hour muslims will fight with jews since the jews are an integral part of army of the Dajjal (anti christ) muslims are the soldiers of the prophet jesus (P.B.U.H. second coming), will fight each other and the muslims will become triumphant untill [sic] even a stone or tree would say. come here, muslim, there is a jew hiding behind me, kill him. This is a sign of approaching the last hour.
Hadith
ABU Hurairah reported that Allah's messenger (P.B.U.H) said, The last hour would not come unless the muslims fight against the jews......."

These Hadiths derive from Sahih Muslim, Book 41, Number 6985 and Sahih Muslim, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177.

In another extract from the notebook, Hicks writes:
Guerilla War
Guerilla War takes 20-30 years, minimum 10 years but you must keep patience and emaan [firmness of faith]. The sacrifice for Allah. The No. 1 important aspect is you must have support of the people. Without support of the people, the guerilla war would not exist.
Defination [sic] The smaller group to get support of the local people (civillians [sic]) against the super power or aggression (aggressive) power.
Where to attack - First attack the small checkposts. Direct attacks on the main army will cause strict action against the guerilla group. attacks on the small checkposts gives you experience and makes the check posts scared. Slowly bit by bit gaining control. The guards leave the borders empty allowing you to sleep store weapons and generally have bases within the country.

In a letter to his mother he writes on the first page:
Dear Mother
Thank you for your letter. It arrived safely. I am very glad to hear that you have seen the difference in the non-western writers. I hope by reading these books you will be able to see the truth and beauty of Islam. There is one thing I wish to explain so you understand what I'm up too [sic], and that's the fighting which in Islam is called Jehad. I want you to understand this point so you are not turned off from Islam for fighting is not exactly an atractive [sic] thing. May allah forgive me for trying to explain it without knowledge in case I do a bad job and give a (or) the wrong opion [sic]. After reading the book, Biography of the Noble prophet (peace be upon him) I trust you see the attitude, actions and devotion of the non-believers for stopping Islam....

In another letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire for martyrdom: "If Dad rings and says do you know your son is dead, be happy and say congratulations."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 20, 2008 5:21 PM

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