The Pride of the Aussies

One of two prodigal sons returns:

David Hicks walks out of Adelaide's Yatala prison this morning in circumstances somehow befitting his seven-year odyssey through radical Islam, the "war on terrorism" and the US's most notorious military prison.

It is a case that has captivated the nation, and politicians at the apex of power in the US and Australia. It is also, his father Terry Hicks says, a simple story of a wayward son who has now returned to the fold.

"He took an interest in something and it went wrong," Mr Hicks said yesterday, with considerable understatement. "He's really just like any other normal fellow. He just wants to get on with his life."

David Hicks grew up in the working class outer suburbs of Adelaide, a troublemaker who was expelled from high school and became a father at 18.

Short of stature, Hicks would big-note himself frequently to the irritation of friends and workmates. The mother of his two children, Jodie Sparrow, said he seemed "lost".

Hicks, who had been rejected by the Australian Army, drifted through menial jobs, depressed until he became obsessed by the conflict in Kosovo. He went to fight alongside Kosovo's Muslims.

He trained but never saw conflict, but this whet his appetite for Islam, and adventure.

Hicks left for Pakistan in 1999, where he joined Lashkar-e-Toiba, an organisation that had thousands of offices through Pakistan and had yet to be proscribed as a terrorist group. Hicks received extensive training, travelled to the border and fired weapons into Indian-controlled Kashmir.

In letters he boasted to his parents of his "adventure" in Pakistan. The letters were also filled with anti-semitic rants, pledges to die a martyr, his encounters with the "lovely" Osama bin Laden and his pride in being accepted as a Taliban member.

Eight to 10 years old, the letters have been regularly recycled to damage Hicks's standing, not least by the Australian Federal Police in court proceedings this month to impose a control order on him.

A fine sort obviously. What his father fails to elaborate on is that his son took an interest in terrorism and war and it went wrong and led him to Islam and ultimately Afghanistan. His son was a bum.

A powerful lesson to all. Before sending those well-intentioned "I love killing Jews and taking up arms against my own country" letters back home, be sure to remind your folks to promptly dispose of them lest they be used against you in a case of treason.

Hicks went to Afghanistan and became deeply immersed in training at al-Qaeda camps - everything from marksmanship to military tactics and surveillance. He later told US interrogators he declined to become a suicide bomber and was ostracised by his hardline comrades.

I bet they offer the role of suicide bomber to all their most promising recruits.

The rest of the story is a puff piece on how poor David became a pawn in a political game and contains a strong whiff of victimization. It ends with this warning of a book deal in the works.

Terry Hicks says his son will not been talking today, although a statement will be released. But, in a few months, when his US-imposed gag order is lifted, it is expected Hicks will tell his side of an extraordinary story.

Can't wait till it comes out.