History > 2007 > Australia (I)

With Terrorism Charges Dropped,

Return of Doctor Is Celebrated

July 30, 2007
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGALORE, India, July 29 (AP) — Mobbed by television cameramen, journalists and supporters, a 27-year-old doctor flew home to a hero’s welcome Sunday in southern India after terrorism charges against him were dropped in Australia and he was freed.

Looking relaxed and smiling, the doctor, Mohammed Haneef, was whisked from the airport to his family’s home, where a celebratory feast was being held, after flying from Brisbane, Australia, earlier in the day. Dr. Haneef’s jailing had aroused waves of sympathy in his native India.

“What can give a mother more happiness?” said Qurrath-Ul-Ain. “My child is free and he is coming home.” She spoke as she passed around sweets to cousins and neighbors at her home, which was decked out with strings of jasmine flowers, balloons and streamers.

In an emotional television interview earlier, Dr. Haneef said he had no knowledge of involvement by relatives of his who have been accused of playing a role in a failed terrorist attack in Britain last month. He said he would not have kept quiet if he had.

Dr. Haneef was arrested July 2 at an airport in Brisbane as he was about to fly to India to see his wife and newborn daughter — just days after his second cousins in Britain were arrested in a failed terrorist plot.

Dr. Haneef was released Friday after Australia’s chief prosecutor, Damian Bugg, said there was no evidence to support the charge that he provided reckless support to a terrorist organization. Dr. Haneef had given his cellphone SIM card to his cousin Sabeel Ahmed — who is now accused in one of the June bomb plots — when he left Britain for Australia a year ago.

In a paid interview broadcast Sunday on the Nine Network in Australia, Dr. Haneef said supporting a terrorist organization was against his nature.

Appearing close to tears, he said if he had suspected that his relatives — Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed — were planning bombings in Britain, he would not have kept it to himself.

“I would have let the parents know first, who are the main sufferers now,” Dr. Haneef said. “I really feel for them.”

With Terrorism Charges Dropped, Return of Doctor Is Celebrated,
NYT, 30.7.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/world/asia/30australia.html

Midday

Sydney officials ridiculed

for emergency 'Go Bag' advice

Tuesday July 17, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Barbara McMahon in Sydney

People living in Australia's largest city are being urged to keep survival bags at their homes and workplaces to be used in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.

The so-called "Go Bags" should contain items such as maps, running shoes, sunscreen and toilet paper, bemused residents of Sydney have been told.

The advice issued by city authorities also tells people they can carry their cat in a pillowcase during an evacuation and reminds them to turn off their gas and electricity and to check on their neighbours before going to designated emergency gathering points around the city.

The backers of the Let's Get Ready Sydney campaign said it was a responsible promotion designed to prepare residents for unforeseen civil emergencies, including a terror attack. Apart from the Go Bags, which should also contain items like a first-aid kit, spare change, energy bars and a battery or solar-powered radio, Sydney residents were asked to think about how they would contact friends and relatives during an emergency when mobile phone services are disrupted.

On an accompanying website, residents can evaluate their level of preparedness in the event of a disaster. Those who tick 50% or fewer of the suggested emergency preparations are rebuked: "You have not made many emergency preparations, perhaps because you don't like thinking about the subject."

The campaign immediately attracted ridicule when it was launched today by the city's lord mayor, Clover Moore.

The Sydney Morning Herald commented: "Torch? Check. Maps? Check. Sense of impending doom? Check." A cartoon showed a fashion-conscious woman in the city of multi-million dollar waterfront homes hesitating over whether to choose a Hermes or Louis Vuitton Go Bag.

The city's deputy mayor Chris Hill also mocked the A$200,000 (£85,400) campaign, suggesting Go Bags should contain sunglasses, inflatable waterwings, a Sydney good food guide and a one-way ticket to Barcelona.

"I find these fear campaigns personally offensive," said Mr Hill, a member of the Australian Green Party. "Where are we supposed to go with our Go Bags? With our current public transport problems, the roads would be clogged in minutes."

He said it smacked of a fear campaign run by the government in the run-up to the general election, due in a few months.

A government spokesman denied the claim, saying the campaign, backed up by posters and the distribution of 200,000 leaflets, had been in planning for the last two years, well before the announcement of an election.

Ms Moore, who confessed that she had not yet packed her own Go Bag, said she was sympathetic to criticism that such campaigns would make people more fearful but said it would irresponsible not to be prepared for every eventuality.

"All cities need to be aware of potential terrorism - that's a fact of life now - and of what we are experiencing in terms of our changing weather patterns in the wake of climate change. Do you sit on your hands and not do anything or do you do something and act responsibly?" she said.

In 2003, the government faced similar criticism when it distributed fridge magnets to every Australian household with information people might need in the event of a terrorist attack. The campaign scooped an international award as one of the most ridiculous security measures introduced since September 11 2001.

    Sydney officials ridiculed for emergency 'Go Bag' advice, G, 17.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2128405,00.html

Sydney Urges Residents to Make 'Go Bags'

July 17, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:04 a.m. ET
The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Residents of Australia's largest city are being urged to create survival bags to prepare for terrorist attacks and other emergencies under a campaign launched by city council Tuesday.

The ''Go Bags,'' featured in the new terrorism awareness campaign, would include maps, a radio, a first aid kit, an extra set of keys, some spare change and important documents.

The campaign, similar to one in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, urges Sydney residents to consider how they would make contact with friends and relatives during a terrorist attack or other emergency, when mobile phone services are often disrupted.

The council's acting chief executive, Garry Harding, said Sydney residents need to prepare for a serious incident like a terror attack.

''You can't ignore what's happened overseas, you know we're all aware of that,'' Harding told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Critics said the campaign was unnecessary, and some ridiculed some of the advice it included -- such as packing toilet paper rolls and using a pillow case to carry pet cats who might not want to leave home.

''This is yet another campaign that basically injects more fear into our lives,'' said Deputy Lord Mayor Chris Harris, who was among a minority of councilors to oppose the campaign.

Anthony Moorhouse, a consultant for companies that send staff to danger zones, said the idea of a quick evacuation kit was good but that some items being recommended for inclusion could mean people wouldn't take it seriously.

Packing a radio and first-aid kit would be beneficial, but the need for toilet paper was questionable, he said.

''I guess the City of Sydney assumes that there'll be some sort of toilet roll crisis in a flood, or any given emergency,'' Moorhouse told ABC radio.

Australia is a close ally of the United States in its fight against terrorism, and has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Prime Minister John Howard has warned Australians that they could be targets for terrorists.

    Sydney Urges Residents to Make 'Go Bags', NYT, 17.7.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Terror-Bags.html

Doctor to Stay in Custody in Australia

July 16, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:42 a.m. ET
The New York Times

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- The Australian government said Monday it would detain a doctor accused of supporting the foiled car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow on immigration violations, overriding a magistrate's order granting him bail.

Mohamed Haneef's work visa was canceled because the Indian doctor had ''failed the character test,'' and he would be taken into immigration custody if he meets his bail conditions, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said.

''I reasonably suspect that he has, or has had, an association with persons engaged in criminal activity, namely terrorism, in the U.K.,'' Andrews told reporters in Canberra, the national capital. ''That's the basis on which I have made this decision.''

Hours earlier, Queensland state Magistrate Jacqui Payne granted Haneef bail, saying there was no clear evidence he was involved in the car bomb plot.

Police, acting on information from British investigators in the attack plot, arrested Haneef on July 2 as he tried to board a flight from the eastern city of Brisbane to India.

Haneef, 27, was charged Saturday with providing support to a terrorist organization by giving his mobile phone SIM card to British suspects Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed when he moved to Australia in July 2006.

