The Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald,

Phillip Ruddock said on December 11, 2004, that the claims by David Hicks that he was being tortured and generally abused by his US military captors at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, did not appear credible. After all, said Mr Ruddock, Mr Hicks had earlier said that he was being treated well.

Mr Ruddock’s statement is clearly disingenuous, unless it is merely ignorant – unless he doesn’t read the papers, let alone the confidential US reports to which he has, if at all responsible in his role as Australian Attorney-General, demanded access.

For example, on December 7, the Associated Press reported that FBI agents had told their superiors that they had witnessed prisoners being tortured at Guantanamo Bay as early as 2002; the FBI had complained to the Pentagon, and then complained again when the Pentagon did nothing to stop abuses.

The FBI complaint confirmed what prison workers, human-rights officers, and US military and government personnel had repeatedly reported. But what proofs of US abuses would Mr Ruddock need, when top US officials have said all along that they do not consider themselves bound by the Geneva Conventions, and that they are routinely severely interrogating – torturing – prisoners? The abuses are so far beyond doubt that Mr Ruddock’s shuffling is pathetic.

And, so, today (December 21) the New York Times reports that FBI memoranda describe US abuse and torture of combattants and civilians in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The documents, report Neil A. Lewis and David Johnston, attest to such abuses as beatings, chokings, placing lit cigarettes in prisoners’ ears, and contorting them with chains for up to 24 hours at a time.

Mr Ruddock’s statement, on December 11, that he would refer Mr Hicks’ claims to American authorities, is revealed as the height of disingenuousness. History will, in due course, reflect his and his fellows’ immorality, cynicism, and cowardice. Mr Ruddock might reflect on that himself, now.

Sincerely,