Paul Maley | October 24, 2007
US Vice-President Dick Cheney struck a deal with John Howard on a plea bargain for convicted Australian terrorist David Hicks to get him out of Guantanamo Bay and back home, a leading US magazine has claimed.
While the Prime Minister yesterday denied the reports in Harper's that he and Mr Cheney had organised a plea deal for Hicks, the US official in charge of the prosecution lent support to claims of political interference in the case.
Speaking to The Australian, former chief prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis said he was subject to continuing high-level political interference in his handling of the Hicks case.
"In my opinion, as things stand right now, I think it's a disgrace to call it a military commission - it's a political commission," he said.
Harper's quoted an unnamed military official saying "one of our staffers was present when Vice-President Cheney interfered directly to get Hicks's plea bargain deal".
"He did it, apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard," the official was quoted as saying.
Yesterday, it was also revealed Australian Federal Police might apply for a control order for Hicks upon his release from Adelaide's Yatala prison at the end of the year.
Hicks was transferred from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Yatala in May to serve his seven-month sentence, which was secured as part of a plea bargain with US military prosecutors that involved a guilty plea on a single terror offence.
Mr Howard yesterday scotched Harper's claim, saying while he had made representations on Hicks's behalf, he had no involvement in the plea agreement. "There was no deal because he (Mr Cheney) didn't have the power to do it. There was an independent process," Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard referred to comments he made on March 31 after the Hicks deal was reached.
"We didn't impose the sentence, the sentence was imposed by the military commission and the plea bargain was worked out between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks's lawyers," the Prime Minister said at the time.
But Colonel Davis said the Harper's story "made as much sense as any other reason I can think of".
"(The deal) was significantly more lenient than anything I would have agreed to," he said.
Colonel Davis resigned as chief prosecutor in October following a dispute with the legal adviser to the Convening Authority, which runs the US military commissions.
He said on January 9 this year he received a phone call from the General Counsel for the US Department of Defence, Jim Haynes, asking when he could charge Hicks.
He said the date was significant because it was the same day Mr Haynes's nomination for a seat on the US Fourth Circuit of Appeals was withdrawn by President George W. Bush.
The nomination was withdrawn following Mr Haynes's involvement in the so-called "torture memo", dealing with interrogation techniques to be used by US forces.
Colonel Davis said he told Mr Haynes the charges could be ready two weeks after the Manual for the Military Commissions, which defined the offences, had been produced. He was told that was too long.
Immediately after the phone call, Colonel Davis said he received a second phone call from Mr Haynes's deputy telling him to disregard what he had just been told.
"(The deputy) said, 'I went in and took a wire brush to (Mr Haynes) and explained he cannot have those kind of conversations with you, so disregard everything he just said'," Colonel Davis said.
However, on January 31, Mr Haynes called again, demanding to know why no charges had been laid. "He said, 'You told me you'd have charges two weeks after the manual came out. You promised me you'd have charges and I promised other people we'd have charges. Where are the charges?"' Colonel Davis said. He said Mr Haynes wanted others tried with Hicks, presumably to prevent the impression the charges were "a political solution to the Hicks case".
Colonel Davis said Mr Haynes was acting on pressure from higher up, although he did not know from whom.
Hicks was sent to Guantanamo Bay in early 2002 shortly after being captured in Afghanistan. In March this year, he pleaded guilty to a single charge of providing material support for a terrorist organisation in exchange for a seven-month sentence to be served in Australia. He arrived home in May.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday Hicks's plea bargain had been accepted by the US Defence Department and prosecution. However, Colonel Davis said the deal was brokered by Hicks's lawyers and the Convening Authority head Susan Crawford, who is appointed by the Defence Secretary, without his knowledge or approval.
Australian Justice Minister David Johnston confirmed AFP officers had visited Hicks in jail but neither he nor AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty would say if a control order would be sought.
Hicks's father, Terry Hicks, said he hoped any controls placed on his would not be too onerous.