Haneef is a distant cousin of the Ahmed brothers and he shared a house with them in Liverpool before moving to Australia for a job at a hospital on Queensland state's Gold Coast.

Haneef's lawyer Stephen Keim has slammed the government's case as ''extremely weak,'' saying his client only left the SIM card so his cousin could take advantage of a special deal on his mobile phone plan.

Under Australian law, the government can withdraw a person's visa for a variety of reasons, including if the minister judges a person is not of good character.

Magistrate Jacqui Payne set the bail for Haneef with several conditions, including staying away from international ports, checking in with police three times a week and putting up an $8,700 bond.

Andrews said that if Haneef meets the bail conditions, immigration officials would step in before he can be freed and bring him to a detention facility in Sydney.

The move was criticized by Cameron Murphy, the secretary of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties.

''The reason we have an independent court system is so these incredibly important decisions are made for the right reasons, and aren't subject to political interference,'' Murphy said. ''It is not appropriate for the government to just keep him incarcerated because they don't like the decision of the magistrates court.''

Haneef's wife has maintained her husband is innocent and pleaded with authorities to help free him, Indian media reported Sunday.

''I had patience till now because I thought they would not charge him without reason,'' said Firdaus Arshiya, according to the Sunday edition of the Hindustan Times. ''The charges are baseless and senseless.''

In Britain, police charged Sabeel Ahmed, 26, with withholding information that could prevent an act of terrorism. He was arrested in Liverpool the day of the Glasgow attack and is due to appear in a London court on Monday.

Kafeel Ahmed, is believed to have set himself ablaze after crashing an explosives-laden Jeep into the Glasgow airport on June 30 and is hospitalized with severe burns.

Police also released two men arrested at a Scottish hospital after the failed attacks. Police said no charges would be filed against the men, a 24-year-old and a 27-year-old arrested at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

With their release, three of the eight people detained in the case have been freed and three have been charged since a pair of cars packed with gas cylinders and nails were found in central London on June 29. The next day, two men crashed a flaming Jeep Cherokee, loaded with gas canisters and gasoline, into security barriers at Glasgow airport's main terminal.

On Saturday, a British judge gave police until July 21 to continue questioning a Jordanian doctor, Mohammed Asha, 26, who was detained on a northern England highway on June 30. He was detained with his wife, who was released Thursday without charge.

    Doctor to Stay in Custody in Australia, NYT, 16.7.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Britain-Terrorism.html

Midday

Aborigines threaten

to ban tourists from Uluru

Tuesday June 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Barbara McMahon in Sydney


Tourists may be banned from climbing Uluru, Australia's most famous natural landmark, as part of a protest by its traditional Aboriginal owners over a government crackdown in indigenous communities.

The threat comes from the leaders of Mutitjulu, an Aboriginal settlement in the shadow of the giant red monolith in the central Australian desert.

The township, a troubled community which has long-standing problems caused by alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing, is the first to be targeted following a government inquiry into the sexual abuse of indigenous children.

The government last week ordered compulsory medical checks for indigenous children, a ban on alcohol and pornography and restrictions on welfare payments following a report that said the sexual abuse of children was rampant in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Calling the situation a "national emergency", the Australian prime minister, John Howard, also ordered more police to be sent into communities to clamp down on violence and restore order, with the military giving logistical support.

The Mutitjulu elder Vince Forrester said that local residents, especially women and children, were frightened at the looming government intervention and some families had already fled into the bush, fearing that their children might be taken away from them.

"The community is bewildered as to why there is a military operation against the most poverty stricken members of Australia," he said. The traditional owners of Uluru were considering a civil disobedience campaign that would include a ban on climbing the rock in protest at some elements of the plan, he added.

"The tourist industry brings a lot of dollars into the territory and tourists all come to Uluru. Obviously civil disobedience can come in protest form," he said.

The traditional owners of Uluru regard it as a sacred site and ban climbing at important ceremonial times such as funerals. But 500,000 tourists still visit the rock every year and tens of thousands climb to the top.

Aboriginal leaders and more than 60 community and welfare groups released an open letter to Mr Howard today welcoming action on child abuse but urging more consultation with Aborigines and less emphasis on punitive measures. Without these strategies any plan was unlikely to work, the letter said.

The leftwing commentator on Aboriginal affairs Peter Botsman said the government had not done any groundwork before announcing the drastic measures, and warned that the coalition government's emergency plan could turn out to be "Mr Howard's Iraq".

He said the government should have picked the Aboriginal community with the most problems and got the support of local leaders instead of planning blanket action in 60 communities in the Northern Territory. "Going at it one community at a time might have gathered some momentum," he said.

    Aborigines threaten to ban tourists from Uluru, G, 26.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2111829,00.html

10.30am

Aborigines face ban

on alcohol and porn

Thursday June 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies

Pornography and alcohol will be banned for Aborigines in Australia's Northern Territory, the country's prime minister, John Howard, announced today, after a report found that "rivers of grog" were leading to rampant child abuse.

"This is a national emergency," Mr Howard told parliament. "We're dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of childhood innocence has never been present."

The sale, possession and transportation of alcohol would be banned for six months on Aboriginal-owned land in the Northern Territory, Mr Howard said, and sales would be reviewed after that.

Some Aboriginal leaders immediately attacked the plan as "disgusting and paternalistic", saying they were not consulted and that they objected to restrictions on how indigenous people spend their welfare benefits.

The child abuse report, Little Children Are Sacred, released last week, found drinking was a key contributor to the collapse of Aboriginal culture and neglect of children, and created opportunities for paedophiles.

The report said hardcore pornography was rife in Aboriginal communities and available to children, who had become desensitised to sex with adults. The sale and possession of pornography is also to be banned.

"A river of grog [alcohol] is killing people and destroying our communities," Pat Anderson, who co-chaired the inquiry, told reporters last week. "There is a strong association between alcohol abuse, violence and sexual abuse of children."

About 60,000 of Australia's roughly 400,000 Aborigines live in the Northern Territory. They are consistently the nation's most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than that of other Australians.

Alcohol kills an Aborigine every 38 hours and accounts for a quarter of deaths in the Northern Territory.

Under Mr Howard's plan, new restrictions would be placed on welfare payments for Aborigines, forcing parents to spend at least half of the money on essential items such as food - a measure meant to prevent wasting money on alcohol and gambling. Family welfare payments would also be linked to children's school attendance.

Aboriginal leaders said it was the kind of government behaviour that disenfranchised their people and created the problems in the first place.

"I'm absolutely disgusted by this patronising government control," said Mitch, who uses one name and is a member of a government board helping Aborigines who were taken from their parents under past assimilation laws. "And tying drinking with welfare payments is just disgusting.

"If they're going to do that, they're going to have to do that with every single person in Australia, not just black people."

The report said banning alcohol sales in some Aboriginal communities had dramatically reduced sexual abuse and violence: "Alcohol is being used as a bartering tool to gain sex from children, either by offering it to the children themselves or in some cases to adult members of their family."

One Aboriginal woman from the Yolngu tribe said "white man's water is a curse" and called for alcohol outlets to be closed.

"Eradicate this curse that is killing us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually," she wrote in a letter published in the report.

The report said: "Many of the Aboriginal people spoken to by the inquiry were not aware of legal issues such as age of consent."

    Aborigines face ban on alcohol and porn, G, 21.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2108122,00.html

Background

'The Aboriginal people are likely to disappear within a generation'

A report called Little Children Are Sacred highlights the blight of alcoholism and child abuse in Australia, writes James Sturcke

Thursday June 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Alcohol's devastating effect on Australian Aboriginal society is hardly a new phenomenon but it appears to be accelerating, with a warning that indigenous life could vanish within a generation - in native communities that equates to about 15 years.

