Copyright © 2007, The Bilegrip Mob

Melbourne barrister Robert Richter, QC, has written a blistering condemnation of Attorney-General Philip Ruddock for his failure to uphold Australian and international law regarding David Hicks: Hypocrites breaking our law at ever turn.

Philip Ruddock is a hypocrite when parading his Amnesty International membership. He pretends to give a toss for the organisation and the principles for which it stands: the rule of law, freedom from arbitrary arrest and punishment, freedom from torture, opposition to the perversion of accepted civilised notions of justice and the obligations he owes to those notionally under his protection. Instead, he has publicly and shamefully betrayed all of these precepts.

He is a liar when he pretends concern for David Hicks' fate. His protestations about Australia's efforts to secure a speedy trial for Hicks cross the line of decency when we consider that Hicks is, after five years, not charged with any offence. Nor is he subject to the jurisdiction of any lawfully constituted court of justice. We know he has not committed any offences against Australian law. Our A-G says so. We also know that he does not stand charged with any known crime against US law. So how is it that the Attorney-General has not demanded the return of Hicks to the country that owes him protection as a matter of law?

It is because the A-G has publicly prostituted his duties to the law — and to those he owes a duty of protection — in the service of his political masters in the government he serves.

I say this without cover of privilege and challenge him to sue for defamation and take the risk of the facts emerging in any litigation. Cabinet solidarity is one thing; his mealy-mouthed public utterances on the subject are another. He should at least have the decency to stay silent rather than seek to defend and advance the indefensible.

Richter also goes after his "political masters", John Howard and Australia's Very Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer:

Messrs Ruddock, Howard and Downer's pronouncements about seeking to have Hicks charged early in the new year (in front of commissions that have not yet been lawfully set up!) seem to me to be a desperate cover-up of their government's, fundamental dereliction of duty. Instead of demanding Hicks' return, they have made themselves complicit in procuring an illegal process to occur as soon as possible.

Rather than facing up to their duties to protect the fundamental rights of those subject to their theoretical protection, Ruddock , Howard and Downer are deliberately compounding the illegal actions of the American Administration by counselling and procuring an illegal process. This is a crime under our law. Instead of confessing to a wrong and doing the decent thing by trying to set it right, they are pushing ahead with "churching the whore" after the abortion. They urge the Americans to create a facade of legality for what is seen by all honest jurists as a gross violation of national and international law.

How has it come to pass that Australians are ruled by these men, each of them guilty of crimes against humanity. Ruddock and Downer can claim the Nuremberg Defence: "I was only following orders". But John Howard? He'd love to claim it too: "I was only following President Bush's orders". Given that he has turned Australia over to the Americans as nothing more than a satellite state or colonial possession -- a sort of Puerto Rico of the Antipodes -- particularly with the new spy base to be built at Geraldton, it's a defence that might just work. Particularly since our homegrown axis of evil -- Howard, Downer and Ruddock -- have seen fit to assault our justice system with laws that could easily turn this country into a police state if enacted. Somewhere in the fine print there may be provisions to treat them as "citizens above suspicion". That is, protected from prosecution.

If only Ruddock would take Richter's challenge and sue for defamation. Richter and his colleagues will then have the opportunity to lay bare this traitor's dereliction of duty and above all his crimes against Australia.

-- Olney Garkle