if we've got an extradition treaty with the USA

why can we not bring David Hicks home until they are ready to begin the trial process if that is what it takes?
We can take Australian Citizen David Hicks' passport from him, we can put an ankle detector on him, we can restrict whom he is allowed to visit. When the Yanks have got things sorted they can request his presence again. What is wrong with that?
It is not ideal but it is better than the eternal waiting in Limbo. My understanding is that he was not an enemy combattant against USA anyway but then I don't know all the facts - just as no-one else knows all the facts. Just like I don't know all the facts in the Martin Bryant or OJ Simpson cases. Courts are meant to get all the facts.
Five years behind bars for an empty headed idealist is not what justice is about. If one's own children got in with the wrong crowd on account of immaturity or whatever reason - just like the drug traffikers waiting their fate in Indonesia - you would want to see them given a second chance.
Living by the sword and dying by the sword does not just apply to Hicks. Those of us who condemn him might remember the biblical caution - judge not lest ye too be condemned.