Liberal Talk Radio

David Hicks, Australia’s answer to John Walker Lindh, got his day in pseudo-court after being held in Guantanamo for 5 years without trial:

Mr. Hicks’s conviction with a guilty plea provides something for each side. He admitted training with Al Qaeda, guarding a Taliban tank and scouting a closed American embassy building. But there is no evidence he was considering a terrorist attack or capable of carrying one out. Yet he was held five years and four months before he got his day in court. And at the end of a very long day at the tribunal Friday, his actual sentence was only nine months.

Nine months. Hicks is a relatively easy case, being a white guy who was clearly out of his league with the Taliban. He also had to agree to some particulars:

Not only did Mr. Hicks plead guilty, but he also signed a plea bargain in which he recanted his accusations about being abused in detention and promised not to speak to reporters for a year.

Hmm… won’t speak to reporters for a year? I assume that’s after his release in 9 months. So let’s do some math: one year + nine months brings us to… January 2009. Funny, that’s just about when Bush leaves office. Coincidence?