David Hicks

Hicks pleads guilty. Howard sighs in relief that this issue will be dead be the next election.

Actually, Hicks plead guilty to one part of the charge, and not guilty to the second. And his guilt or innocence is not the issue: the issue is his treatment, and the treatment of the thousands of other detainees at Guantanamo.

From Amnesty International's About the Military Commissions Act

The past five years have seen the USA engage in systematic violations of international law, with a distressing impact on thousands of detainees and their families. Human rights violations have included:

• Secret detention
• Enforced disappearance
• Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
• Outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating treatment
• Denial and restriction of habeas corpus
• Indefinite detention without charge or trial
• Prolonged incommunicado detention
• Arbitrary detention
• Unfair trial procedures