Among a raft of problems linked to alcohol is the sexual abuse of children - a fact confirmed in last week's report, Little Children Are Sacred, by one of Australia's most senior lawyers, Rex Wild QC, and Pat Anderson, a Alyawarr woman well known for her work on indigenous health and community issues.

Ms Anderson told reporters at the report's launch that there were "rivers of grog killing people and destroying our communities". Alcohol causes the death of an Aborigine every 38 hours, with a quarter of the deaths in the Northern Territory.

But is prohibition, as effectively announced today by the Australian prime minister, John Howard, the answer?

"It is absolutely clear that unless we take on and overcome the abuse of alcohol and the harm it causes the Aboriginal people, then the Aboriginal people and their cultures are likely to disappear within a generation or so," the inquiry found.

The authors visited 45 Aboriginal communities and found crime had been cut by 70% in areas where pubs had been shut.

"People seemed to be more at rest and were talking and acting in a much happier manner than they would have been if the pub was open," the report observed during a visit to Borroloola.

"Since the pub lost its licence, the community had become quieter, there was no brawling, more kids were attending school and parents and adult family members were spending more positive time with children doing family activities such as fishing."

Child abuse allegations among the Northern Territory's 60,000-strong Aboriginal population have come under the media spotlight since last year's broadcast of a television documentary about a suspected paedophile who was trading petrol for sex with young girls.

In compiling Little Children Are Sacred, the authors say they "quickly became aware" - in common with numerous earlier inquiries - that child sexual abuse was directly related to other breakdowns in society.

"Put simply, the cumulative effects of poor health, alcohol, drug abuse, gambling, pornography, unemployment, poor education and housing and general disempowerment lead inexorably to family and other violence and then on to sexual abuse of men and women and, finally, of children," the report states.

Alcohol is readily available and is being drunk in record quantities in communities where - amid high unemployment - there is little else to do.

"The inquiry believes that extreme alcohol abuse has become normal in the Northern Territory and the devastating effects on children are rapidly increasing. The inquiry was also told of increasing numbers of Aboriginal children taking up alcohol and that the ages of first-time drinkers are decreasing.

"The importance of effectively dealing with substance abuse, in particular alcohol, as part of an overall strategy aimed at protecting Aboriginal children from sexual abuse, cannot be emphasised strongly enough. Only radical, determined and wholesale reform will make a difference."

The consumption of alcohol by children "increases their vulnerability to abuse" and is used as "a bartering tool to obtain sex" either by offering it to the youngsters or their guardians.

The authors also express concern about the widespread availability of pornography, which is widely seen by children as a result of poor supervision.

"The daily diet of sexually explicit material has had a major impact, presenting young and adolescent Aboriginals with a view of mainstream sexual practice and behaviour which is jaundiced. It encourages them to act out the fantasies they see on screen or in magazines."

On top of recommending that under-16s should be banned from exposure to pornography and that an "alcohol framework" to reduce consumption should be established, the authors said that better education was essential, not just in getting pupils into school but among adults, too.

The report criticised the present and past governments for lacking the political will to tackle the issue, particularly when last year's budget surplus was "billions and billions of dollars".

There are 97 recommendations in the report but blanket prohibition is not among them. Instead, in dealing with alcohol, it calls for reduction programmes and plans tailored to individual communities.

It also recommends introducing more public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of alcohol and making counseling available.

Appeals for extensive consultation with Aboriginal elders for culturally acceptable ways of battling the "impending disaster" appear to have been ignored.

While the report's authors may be gratified that the Australian prime minister is not afraid to take radical measures, his apparent lack of consultation harks back to the paternalism which characterised the treatment of Aborigines half a century ago. That is unlikely to win support for the changes in the places where they matter most.

    'The Aboriginal people are likely to disappear within a generation', G, 21.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2108294,00.html

Background

The troubled history

of Australia's Aborigines

As Australia's prime minister, John Howard, announces a ban on pornography and alcohol for Aborigines, Peter Walker looks at the problems facing the indigenous community

Thursday June 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Peter Walker

While some Australians still complain bitterly at what they view as special treatment for Aboriginal communities, few would doubt that the arrival of the first white settlers just over 200 years ago was a disaster for the country's indigenous people.

When the Europeans came, the Aborigines had been settled in Australia for at least 40,000 years and had developed a sophisticated culture.

However, Australia was settled by its new white population under a legal basis known as "terra nullius", which decreed the land was effectively uninhabited and could thus be occupied at will.

A combination of violence, land appropriation and virulent European diseases reduced the indigenous population from a peak of possibly one million. In Tasmania, the last full-blooded native inhabitant died in 1876.

Many white Australians assumed Aboriginal populations would eventually die out, but they gradually developed resistance to disease, even if many did succumb to another European import, alcohol.

When direct violence ended, it was replaced with a misplaced paternalism, typified by the decades-long practice of removing Aboriginal children, especially those of mixed race, from their parents so they could be inducted into European ways.

The issue of the so-called "stolen generation" was investigated by the government in the mid-1990s and forms the basis for the semi-official National Sorry Day.

In 1992, a landmark legal judgement, the Mabo case, named after one of the indigenous litigants, effectively overturned terra nullius and potentially paved the way for Aboriginal tribes to reclaim great tracts of the country.

State governments hurriedly acted to ensure existing property titles were not excessively affected, but mining companies and other industries often have to negotiate with tribes for the right to work on some land now.

The judgment is also seen as a symbolic, if belated, recognition of the unjustness of the original settlement.

Around the same time, the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission sought to bring a measure of self-government to indigenous people and improve their social conditions. The body was abolished two years ago and its work brought under a ministry of families, community services and indigenous affairs, which introduced today's alcohol and pornography ban.

The social conditions seen in many of the country's Aboriginal settlements, where alcoholism and unemployment are rife, have long been described as a national disgrace.

A study released last year by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that death rates among Aboriginal children were nearly three times higher than for non-indigenous infants.

The same study showed that 70% of the near-500,000 Aboriginal population die before the age of 65, compared with 20% of non-indigenous Australians. The average life expectancy for Aboriginal men is 59, compared with 77 for non-indigenous males.

    The troubled history of Australia's Aborigines, G, 21.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2108285,00.html

Australian Detainee Back From Guantanamo

May 20, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:28 a.m. ET
The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Confessed Australian al-Qaida supporter David Hicks was transferred to a maximum security prison in his hometown on Sunday after spending more than five years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hicks, the first of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees to face a U.S. military tribunal, made the flight from Cuba in Gulfstream G550 jet chartered by the Australian government with an entourage of Australian police, prison officers and a lawyer.

He was taken to the Yatala Labor Prison in South Australia state, near his hometown of Adelaide. Hikcs will serve the final seven months of his sentence in the facility's highest security wing, alongside serial murderers and rapists.

Nevertheless, lawyer David McLeod said Hicks was thrilled to be home.

''He is happy to be back on Australian soil,'' McLeod told reporters outside Yatala prison. ''He visibly was elated when we touched down.''

Prison officials have said Hicks will be kept in a single-bed cell similar in size to the one he left in Cuba.

Hicks will not be allowed to have any personal effects, and visitors will be separated by a glass partition. His telephone calls will be monitored and he will be allowed little or no contact with other inmates, authorities have said.

Attorney General Philip Ruddock declined to comment on security arrangements, saying only ''public safety is the primary concern.''

Hicks, a former Outback cowboy and kangaroo skinner, was captured by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in December 2001, and became one of the first terrorist suspects to be transferred to the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

He pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida.

Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to nine months in prison -- a fraction of the life term he was eligible for on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. He also agreed to a 12-month order prohibiting him from talking to the media, and stated he had ''never been treated illegally'' since he was captured in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo.

Hicks was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks that has come under criticism as a violation of the prisoners' right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.

