David Hicks, 30, whose mother was born in Croydon, South London, believes that he will be released if he becomes a British citizen. There is no legal bar to Mr Hicks being granted citizenship but his lawyers are concerned that the Home Office is stalling on a case that threatens to sour Anglo-US relations.
This year the Government secured the release of all British citizens held as terrorist suspects at Camp Delta after protesting against the unfairness of the planned military tribunal trial system, but the Australian Government has expressed itself content for Mr Hicks to face the tribunal, and the US authorities plan to try him next month.
He fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army and in Kashmir before going to Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Hicks converted to Islam but he is reported to be less than diligent in practising the faith. One Australian official said he was not a committed Islamist but “a young man looking for adventure”.
GERMANY GETS A SANE LEADER.
BERLIN (AFP) - Germany broke new political ground as Angela Merkel won the battle to be its first female chancellor, heading a government uniting the country's two biggest parties and ending Gerhard Schroeder's grip on power. ...
Merkel immediately said there was no alternative to urgent reforms designed to revive the ailing economy, crippled by sluggish growth and unemployment at currently more than 11 percent.
She said the accord would pave the way for formal coalition negotiations, probably to start next week, and her Christian Union alliance would take six ministries, with the SPD getting eight cabinet posts.
"We have achieved something big, we have the basis for coalition talks," she told a press conference.
"We agree that we have no alternative to the reform process. We have set our aim to create a coalition that stands for new policies."
Pressed by reporters how she felt, Merkel broke into a smile. "I feel good, but a lot of work lies ahead of us."
** She looks like she is going to take a firm stance on subjects like Turkey joining the EU and migration into Germany. Personally I feel that letting Turkey in would be a good thing for the EU as it would show its not a white christians only club.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday that 117 Hamas activists belonging to three separate terror infrastructures in the Hebron area were arrested by security forces.
The activists were involved in many attacks, including the abduction and murder of Sasson Nuriel, the suicide bomb attack in the Beersheba bus station in August, and a planned bombing of an air force helicopter at a training base in the Judean desert. ...
By arresting the operatives, security forces thwarted plans to abduct Israeli hikers in the Judean desert and to abduct and murder soldiers, using them as trading cards to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The official noted that for the first time, Hamas in Gaza recruited and trained a female bomb mechanic. She had already been sent to the West Bank to begin training activists before she was arrested. www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1128955347434&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull/
Task Force Liberty Soldiers sustain Operation Saratoga security operations
TIKRIT, Iraq -- Task Force Liberty Soldiers, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police across North Central Iraq completed more than 175 raids and security missions in their first week of Operation Saratoga. The joint operation led to the capture of nearly 750 suspected terrorists and the killing of 12 terrorists and wounding of eight others.
With the assistance of Iraqi civilian tips, more than 50 improvised explosive devices were discovered and neutralized on the roads of North Central Iraq. Weapons seizures included five mortar systems, more than 50 mortar rounds, 75 artillery rounds, nearly 70 rockets and 10 anti tank mines.
In one incident, Task Force Liberty Soldiers defeated a suicide vehicle borne IED attack on Oct. 6 near Samarra when a 1st Brigade Combat Team gunner identified and engaged a suicide attacker approaching his convoy from a nearby parking lot.The suicide bomber detonated his vehicle borne IED approximately 50 meters from the Task Force Liberty vehicle, killing an Iraqi child in the blast.
In Salah Ad Din Province, Task Force Liberty Soldiers conducted a raid to capture a known car bomb manufacturer on Oct. 4. Soldiers of the 278th Regimental Combat Team returned fire on a terror cell about two kilometers south of the village of Dalish. The unit engaged the terrorists, killing the car bomb maker and capturing an accomplice.
RElIGIOUS FREEDOM?
(CNSNews.com) - British Christians on Sunday kicked off three days of eleventh-hour protest, hoping to defeat a government attempt to outlaw religious hatred.
A large rally in London's Hyde Park brought together Christians from numerous denominations, all protesting the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, which critics say poses a threat to freedom of speech.
Organizers have planned protests as well as prayers at churches across the country, culminating in a political demonstration outside parliament on Tuesday, when the House of Lords is due to debate and vote on the legislation.
The bill passed through the lower House of Commons last July. In the upper chamber, opposition to the measure comes primarily from Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties, but some lawmakers from the ruling Labor Party could join them.
Outside parliament, the law has drawn opposition from a broad range of groups, from evangelical Christians who worry about its impact on their freedom to share their faith or question the claims of other religions, to actors and comedians who fear it will make mocking religious beliefs a crime.
The bill outlaws any written material or public verbal comments "that are threatening, abusive or insulting [and] likely to stir up racial or religious hatred." The offense carries a jail term of up to seven years.
**A badly thought out act, and we dont need it anyway. The comments that this bill is designed to act on can easily be acted on by existing legislation.
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