Loner, loser or weido,

Mr David Hicks, citizen of Australia, is still one of us. He is the son of an Australian Citizen. If what the Government is doing to Mr Hicks could be done to any of us, we should be rightly concerned. In the late 60s, Australian Citizen Mr Francis James was detained in China. He "was released in January 1973 after three years of imprisonment. This release had been secured by extensive negotiations between then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and Chinese officials. The Chinese government stated that they were deporting James because he had been found guilty of espionage. In 1984, James was 'rehabilitated' by the Chinese government. James was informed that following a re-examination of his case by China's Public Security Bureau, the charges on the basis of which he had been arrested and detained were false and his detention unjustified and unlawful". We are citizens of Australia and that gives us the right to expect our Government will do more than tell us we ought to stand trial. Imagine the trial that Francis James had in China? What if that were you or your child. We cannot pick and choose which citizens we are going to defend. Imagine the outrage if PMs Gorton, MacMahon or Whitlam had told James' family - "He ought to stand trial in China" - and left it at that.