A Muslim convert, Hicks was accused of attending al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. He had spent only two hours on the Taliban front line before it collapsed in November 2001 under attack by U.S. Special Forces and the Northern Alliance.

While fleeing, Hicks came across a group of Arab fighters who told him they were heading back to the front to fight to the death. Hicks declined to join them and was captured in December 2001 as he tried to escape into Pakistan, according to the military's charge sheet.

Hicks is due to be released at the end of December, when he may be free to speak to the media about his ordeal, despite the U.S. gag order, Ruddock said Sunday.

The attorney general said he did not believe Australia could enforce the media ban. But under local law Hicks, a convicted criminal, would not be allowed to sell his story.

''We are of the view that he's free -- once he has concluded his penal servitude -- to speak as he wishes, but not to profit,'' Ruddock told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

    Australian Detainee Back From Guantanamo, NYT, 20.5.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Hicks.html

Australian Officials Plan Kangaroo Cull

May 14, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:34 p.m. ET
The New York Times

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Authorities said Monday they want to shoot more than 3,000 kangaroos on the fringes of Australia's capital, noting the animals were growing in population and eating through the grassy habitats of endangered species.

The Defense Department wants to hire professional shooters to cull the kangaroos at two of its properties on the outskirts of Canberra, which counts 1,100 kangaroos per square mile in the Australian Capital Territory -- the densest kangaroo population ever measured in the region.

With a population of about 333,000 according to the latest census figures, there are 367 people per square mile in the territory, which includes Canberra.

That means that kangaroos outnumber people in the territory by a 3-to-1 margin.

Canberra's local government is expected to decide this week whether to approve the cull, government spokeswoman Yersheena Nichols said.

Under the plan, 3,200 of the common eastern gray kangaroos, which can grow as big as a man, will be shot by July.

The territory's Animal Liberation president Mary Hayes warned that such an action would earn the local government an international reputation for cruelty.

''It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals,'' she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Queensland state Kangaroo Protection Coalition activist Pat O'Brien rejected the government's argument that the kangaroos risked starvation if they were not killed.

''This is just an excuse to kill them,'' he said.

The Defense Department said the 6,500 kangaroos at its two sites were not only threatening their own survival, they were destroying the habitat of endangered species including the grassland earless dragon, striped legless lizard and golden sun moth.

The government said on its Web site that there has been a population explosion of kangaroos in the territory, which includes Canberra.

Officials have conducted periodic culls of the fast-breeding kangaroo, which is Australia's national symbol but also a pest in agricultural areas, eating pastures intended for livestock.

Millions are killed in more rural areas of Australia each year, but killing 3,000 kangaroos in more urban Canberra and the surrounding Australian Capital Territory has raised protests.

A cull of about 800 kangaroos in the Canberra area in 2004 also brought a large outcry from animal activists.

In 2003, authorities ordered the killing of 6,500 eastern grays at the Puckapunyal military base, 62 miles north of Melbourne. A year earlier, a similar shooting operation killed more than 20,000 kangaroos on the base.

The final decision on the latest cull will be made by government official Russell Watkinson.

''Our concerns are for the welfare of the animals and the potential for a starvation event and also the fact that there are some rare and threatened species in these grasslands under some further threat due to overgrazing,'' Watkinson told ABC.

Scientists soon plan to test an oral contraceptive developed for kangaroos in an attempt to thin their numbers at one of the sites in suburban Belconnen, according to government ecologist Don Fletcher.

''Shooting kangaroos is a violent thing that for urban populations is becoming increasingly undesirable,'' said Fletcher, who is developing the contraceptive in conjunction with the University of Newcastle for trial on 20 female survivors of the cull.

------

On the Net:

Australian Capital Territory government: www.tams.act.gov.au

    Australian Officials Plan Kangaroo Cull, NYT, 14.5.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Australia-Kangaroos.html

Meanwhile, in Australia a global crisis arrives in the back yard

Published: 28 April 2007
The Independent
By Kathy Marks in Brisbane

When the timer pings, Emma Kendall-Marsden knows that her four minutes in the shower are up. In her native Northamptonshire she loved to linger under a powerful hot jet. But this is Brisbane, and the water is running out.

Emma and her husband, Sam, emigrated to Australia in 2003. The lifestyle and warm climate were the main attractions. They bought a house in a leafy Brisbane suburb. Their spacious lawn was irrigated by 24-hour sprinklers.

The couple could not have predicted that within a few years the country would be gripped by its most crippling drought on record. Southeast Queensland has been one of the areas worst affected, and the Kendall-Marsdens have watched dam levels fall to a historic low.

Now they are now living under the toughest water restrictions ever imposed in Australia.

The drought, which many scientists have linked with global warming, is regarded as the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.

Sam is a keen gardener, but his lawn is an expanse of shrivelled brown grass that crunches underfoot. The soil is like concrete, and the flowerbeds are dotted with straggly corpses. “That used to be a magnolia bush,” he says. “And those were irises.” He and Emma used to pick lemons for their gin and tonics. Like everything else, their lemon tree is dead.

When they first moved in, “it was green”, says Sam. “It was lush,” says Emma. “It was beautiful,” they chorus.

Now gardens may only be watered by bucket, from 4-7pm three days a week. Hosepipes are banned, and only car mirrors and windscreens can be washed. Children’s paddling pools may not be filled.

Residents are being cajoled and threatened into using no more than 140 litres of water a day each. One minute in the shower consumes up to 15 litres. A soak in the bath can soak up 200, while a load of washing uses about 165.

In stiff upper-lipped fashion, the Kendall-Marsdens are doing their best to meet the target. They turn off taps while brushing their teeth and soaping themselves in the shower. They stuff the washing machine full, and have mothballed the dishwasher. They save up dirty crockery to wash in bulk. “I couldn’t tell you when I last had a bath,” says Sam, a solicitor.

Even their Rottweiler, Cesar, must do his bit. In the past he was given a full bucket of water. Now he is limited to half a bucket.

Yet the couple are still using 194 litres each per day, according to Sam, who carefully logs their consumption. “We’ve been really frugal,” he says. “I don’t know what else we can cut back.” Emma says: “I feel guilty even turning on the tap.”

The Kendall-Marsdens are not just being good citizens. Households with excessive water usage are required to perform an audit, and may be fined. But beyond that lies a more compelling reason. “I’m scared we’re going to run out of water,” says Sam.

That fear is well grounded. The three dams servicing the region are down to less than 20 per cent of capacity. If next summer is as dry as the last one, Brisbane will run out of water late next year.

By that time a $7bn (2.91bn pounds) programme aimed at “drought-proofing” southeast Queensland is supposed to have been completed. It includes a desalination plant on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, and a pipeline that will pump recycled water to power stations. New dams are also planned.

But if construction work falls behind schedule, there will be a crisis. “Frankly, it’s a close race,” says a source at the Queensland Water Commission.

Smaller towns in the region have already run dry, and are having to truck in water supplies at great expense. The government is talking about evacuating residents.

In Brisbane, deadly funnel-web spiders are invading backyards, while thirsty kangaroos are colliding with cars in outer suburbs. In rural areas, snakes have become a menace. “We had a 5ft red-bellied black on the verandah the other day,” says Paul Van Vegchel, who lives on a property near Kingaroy, north-west of Brisbane. “They’re extremely venomous.”

Mr Van Vegchel, an artist, is usually self-sufficient. “But my dam’s bone dry, and my bore’s pumping salt water,” he said. “Me and the wife share a very skimpy bath, then we wash our smalls in it, then we put that water in the garden pots.”

Like many locals, Mr Van Vegchel accuses the Queensland government of failing to plan adequately for the needs of Australia’s fastest growing region. The beaches and warm climate of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, to the north, attract 60,000 new inhabitants a year. The current population is 2.8 million.

