The strange case of David Hicks

As an Australian fighter in the Taliban, David Hicks is one of those rare Gitmo detainees, who has "media potential" (by which I mean he's a white native English speaker). There's a lot of sides to this story: he's obviously a bad guy, but seems to have been mistreated. Some stories alledge retribution against his military appointed counsel, and then there are diplomatic efforts from the Australian State Dept. Today though what's most intriguing is the terms of his plea-bargain.

There was a really good article on this in the Philly Inquirer today, but I'm not sure how long that link will last, so here's a shorter digest. From the Inquirer:

A panel of military officers had recommended a term of up to seven years, but a plea agreement that had been kept secret from the panel capped the sentence at nine months for David Hicks, who has been held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years.

Hicks also stipulated under his plea deal that he had "never been illegally treated by a person or persons while in the custody of the U.S. government," Kohlmann said.

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

Hicks previously reported being beaten and deprived of sleep during his more than five years at the Guantanamo prison for terrorism suspects.

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

So Hicks went from a really bad guy...down to someone who was found guilty and prosecutors wanted to lock up 7 years...down to someone who only serves 9 months (in Australia, no less) - provided he agrees not to sue us.

Evidently it's more important to buy his silence than keep him incarcerated. Kinda makes you wonder why...