"We don’t agree that the deadline, so-called, has been ignored," – Helen Coonan
ABC News Online
Doubtless, Helen Coonan doesn’t believe the deadline Howard supposedly gave to the Yanks re: David Hicks has been ignored, just as she doesn’t believe Telstra is shafting rural Australia or that people really don’t want digital television.
Yet another sign of Little Johnny Howler’s slackening grip on the political realities of retaining government. Never make commitments. Especially those you have no control over.
Howard isn’t being ignored. He’s been ’too-hard’ basketed. It is all really too hard for the Yanks, hence the delay. Mid February has now officially come and gone. Bannerman is particularly amused by this statement from Howard this morning on another issue.
"It is dangerous to be naming dates because they encourage those who want you to fail to prolong the strife and the carnage until that date arrives."
Yet, supposedly it was he who gave the Yanks a deadline. A date/time of month by which his opponents could proceed to hoist him once past. Extraordinary.
Have the Yanks snubbed their collective conks at Howard? In practice, probably not. They’re beset with a slew of self-instigated dramas surrounding an impending formal charge process, let alone trying to ensure yet another trial can actually get underway without further challenge by Hick’s defence. The charges, as Bannerman has covered previously in this tome, are quite simply nothing more or less than thought crimes conjured out of some fevered imagination in a desperate bid to maintain a hold on the only white, caucasian detainee the American conservative government still has. David Hicks is living, if rapidly becoming a mental vege, proof of America’s lack of muslim bias in its so-called War on Terror tm. The simple fact that he has not been charged with any real crime and simply cannot or would not be found guilty in any normal civil or military court of anything other than rampant stupidity simply don’t seem to enter into the issue. The Yanks NEED Hicks. The real question is, can they continue to hold him? Sure they can, while-ever Howard retains government. Howard does as he’s told, but it’s becoming very difficult for him, politically, at home. The subsequent question being, can Howard retain government?