“The government has sat back and had this great influx of people into the southeast corner,” said Mr Van Vegchel. “There’s been no planning; it’s just been welcome on board.”

While southeast Queensland is highly urbanised, it has 4,000 farmers, all of whom are enduring hard times. John Cherry, chief executive of the Queensland Farmers Federation, says dairy production is down by 30 per cent since 2002, while fruit and vegetable production has halved in four years.

Across the state, about 37,000 jobs in agriculture have disappeared. “The social impact has been devastating,” said Mr Cherry.

Linton Brimblecombe, who farms in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, is still growing beetroot, but has abandoned his sweetcorn, green beans and broccoli. Unless it rains, he will be out of water by September.

Mr Brimblecombe built dams during the last drought 10 years ago. “Back then the farming community was suffering, but Brisbane wasn’t,” he said. “So the Queensland government missed a wake-up call.”

A fourth-generation farmer, he is certain he is witnessing the effects of climate change. “We watch the weather and temperatures intimately, because they determine how we treat our crops,” he said. “Most definitely we’re warming up and our rainfall is decreasing.”

New figures published yesterday suggest Australia will exceed its Kyoto target for greenhouse gas emissions by two per cent. The government, which has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol but claims to be on course to meet the target anyway, rejected the figures.

In southeast Queensland, the situation is so dire that people are stealing water. One Brisbane sports club had 12,000 litres siphoned from its tank. Some sports pitches have closed because the ground is dangerously hard. Even tougher water restrictions may be imposed by September.

Paul Greenfield, a Queensland University professor and leading water expert, said supply would have to be rationed to certain times of day if the new infrastructure was not completed on time.

Meanwhile, the Kendall-Marsdens’ neighbours, Scott and Jessica Hitchcock, are even worse off than them. Their lawn is so dry that long cracks have opened up, several inches wide in places. Mrs Hitchcock worries that one of her children may break an ankle.

Back home, the Kendall-Marsdens pore over photographs of their once green garden and ponder whether to return to England.

    Meanwhile, in Australia a global crisis arrives in the back yard, I, 28.4.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2491768.ece

Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim

Published: 20 April 2007
The Independent
By Kathy Marks in Sydney

Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.

The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.

A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.

Lovers of the Australian landscape often cite the poet Dorothea Mackellar who in 1904 penned the classic lines: "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains." But the land that was Mackellar's muse is now cracked and parched, and its mighty rivers have shrivelled to sluggish brown streams. With paddocks reduced to dust bowls, graziers have been forced to sell off sheep and cows at rock-bottom prices or buy in feed at great expense. Some have already given up, abandoning pastoral properties that have been in their families for generations. The rural suicide rate has soared.

Mr Howard acknowledged that the measures are drastic. He said the prolonged dry spell was "unprecedentedly dangerous" for farmers, and for the economy as a whole. Releasing a new report on the state of the Murray and Darling, Mr Howard said: "It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise. We must all hope and pray there is rain."

But prayer may not suffice, and many people are asking why crippling water shortages in the world's driest inhabited continent are only now being addressed with any sense of urgency.

The causes of the current drought, which began in 2002 but has been felt most acutely over the past six months, are complex. But few scientists dispute the part played by climate change, which is making Australia hotter and drier.

Environmentalists point to the increasing frequency and severity of drought-causing El Niño weather patterns, blamed on global warming. They also note Australia's role in poisoning the Earth's atmosphere. Australians are among the world's biggest per-capita energy consumers, and among the top producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Despite that, the country is one of only two industrialised nations - the United States being the other - that have refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The governments argue that to do so would harm their economies.

Until a few months ago, Mr Howard and his ministers pooh-poohed the climate-change doomsayers. The Prime Minister refused to meet Al Gore when he visited Australia to promote his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He was lukewarm about the landmark report by the British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, which warned that large swaths of Australia's farming land would become unproductive if global temperatures rose by an average of four degrees.

Faced with criticism from even conservative sections of the media, Mr Howard realised that he had misread the public mood - grave faux pas in an election year. Last month's report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted more frequent and intense bushfires, tropical cyclones, and catastrophic damage to the Great Barrier Reef. The report also said there would be up to 20 per cent more droughts by 2030. And it said the annual flow in the Murray-Darling basin was likely to fall by 10-25 per cent by 2050. The basin, the size of France and Spain combined, provides 85 per cent of the water used nationally for irrigation.

While the government is determined to protect Australia's coal industry, the drought is expected to shave 1 per cent off annual growth this year. The farming sector of a country that once "rode the sheep's back" to prosperity is in desperate straits. With dams and reservoirs drying up, many cities and towns have been forced to introduce severe water restrictions.

Mr Howard has softened his rhetoric of late, and says that he now broadly accepts the science behind climate change. He has tried to regain the political initiative, announcing measures including a plan to take over regulatory control of the Murray-Darling river system from state governments.

He has declared nuclear power the way forward, and is even considering the merits of joining an international scheme to "trade" carbon dioxide emissions - an idea he opposed in the past.

Mr Howard's conservative coalition will face an opposition Labour Party revitalised by a popular new leader, Kevin Rudd, and offering a climate change policy that appears to be more credible than his. Ben Fargher, the head of the National Farmers' Federation, said that if fruit and olive trees died, that could mean "five to six years of lost production". Food producers also warned of major food price rises.

Mr Howard acknowledged that an irrigation ban would have a "potentially devastating" impact. But "this is very much in the lap of the gods", he said.

How UN warned Australia and New Zealand

Excerpts from UN's IPCC report on the threat of global warming to Australia and New Zealand:

"As a result of reduced precipitation and increased evaporation, water security problems are projected to intensify by 2030 in south and east Australia and, in New Zealand, in Northland and eastern regions."

* "Significant loss of biodiversity is projected to occur by 2020 in some ecologically rich sites, including the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland's tropics. Other sites at risk include the Kakadu wetlands ... and the alpine areas of both countries."

* "Ongoing coastal development and population growth in areas such as Cairns and south-east Queensland (Australia) and Northland to Bay of Plenty (New Zealand) are projected to exacerbate risks from sea-level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding by 2050."

* "Production from agriculture and forestry by 2030 is projected to decline over much of southern and eastern Australia, and over parts of eastern New Zealand, due to increases in droughts and fires."

* "The region has substantial adaptive capacity due to well-developed economies and scientific and technical capabilities, but there are considerable constraints to implementation ... Natural systems have limited adaptive capacity."

    Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim, I, 20.4.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article2465960.ece

Australia special forces going back to Afghanistan

Tue Apr 10, 2007
3:04AM EDT
Reuters
By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is sending special forces commandos back to Afghanistan to hunt down the leaders of the resurgent Taliban as part of a doubling of Australia's troop numbers there, Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday.

The deployment of 300 special forces troops to the southeast of Afghanistan, near the heart of the Taliban rebellion, is part of an increased effort needed to win the war in Afghanistan, Howard told a media conference.

"We have done this against the background of a deterioration in the security environment in southern Afghanistan," Howard said.

Australia will also send air force radar crews to Kandahar, extra logistics and intelligence officers, and extend the deployment of a team providing protection and security, Howard said, taking Australia's deployment to about 950 by the middle of this year and growing to more than 1,000 by the middle of 2008.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the Australian Defense Force Commander, said the special forces would hunt Taliban commanders.

"Essentially their operations will be targeted on the Taliban, disrupting Taliban operations and going after the Taliban leadership," Houston told reporters.

Australia withdrew its special forces from Afghanistan in September last year, but kept about 500 troops, including engineers and tradesmen, to help with reconstruction work in Uruzgan province.

Over the past month, NATO and Afghan troops have been engaged in a major offensive in the southern Helmand province, the opium heartland of Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer.

