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David Hicks to be charged today

After a nomadic decade that carried him from the Australian outback to the battlefields of Afghanistan, David Hicks ended up locked away at this remote US base, accused of training with al-Qaeda and fighting for the Taliban.

Now, more than five years since he was hauled to Guantanamo Bay, the former kangaroo skinner is expected to get a chance to contest allegations that he took up arms against the US in the chaotic aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hicks is scheduled to be arraigned today on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. He is the first Guantanamo detainee charged under new rules for military trials, or commissions, adopted after the Supreme Court cast aside the previous system in June.

US officials have said they plan to charge 60 to 80 of the detainees at Guantanamo, where the US now holds about 385 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

The only Australian detainee at Guantanamo, Hicks was supposed to be tried in 2005, but a judge placed a hold on his case while the Supreme Court considered whether the administration of US President George W. Bush overstepped its authority with its plans for military trials.

On Friday, a federal judge rejected a bid to delay his case again until the Supreme Court considers a challenge to a law stripping Guantanamo detainees of their right to challenge their detention in US courts.

Lawyers for Hicks, 31, say he plans to plead innocent, as he did to the longer list of charges filed against him under the previous military tribunal system.

One of his attorneys, Joshua Dratel, dismissed as US "mythology" that the Australian is a terrorist who threatened the US or its allies.

The US military had originally charged Hicks with attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy to attack civilians, committing terrorism and destroying property.

But those charges were scaled back to just the one -- suggesting that even the US no longer considers Hicks to be a significant catch in its global war on terror.

The 10-page military charging documents depict Hicks -- a high school dropout who converted to Islam in 1999 after returning from Kosovo, where he fought on behalf of Muslim Albanians seeking independence from Serbia -- as somewhat of a hapless holy warrior.

Armed with grenades and an assault rifle, Hicks spent weeks trying to join the fight in Afghanistan following the 2001 US invasion but apparently failed to win the confidence of his al-Qaeda associates, according to the documents.

He finally reached the front lines in Afghanistan two hours before they collapsed. His menial assignments along the way included guarding a tank.

His father, Terry Hicks, has said that his wayward son went to Afghanistan in early 2001 as part of a religious pilgrimage. But the US military alleges he traveled with support from a militant Pakistani group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, and attended al-Qaeda terrorist training camps.

When the US invaded in late 2001 -- to oust al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts following the Sept. 11 attacks -- Hicks remained on the margins.

In Kandahar, where he was assigned to watch a tank outside the airport, he tried unsuccessfully to share his knowledge of al-Qaeda tactics, the US alleges.

"After apparent resistance to his training, and no enemy in sight at the time in Kandahar, Hicks decided to look for another opportunity," the Pentagon said.

Three weeks later he arrived at the front lines near Konduz, where he briefly fought coalition forces before he was forced to flee. He was later captured by the Northern Alliance and handed over to US forces.

In the years since, he has become a cause celebre in his native country. Australian Prime Minister John Howard pushed US officials to deal with Hicks' case more quickly. The charge against Hicks carries a maximum sentence of lifetime imprisonment but US and Australian officials said he may be able to serve his time in Australia.

Meanwhile, Hicks, who is held alone in a small cell and is only allowed out for a maximum of two hours a day of recreation, shows signs of severe depression and is too fragile emotionally to aid his defense team, his attorneys said.

"He has to focus on ordinary things, day to day living, and he can't look beyond that to the broader issue of the case," Dratel said.
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