Who is your biggest hero: Julian Assange or David Hicks?

To be honest, I have my doubts about the integrity of both of them.

David Hicks was arrested after he voluntarily agreed to learn to fight with the Taliban. There's something wrong there with that choice. Maybe he was lost for a while, but to me, he was training with the enemy, and switched camps when it suited him. I'm sure he regrets it all. I'm sure he's make different choices now. I'm sure Guantanamo was no picnic. But no-one forced him to head over there and pledge allegiance to terrorists.

Julian Assange has a lot of personal reasons for his dedication to 'the truth' and he's paying for that -he'll pay and pay. I guess where I get concerned is not what he does, but the way he does it. He would announce uploads on wikileaks with statements like; "we have information the world needs to know - it's crucial and we're showing to show you alright - in 5 weeks time." If it's important, you don't play keep-away with it. You get it out there straight away. You don't taunt the media and the world governments while you rub your hand with glee. It's all a bit too James Bond super villain for me.

Julian Assange.

I can't say that either of them are heros of mine. I don't think we can ignore the evidence contained in the content and tone of David Hicks' letters to his parents at the time he was in an Al Quaida training camp. I don't agree with people being incarcerated without trial though, which is what happens at Guatanamo Bay. He was obviously a very impressionable young man, with no real sense of direction in his life prior to that point.

As for Julian Assange, he clearly has a massive ego. That in itself is not a crime. I don't believe that what he did in the wikileaks affair was a crime - ill considered, possibly, and dangerous if he put other peoples' lives at risk. But not a crliminal act in either Australia or the UK. The print and TV media release sensitive information to the public all the time. To say nothing of poor old Bradley Manning, who clearly should never have been in the US military in the first place. Says nothing for their recruiting practices. A young man who is confused about his gender identity, and possibly suffering mental illness is now almost certainly facing very lengthy incarceration and probably lifelong social stigma because of this episode. I do think Assange could have been a bit more sensitive to the probable consequences for Manning. Which were very, very predictable.

I think it would be better if he could deal with the Swedish sexual assault charges. I understand his fears of deportation/ rendition to the US, but as many people have pointed out, it would be easier for the US to have him deported from the UK, if they wanted to. I believe that he should go to Sweden, and that the Swedes should give government assurances that he wouldn't be sent to the US from there.

I am very ambivalent about the Swedish charges, having read many accounts of what happened. It seems odd to me that women who are one moment telling everyone about their latest sexual exploits, and then the next (on discovering that he's been sharing his charms around a bit), can be complaining of some rather weird swedish type of rape. From my own memories of such things, I'm not certain you should have to obtain written consent to every single instance of mutually consensual sex following taking a stranger home after a party the night before, providing no violence is used.

I can't help thinking that it should be possible to use modern technology to question him regarding these allegations, or that a Swedish judicial party couldn't just hop on a plane and obtain statements from him in the Ecuadorean embassy.

I'm baffled by his choice of the Ecuadoreans - after all, their human rights record over the past 50 years is WOEFUL.

David Hicks was a trained armed fighter, for a anti western islamic fundamentalist grouping.

Julian Assange is man who believes in opening the doors to debate by showing the world the secret back ground trade offs that go on in every country.

Hi,

If I am correct Julian Assange published or exposed the secrets of the American Government and they have been baying for his blood ever since - a very brave man indeed for USA will not forget and I think we all know that anyone in covert operations and accountable to no one will do atrocious things. As regards him being a rapist - I believe in innocent until proven guilty and would not be surprised if this was a concocted charge to get him out of the way.

Now David Hicks went to Afganistan and became a muslim but as far as I know he did not fire on Australians and one cannot be held accountable for retrospective laws so I never thought he was guilty and I blame John Howard for the debarcle of One tanimo Bay (I don't know how you spell it)

As far as I am concerned Howard did not have the guts of the UK Prime Minsister who said in respect to one of his citizens - bring him to trial or release him - But Gutless Howard pandered to USA and in the end they released him only if he said he was guilty - that was a shameful affair and reflects on John Howard.I think it was one of the nails in his coffin and why the electoate of Bennalong threw him out.

I feel sorry for Hicks for the injustices and admire Assange's guts but I do not consider wither a hero..

regards Mike d

181012

Julian Assange the words "Evil flourishes while good men stay silent" should apply to all countries governments.

Don't have a lot of time for David Hicks but at least he did not hide behind his countries constitution to get preferential treatment like John Walker Lindh did.

Julian Assange.

I think both are worthy of attention for the way the Australian government seems to have sidestepped their responsibilities to their own citizens. In both cases there have been presumptions of guilt by government leaders before any fair and neutral court trial has been held. David Hicks falls lower on my list because I am yet to fully understand his motives for his being in an Alabanian/Kosovo training camp let along how he came to be in Afghanistan. Whereas Julian Assange seems to have the powerful elite gunning for him for telling the truth. I think both cases are going to really shake up how Australians perceive their governments after all is said and done. There are a lot of cockroaches yet to come out into the light once these covers after lifted. I personally can't wait for David Hicks to have his day in court. I certainly hope he sues everyone involved for the way he was treated. For a great civilisation is not judged upon its best achievements but by how it treats the lowest of the low. In this case I am wondering which is worse, Al Qaeda or our own government. I sincerely hope I never break the law the in a foreign country. Heaven help me should I ever need to ask my own government to help me out of a mess.

Neither, they are both disgusting.

Hicks is a terrorist, an evil man who was training to kill Australian soldiers; that alone should have seen his Australian citizenship revoked, and he should never have been allowed to return here. He can go home to his "buddies" in Afghanistan for all I care. And as for making profits on his book! HAH! Every dollar that is profit from his book should go to the care of Australian soldiers wounded by Hicks' Taliban mates.

Assange? Don't get me started. He wilfully put others' LIVES in danger for his own over-inflated ego. There's a reason some secret stuff is secret! Now he's hung that Manning guy in the US out to dry after using him for what he needed, and he refuses to go to Sweden to answer these sexual assault charges which to me smacks of someone who knows he's guilty. And yet others make him out like some kind of martyr. It makes me sick!

Assange.

People should not be afraid of their Government. The Government should be afraid of its people.

Assange helps this.

I too despise both these people. I have no time for terrorists or rapists.