Last year saw the bloodiest fighting by Taliban insurgents since they were ousted from power in 2001. Britain and the United States have already committed more troops to the country.

The new Australian deployment came after Howard last month held talks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and NATO commanders in Kabul.

Australia, a close U.S. ally, was one of the first nations to commit troops in late 2001 to the U.S. led war to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda militants from Afghanistan, and also has about 1,500 troops in and around Iraq.

When last deployed in Afghanistan, Australia's special forces were sent on clandestine missions in small teams to penetrate deep in to the Taliban heartland, spending weeks at a time away from their base.

They were involved in heavy fighting and 11 Australians were injured, although none of the injuries were serious and none were killed.

    Australia special forces going back to Afghanistan, R, 10.4.2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSSP21051720070410

Aussies Stunned by Thorpe Doping Report

March 31, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:10 a.m. ET
The New York Times

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- With those size-17 feet, that intimidating black bodysuit and a dashing sense of style away from the pool, Ian Thorpe became the world's most iconic swimmer. Even when he walked away, only 24 years old, he was still a mesmerizing figure. Now comes the shocking news that Australia's beloved ''Thorpedo'' had a suspicious doping test just months before he retired, making front-page headlines Down Under and even prompting the country's political leader to weigh in on the matter.

''As far as I'm concerned, until solid evidence of the contrary is produced, Ian Thorpe remains a great Australian champion,'' Prime Minister John Howard said Saturday.

The swimming world was rocked by the report, given Thorpe's celebrity and adamant stance against performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.

While few people around the pool gave it any credence, there's little doubt that some will question if all those remarkable achievements -- the five Olympic gold medals, the 11 worlds titles, the 13 world records -- were achieved on the up-and-up.

The French sports daily L'Equipe broke the news, reporting that Thorpe showed ''abnormal levels'' of two banned substances in a doping test six months before he announced his retirement in November.

''This must be like being hit by a lightning bolt,'' said Glenn Tasker, head of Swimming Australia.

He said the country's swim officials only got word of the ''adverse finding'' after it was reported by L'Equipe. Thorpe was notified shortly afterward by the head coach of the national team, Alan Thompson.

''I can't tell you what they spoke about, only that Ian is obviously shocked,'' Tasker said.

Calls to Thorpe's manager, Sydney-based Dave Flaskas, were not returned, and it was not clear if the former swimmer planned to be at Rod Laver Arena for the next-to-last night of the world championships.

FINA, without mentioning Thorpe by name, confirmed Saturday that it had appealed a ruling by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency to the Court of Arbitration for Sport ''with the aim of clarifying issues surrounding this case.''

L'Equipe reported that ASADA threw out the case against Thorpe for lack of scientific proof. FINA then went to the Court of Arbitration, the highest tribunal in the sports world.

Cornel Marculescu, executive director of swimming's governing body, said the appeal was made in December and he's not sure why the news came out now, on the next-to-last day of the world championships in Melbourne. He also insisted that FINA did not know the name of the athlete involved when it appealed for a review of the case.

Tasker stressed that it was not a positive doping test.

''At this moment, nothing is diminished in Swimming Australia's eyes about Ian,'' he said. ''I'm sure the Australian public, their opinion of him won't change.''

CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb did not answer messages from The Associated Press left at his home and the court's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The French newspaper said Thorpe turned up with irregular levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone when tested in May 2006.

Several swimmers and coaches denounced the report.

''There's no way that's factual,'' American swimmer Erik Vendt said. ''He's always been such an outspoken opponent against drugs.''

Thorpe did not compete in another major international meet after the 2004 Athens Olympics, his return scuttled by injuries, illness and a lack of motivation.

Even though he was not competing, Thorpe was still subjected to regular drug testing until he formally retired. Tasker said the ex-swimmer probably had at least six drug tests after the May 2006 sample.

Synthetic versions of testosterone, the male hormone, can act like steroids to improve performance. Luteinizing hormone is released by the pituitary gland and produces testosterone in men.

''I don't want to believe this and I can't believe it,'' said Swiss head coach Gennadi Touretski, who formerly worked with stars such as Michael Klim and Alexander Popov.

After winning three golds and two silvers at the 2000 Sydney Games, Thorpe produced one of the greatest performances in swimming history at the world championships the following year in Fukuoka, Japan.

The 18-year-old Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at the meet, claiming three individual titles and taking part in three relay victories. Thorpe set world records in all three of his solo wins: the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles. He also was part of the record-setting Australian team in the 800 free relay.

Thorpe still holds the world mark in the 400, which he took even lower at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. His 800 mark was claimed in 2005 by countryman Grant Hackett, while the 200 record fell this week to American Michael Phelps at the worlds in Melbourne.

''It would be a real pity,'' Tasker said, ''if this was to overshadow what Michael Phelps has done here.''

After Thorpe won two golds, a silver and a bronze at the Athens Olympics, he took a 15-month break from swimming. His return lasted only one race, in November 2005.

''He's the greatest personality I've ever met,'' Touretski said. ''For me he's the greatest man, the greatest personality, and I believe with him everything is fine. I just wish he would come back.''

    Aussies Stunned by Thorpe Doping Report, NYT, 31.3.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-SWM-Thorpe-Doping.html

Australian Gitmo Detainee Gets 9 Months

March 31, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:06 a.m. ET
The New York Times

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- An Australian who complained of his treatment at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo was convicted of supporting terrorism, but will spend less than a year in jail at home in a deal that requires his silence about alleged abuse.

David Hicks, 31, who has spent more than five years at Guantanamo, was the first of hundreds of foreign terror suspects held at the isolated prison in southeast Cuba to be convicted, a case that also marked the first U.S. war crimes conviction since World War II.

He was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks that has been widely criticized as a violation of the prisoners' right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the verdict vindicated what his government had said -- that Hicks was a dangerous terrorist. But his father, Terry Hicks, called the light sentence ''amazing'' given that ''the Americans have been touting David as the worst of the worst.''

''Something's not right. It shows how weak the evidence is in this charade,'' he said.

Hicks had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. He entered a guilty plea Monday night, but he was not formally convicted until the judge accepted his plea at Friday's session.

A panel of officers flown to Guantanamo for the sentencing Hicks deliberated for two hours before approving a sentence of seven years, the maximum allowed under the plea deal. After they left the courtroom, the judge, Marine Corps Col. Ralph Kohlmann, revealed all but nine months would be suspended.

Asked if the outcome was what he was told to expect, Hicks said, ''Yes, it was.''

The plea deal will send Hicks to a prison in Australia within 60 days. His sentence begins immediately, but Guantanamo commanders said there would be no change in his detention conditions before his departure.

The former outback cowboy showed little emotion as he confirmed to the judge that he conducted surveillance on the former U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Hicks said he agreed to plead guilty because prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Speaking in a deep voice, he said he faced damning evidence taken from ''notes by interrogators'' that he had been shown.

Hicks wore a suit and tie and his hair had been shorn, a big change from previous sessions, when he appeared in a prison uniform and his hair hung below his shoulders. His lawyers said he had kept his hair long to help block out the round-the-clock lighting in his cell.

A Muslim convert, Hicks allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. He had spent only two hours on the Taliban front line before it collapsed in November 2001 under attack by U.S. Special Forces and the Northern Alliance.

While fleeing, Hicks came across a group of Arab fighters who told him they were heading back to the front to fight to the death. Hicks declined to join them and was captured in December 2001 as he tried to escape into Pakistan, according to the military's charge sheet.

Hicks had alleged harsh treatment, including beatings, during his more than five years at the camp. But in his plea bargain, Hicks stipulated that he has ''never been illegally treated by a person or persons while in the custody of the U.S. government,'' according to Kohlmann.

