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Detainee 002

The Case of David Hicks

Leigh Sales

Detainee 002 is a chilling reminder that, in a war with ever-changing rules and no end in sight, there are no limits. If you care about the Australia you live in, you must read this book.

Awards

Winner of the 2007 George Munster Award for Independent Journalism
Shortlisted for the 2007 Walkley Award
Shortlisted for the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction category

Opinion

This is the story that Canberra didn't want us to know--it is scrupulously fair and a brilliant yarn.
--Ray Martin

. . . it is around the unlikely and unprepossessing character of David Hicks that Sales canvasses some of the important issues of our time. What is a terrorist? How should those people rounded up in a "war on terror" be detained and tried? To what extent should the normal decencies be suspended for the "worst of the worst"?

-- Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/5/07

About this Title

In a remote American military base at Guantanamo Bay, 385 enemy combatants sit waiting for their day in court. Among them is David Hicks, who was detained for five years until the March 2007 hearing where he pleaded guilty to the charge of providing material support for terrorism.

Detainee 002 reveals in unprecedented detail how an Australian citizen wound up in the War on Terror. Based on more than five years of reporting and dozens of interviews with insiders, Leigh Sales explains the intricacies of Hicks's case, from his capture in Afghanistan, to life in Guantanamo Bay, to the behind-the-scene establishment and workings of the military commissions.
Sales' impeccable research takes us from top-secret negotiations at the White House and Pentagon to the domestic fallout Hicks's incarceration has had on his family, to the campaign that Major Michael Mori, the marine who becomes his greatest advocate, waged on his behalf.

David Hicks's case is emblematic of some of the greatest challenges facing the world today: the rise of Islamic extremism, terrorism and the accountability of governments towards their citizens. It is a chilling reminder that, in a war with ever-changing rules and no end in sight, there are no limits.

Visit the Detainee 002 website at www.detainee002.com

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Prologue
Part I Enemy Combatant
1 A fork in the road
2 The boy from Oz
3 Pushing the limits
4 Waltzing with Washington

Part II Guantanamo Bay
5 Honour bound to defend freedom
6 The case against David Hicks
7 Fair go for David
8 Major Mori signs up
9 The terrorist and the marine
10 The definition of torture
11 Trouble in the ranks
12 This assignment is ruining my life
13 To all charges, not guilty

Part III The Unravelling
14 Seized with doubt
15 Assymmetric warfare
16 The plea
17 With hindsight

Appendix I Timeline
Appendix II US Department of Defense Charge Sheet (June 2004)
Appendix III US Department of Defense Charge Sheet (February 2007)
Appendix IV Hick's Pretrial Agreement (full transcript), 2 April 2007

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements

About the Author

Leigh Sales is the ABC's National Security Correspondent. She visited Guantanamo Bay twice during her recent four-year posting as the network's Washington correspondent. In 2005, she won a prestigious Walkley Award for her coverage of the Guantanamo military commissions and was nominated again in 2006 for her reporting of Hurricane Katrina.

978-0-522-85400-8