To: Phillip Ruddock, Attorney-General, Australia

The Age: “Mr Ruddock said while the US had not yet told him what charges Hicks would face, he was confident the accused terrorist would receive a fair trial.”

Can you possibly be this naive?

But perhaps I should be asking: Can you possibly be this
disingenuous? Or plainly dishonest?

By the way, with respect to your decision in November:

In 2006, Philip Ruddock blocked a gay Australian man from marrying in Europe. Ruddock refused to grant a gay man living in the Netherlands a 'Certificate of No Impediment' document required by some European countries before marriage, to prove foreigners are in fact single. Ruddock decided that such documents were not to be released to gay and lesbians individuals intending to marry overseas. The government made the statement, ""Following the advice of the Australian Attorney-General's Department we herewith certify that Australian law does not allow the issue of a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage to persons wishing to enter into a same-sex marriage." He went on to say that he did not believe there was community support for same-sex marriage.

– is this your idea of democratic rule: That you sound out something fatuously called “the community” to determine whether it supports a practice, and then make it so? This is the infamous tyranny of democracy, writ large. No doubt you applaud the country’s history of other bigotries, too, as those, too, were backed by majority support?

Sincerely...

In an update on the treatment of David Hicks, a 5-year-long Australian detainee at Guantanamo Bay, the ABC reports, Friday, January 19, 2007:

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has welcomed the publication of new US rules to put Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Australian David Hicks, on trial.
Mr Hicks's defence team and the Opposition have criticised the new military commission system, which allows the admission of hearsay evidence and testimony gathered under coercion.
Mr Downer says the challenge now is for the US to charge Mr Hicks so his case can be heard.
"Let the military commission hear those charges and if David Hicks and his defence want to appeal against any adverse decision that may come forward from the military commission, they can," he said.
"They can appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States."
The Law Council of Australia says the new military commission rules have thrown the right to silence out the window.
AND:
In a separate development, it has been revealed that a public affairs officer with the US Embassy in Canberra, not a doctor, assesed the mental health of Mr Hicks.
Yesterday the Foreign Affairs Minister said he had received a report suggesting Mr Hicks was in good physical and mental health.


So, a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs:

Mr. Downer,
Do you have no ethical sense, at all? Do you have no inclination to take a principled position in face of American trammeling of not just their constitution, but also of common decency?
Please imagine this: Australia is overrun by the angry invaders we all fear, and people who have breached common practices of courtesy and ethics are detained. How would you want to be treated?
Now, please apply that to people like Hicks, and please make some sort of decent representation to the American torturers... Oops, coercers.

Sincerely...

I omitted to mention earlier that Montana was picturesque:





And, earlier, in Australia, Lake George was as strange as ever, and as empty as it often is:

So, here's how it went down. I was in the vicinity of Banff:




The weather was curious: sleet, driving and freezing rain, slush, snow, sheets of ice, and then winds so fierce that cars were being blown off the road:




I drove a small country highway up towards Lake Louise, and saw, first, the usual, standard, laid-on Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. One had stopped some traffic and was licking salt off wheels and grilles:




I continued on, driving almost imperceptibly, to maximize the chances of seeing something more impressive. I rounded a bend and, at 30 paces, a huge black wolf stepped out of the woods, slunk across the road, and proceeded up a snowbank into the woods on the other side. I reached for my camera while keeping my eye on the animal, and managed to pop off one shot:




but by then I was drifting straight into a snow bank, and was soon lodged there.
Two cars were close behind, full of families, and the kids were most amused, and they ran up the road to get another glimpse of the departing wolf, which their two sets of parents had not seen, as they'd been intent on my unorthodox driving.

Fortunately one family was in an enormous pickup, and towed me out.