Furthermore, the judge said, the agreement bars Hicks from suing the U.S. government for alleged abuse, denies him any right to appeal his conviction and imposes a gag order that prevents him speaking with news media for a year.

Shayana Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents hundred of Guantanamo detainees, said the provisions appeared aimed at preventing abuse allegations from emerging and politically damaging the Bush administration.

''If Mr. Hicks' treatment was not illegal, he should be allowed to describe it so the world can judge for itself,'' said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In a statement read by his Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Hicks thanked U.S. service members for their professionalism during his imprisonment and expressed regret for his actions.

''He apologizes to his family, he apologizes to Australia and he apologizes to the United States,'' said Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori.

The lead prosecutor, Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Chenail, said Hicks deserved the maximum punishment for betraying the freedoms he was raised with in Australia.

''Muhammad Dawood will always be a threat unless he changes his beliefs and his ideology,'' said Chenail, who referred to Hicks by his alias.

Howard, who supports the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, has faced growing pressure for Hicks to be returned home ahead of elections later this year.

''The bottom line will always be that he pleaded guilty to knowingly assisting a terrorist organization,'' Howard told reporters in Sydney. ''He's acknowledged the prosecution could have proved that beyond a reasonable doubt.''

Hina Shamsi of Human Rights First said it was clear the plea bargain was propelled by political considerations of a U.S. ally. ''Mr. Hicks' military commission was like a train hurtling toward judgment,'' he said.

Chief prosecutor Air Force Col. Morris Davis denied that and said he was satisfied the proceedings were fair. He added that he hoped Hicks' short sentence would not set a precedent.

''I think David Hicks is very fortunate he's getting a second chance,'' he told reporters. ''I think that he's learned a lesson from this and he'll make the most of that second chance.''

Hicks had also been charged with supporting terrorist acts. That count was dismissed as part of the agreement.

Under the deal, he will also be required to cooperate with U.S. and Australian authorities to share his knowledge of al-Qaida and a militant Pakistani group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which helped him travel to Afghanistan to attend terrorist training camps.

''Any failure to cooperate with U.S. or Australian law enforcement may delay your release from confinement,'' Kohlmann warned.

Another condition calls for Hicks to hand over to the Australian government any proceeds from selling the rights to his life story.

In the days before his arraignment Monday, Hicks' lawyers said their client was deeply depressed and eager to leave Guantanamo. He spent the last few months alone in a small, solid-walled cell.

His father vowed to pursue the allegations that his son was sexually abused and tortured both physically and mentally by Americans.

''I'm not going to let this lie just because David's been forced into a situation where he has to sign a waiver,'' Hicks said.

Prosecutors say they plan to charge as many as 80 of the 385 men now held at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

But Hicks is the only detainee who has been formally charged since the military tribunals were revised after the Supreme Court in June struck down the original system as unconstitutional.

Now the court is considering a challenge to the new setup, which is also under attack from some members of Congress.

    Australian Gitmo Detainee Gets 9 Months, NYT, 31.3.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Guantanamo-Hicks.html

Gitmo Father Says Plea Deal Likely

March 27, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:11 p.m. ET
The New York Times

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- The father of an Australian who pleaded guilty to providing support for terrorists said Tuesday he thought that the defense and prosecution were likely to strike a deal that would allow him to return to his homeland this year to serve his sentence.

David Hicks, a 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner, entered the surprise plea Monday at the first session of the tribunals set up after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Pentagon's previous efforts to try Guantanamo prisoners. The military said he could be sentenced this week and will likely be returned to Australia this year to serve his time there.

Hicks appeared focused as his Pentagon-appointed attorney told the judge that his client was pleading guilty to one of two counts of providing material support for terrorism. Asked by the judge if this was correct, Hicks said solemnly, ''Yes, sir.''

Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Tuesday he believed his son had pleaded guilty as part of a bargain with prosecutors that would get him out of the Guantanamo prison: ''It's a way to get home, and he's told us he just wants to get home.''

''He has been through five years of absolute hell,'' Terry Hicks added. ''I think anyone in that position, if they were offered anything, I think they'd take it.''

Hicks, a Muslim convert, allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. But he remained on the margins once the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks. He eventually joined al-Qaida fighters hours before the front lines collapsed and was captured as he tried to flee, according to the U.S. military.

The count he pleaded guilty to says he intentionally provided support to a terror organization involved in hostilities against the United States. He denied the charge that he supported for preparation, or in carrying out, an act of terrorism.

Defense attorneys said a gag order by the military judge prevented them from discussing details of the plea until a sentence is announced and it could not be immediately determined whether there was a formal plea bargain.

Hicks' Australian lawyer, David McLeod, had said earlier his client was considering a plea deal.

''All of the options obviously have to be discussed, from not guilty and tough it out, through to 'How do I get out of here at the earliest opportunity,''' McLeod told reporters ahead of Monday's hearing.

A panel of military tribunal members convened for the Hicks case must travel to Guantanamo to approve any sentence, a development that could come this week.

''If I was a betting man, I'd say the odds are good'' that Hicks will be home by the end of the year, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals, told reporters after Hicks entered his plea.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, but Davis has said he would seek a sentence of about 20 years. He said the five years Hicks has spent at Guantanamo could be considered in the ultimate sentence.

In the days leading up to the hearing, defense attorneys said Hicks did not expect a fair trial and was severely depressed and considering a plea deal to end his five-year imprisonment at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

The United States has agreed to let Hicks serve any sentence in Australia.

''This is the first step toward David returning to Australia,'' said McLeod.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he expected Hicks would return soon to Australia, where an outcry over his continued detention has cost Prime Minister John Howard support ahead of elections due this year.

''I am pleased for everybody's sake that this saga ... has come to a conclusion,'' Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The United States is holding about 385 prisoners at Guantanamo. Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an al-Qaida member who during a so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunal earlier this month confessed to planning the Sept. 11 attacks and other terror acts. That military panel determined he was an enemy combatant who could later face charges.

Unlike the alleged terrorist mastermind, Hicks has been depicted by the U.S. military in its charge sheet as a minor figure.

Australian Sen. Bob Brown, leader of the minor opposition Greens party, said Hicks made the plea so he could get out of Guantanamo Bay and his guilt would remain in doubt.

''He's pleaded guilty but under circumstances that wouldn't hold up in an Australian court and that debate will fly home with Hicks,'' Brown said.

Hicks had asked for more lawyers to help defend him, but the judge, Marine Corps. Col. Ralph Kohlmann, instead ordered two civilian attorneys to leave the defense table, leaving the defendant with one attorney.

One of the civilian lawyers, Joshua Dratel, said he refused to sign an agreement to abide by tribunal rules because he was concerned the provisions did not allow him to meet with his client in private.

Hicks' military attorney, Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori, challenged Kohlmann's impartiality, arguing that his participation in the previous round of military trials that the Supreme Court last year found to be illegal created the appearance of bias.

A challenge of the reconstituted tribunal system is pending before the Supreme Court. Lawyers for detainees have asked the high court to step in again and guarantee that the prisoners can challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.

The defense and prosecution were expected to meet Tuesday to discuss the details of the guilty plea before it could be presented to Kohlmann, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. Kohlmann was expected to make the determination this week.

''Under commission rules the military judge must be satisfied that Hicks' guilty plea is voluntary and otherwise lawful,'' Whitman said.

    Gitmo Father Says Plea Deal Likely, NYT, 27.3.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Guantanamo-Australian-Detainee.html

Australia Won't Set Iraq Exit Timetable

March 17, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:21 p.m. ET
The New York Times

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Australia's prime minister declined Saturday to commit to a timeline for withdrawing his country's forces from Iraq, but insisted that steady progress was being made.

John Howard spoke to reporters in Baghdad, where he arrived after his plane made an emergency landing in southeastern Iraq because it had filled with smoke after takeoff from an airbase there, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Howard, a staunch U.S. ally who was making his first trip to Iraq, has been under increasing political pressure to set an exit strategy for Australia's 1,400 troops from Iraq. Opinion polls show the Iraq conflict is deeply unpopular among Australians.

''Great progress has been achieved, but there is still work to be done,'' Howard said during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. ''As you know, I don't set speculative dates. There is nothing to be achieved by that.''

Al-Maliki said Australian help has been successful in helping to fight the Sunni insurgency in southern Baghdad, but stressed the dangers in calling the mission a success prematurely.

''The mission is still ongoing. We have a desire for Australia to remain and to continue its support until we are completely confident that all terrorist activities cease,'' al-Maliki said.

The C-130 Hercules, which was carrying Howard and 30 other people, including media and military personnel, filled with smoke soon after takeoff en route to Baghdad and turned around after reaching an altitude of about 5,000 feet, according to AAP.

No injuries were reported and Howard continued his trip to Baghdad on a second aircraft, the news agency said.

    Australia Won't Set Iraq Exit Timetable, NYT, 17.3.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq-Australia.html

Ex-Guantanamo inmate to run in Australia election

Thu Feb 1, 2007
11:40 PM ET
Reuters
By Andrew Cleary

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian once detained in Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of helping al Qaeda said on Friday he would stand for election to the New South Wales state parliament.

Mamdouh Habib, released in January 2005, was held in Guantanamo Bay without charge for almost three years after he was arrested crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan three weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"We're here in Australia, this has nothing to do with Afghanistan," Habib told a news conference in Sydney called to announce he would run as an independent in the March 24 contest.

"This has nothing to do with terrorism -- we have no terrorists in Australia. If you want to talk about terror then talk to the U.S.," he said.

Habib's candidacy comes as the gulf widens between Australia's small, mainly Sunni, Muslim community of some 280,000 people and the rest of the country, leaving many Muslims feeling besieged and trapped between two cultures.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has been inflamed by Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly, the mufti of Australia's biggest mosque, who has compared unveiled women to "uncovered meat" and said Muslim Australians had more right to the country than people descended from convicts.

Habib denied his views were extreme. He said he was standing to fight against racist attacks on minority ethnic groups including Muslim Australians, Aborigines and migrants, and to take care of the community in which he lived.

"The aim of the campaign is to reclaim our diminishing human rights, negated every day by the state and federal governments, and to organize people who are prepared to fight for them," his campaign manager, Raul Bassi, said at the news conference.

Habib will contest the seat of Auburn in southwestern Sydney, an area with a large Muslim community, and said he was confident he would be well received by local voters.

New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma dismissed Habib's chances in the election. "The voters of Auburn, like Australians everywhere, won't put up with lunacy, no matter who's putting it forward," he said in remarks broadcast on local television.

    Ex-Guantanamo inmate to run in Australia election, R, 1.2.2007, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-02-02T044032Z_01_SYD85304_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-ELECTION-MUSLIM.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-worldNews-7

Australian Guantanamo inmate strains U.S. ties

Wed Jan 31, 2007
2:26 AM ET
Reuters
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The United States may speed up the trial of Australia's only Guantanamo Bay inmate, David Hicks, following a rare split between the two allies over accusations he faced "Nazi concentration camp" conditions.

With his five-year detention shaping as an election year issue for Australia's conservative government amid growing public clamor for his release, Prime Minister John Howard has insisted to U.S. authorities that Hicks be charged by February.

"Our position is we want him charged by the end of next month. We have made that very clear to the Americans," Howard told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We are not happy about the time that has gone by it is also important to remember the gravity of the charges."

U.S.-based lawyer Sabin Willet said Hicks's cell was like a Nazi death camp and Australian lawyer David McLeod who visited Hicks's Cuban enclave prison on Tuesday said he was shocked "seeing him chained to the floor, hollow eyes".

Hicks, 31, was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001 and accused of fighting for al Qaeda. He is among around 395 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters being held in the U.S. enclave, and is tipped to be one of the first to face trial.

Charges against Hicks of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy were dropped when the U.S. Supreme Court last June rejected the tribunal system set up by President George W. Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects.

Hicks, a convert to Islam, had previously pleaded not guilty.

But his case is straining Canberra's usually unswerving support for the U.S.-led war on terror, as Howard faces re-election in the second half of the year against polls showing 62 percent of Australians oppose the handling of the Iraq war.

Australia was an original coalition member in both Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney will visit Canberra in February to thank the country for its military support.

But in a subtle shift, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who has previously lashed out at terrorist "appeasers", said on Wednesday he did not want any Australian maltreated.

"If fresh allegations, detailed allegations, facts can be brought forward to us in relation to Hicks, then we're obviously happy to investigate that," he told local radio.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has admitted Hicks's case is dragging and called last week for an urgent medical assessment.

"I think the government must now be feeling a bit angry with Washington, as the Americans have done nothing to meet Australian concerns," Hugh White, Professor of Strategic and Defense Studies at the Australian National University told Reuters.

U.S. military prosecutor Colonel Moe Davis denied Hicks was in poor physical and mental condition, but said the Australian was confined in his Guantanamo cell for long periods.

"The detainees there generally are offered two hours of outdoor recreation time a day, so that would be the 22 hours a day - about right," Davis said.

    Australian Guantanamo inmate strains U.S. ties, R, 31.1.2007, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2007-01-31T072628Z_01_SYD164552_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-HICKS.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-8

Millions to go hungry, waterless:

climate report

Mon Jan 29, 2007
10:18 PM ET
Reuters
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States, according to a new global climate report.

By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 Celsius (3.6 to 4.8 Fahrenheit), a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said.

The report, due for release in April but detailed in The Age newspaper, said an additional 200 million to 600 million people across the world would face food shortages in another 70 years, while coastal flooding would hit another 7 million homes.

"The message is that every region of the earth will have exposure," Dr Graeme Pearman, who helped draft the report, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"If you look at China, like Australia they will lose significant rainfall in their agricultural areas," said Pearman, the former climate director of Australia's top science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Africa and poor countries such as Bangladesh would be most affected because they were least able to cope with greater coastal damage and drought, said Pearman.

The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program to guide policy makers globally on the impact of climate change.

The panel is to release a report on Friday in Paris forecasting global temperatures rising by 2 to 4.5 Celsius (3.6 to 8.1 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a "best estimate" of a 3C (5.4 F) rise.

That report will summarize the scientific basis of climate change, while the April draft details the consequences of global warming and options for adapting to them.

The draft contains an entire chapter on Australia -- which is in the grip of its worst recorded drought -- warning the country's Great Barrier Reef would become "functionally extinct" because of coral bleaching.

As well, snow would disappear from Australia's southeast alps, while water inflows to the Murray-Darling river basin, the country's main agricultural region, would fall by 10 and 25 percent by 2050.

In Europe, glaciers would disappear from the central Alps, while some Pacific island nations would be hit hard by rising sea levels and more frequent tropical storms.

"It's really a story of trying to assess in your own region what your exposure will be, and making sure you have ways to deal with it," said Pearman.

On the positive side, Pearman said there was an enormous amount the international community could do to avert climate change if swift action was taken.

"The projections in the report that comes out this week are based on the assumption that we are slow to respond and that things continue more-or-less as they have in the past."

Some scientists say Australia -- the world's driest inhabited continent -- is suffering from "accelerated climate change" compared to other nations.

Millions to go hungry, waterless: climate report, R, 30.1.2007, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2007-01-30T031557Z_01_SYD145397_RTRUKOC_0_US-GLOBALWARMING-AUSTRALIA.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-2