Ahh Channel 9... it grows closer to being the Australian media equivalent of FOX News every week. The latest vomit-inducing piece of "journalism" (read: propaganda) to be dished up by this sad joke of a "news" program - "60 Minutes" - is a story about the exemplary Aussie War-On-Terror(tm) patsy David Hicks, and the
children he left behind.
David has been somewhat of a concern for the Australian Administrative Division of the United States Pathocracy (read: Howard Government) recently. Imprisioned and tortured at Guantamano Bay without charges or trial for over 5 years by the US military Neo-Nazis, he was starting to draw a bit of sympathy from the public back home, especially when GetUp.org.au (a political "activist" organisation in Oz) ran a "
Bring David Hicks Home" campaign, and generally highlighted the complete lack of care or concern displayed toward Hicks by Howard, Downer, and the damn creepy Attorney-General of Oz, Phillip Ruddock (do a Google Image
search on him for some photos that leave Dick Cheney looking suave and charming in comparison). Of course, it was a calculated "look the other way" policy because David Hicks' unjust imprisonment was an extremely convenient opportunity for Howard to really lick some Texan cowboy boot and show his Zio-con masters that he was "on-side" in the War-On-Terror(tm) scam/brainwashing project.
Anyway, with much media fanfare David Hicks was recently brought back to Australia after his joke trial in a US military kangaroo court, and after agreeing to various
ridiculous conditions as to who he couldn't talk to for how long after his release - he was brought to Yatala prison in northern Adelaide to serve the remainder of his sentence. He is due to release at the end of December.
And now with Hick's release looming in the near distant future, the media organs of the government have begun a smear campaign to ensure David Hicks will stay silent after his release. The following transcript does not really convey the sneering manipulations of reporter Tara Brown, nor the zombie-like responses prompted from Hick's daughter that appeared to be little more than a recited script. Even Hick's ex-girlfriend, who appears to have no great love for him, balks a few times at the blatant leading and provocation that Brown uses. Comments interspersed.
60 Minutes Interview Transcript said:
They were ignored, largely forgotten. In all the hand-wringing, all the furore about David Hicks, how often did you hear about his family. About Bonnie and Terry, the little kids he left behind.
It must have been hard enough accepting they'd been abandoned. But then came the knock-out blow, their dad was a public enemy. To many, a dangerous terrorist.
God knows what it was like at school with all that going on. And now, there's yet another upheaval. Hicks has been back in contact, writing to Bonnie and Terry asking for a second chance.
The surprising thing is, they and their mother Jodie, might just let him have it.
Gosh, "surprising" indeed that a convicted "terrorist" might actually be a human being! This emotional string pulling and pompous pronouncement sets the stage for the torrent of paramoral sewage to come.
TARA BROWN: It's hard to imagine anyone would be desperate to get into this cold, hard place, Adelaide's Yatala jail. But, as we all know, last Sunday, David Hicks willingly moved into 'G' Division, maximum security, alongside South Australia's worst of the worst.
JODIE SPARROW: Your dad's on the opposite side of that building right there.
TERRY SPARROW: How do you know?
JODIE SPARROW: Because that's what I've been told. He's on the opposite side of that building.
TARA BROWN: Long before he took up arms with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, David Hicks was a dad.
Now, get the kids on camera quickly before driving home the lie - David Hicks was a willing member of Al-Qaeda. In truth,
David Hicks was never a member of Al-Qaeda
, not least because Al-Qaeda is actually an organisation run by the CIA/Mossad for the
purpose of creating an illusory enemy.
TARA BROWN: With their mum, Jodie Sparrow, this is as close as 12-year-old Terry and 13-year-old Bonnie have come to their father in the past 10 years. Did he tell the kids that he wouldn't be back?
JODIE SPARROW: No, I remember the day he was supposed to come get them. They were all ready. They had their little bags on their backs, waiting for him, and he just didn't turn up.
TARA BROWN: It's a heart-breaking image to think of little kids with backpacks waiting for Dad to show up. And then he — then he never does. I mean, that's — as a mum, does that break your heart?
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It gets you angry.
*sick bag*. Push all those emotional buttons. Make sure that the viewer is "all het up". Shut down those critical thinking faculties - we've got a load of steaming hot propaganda comin' your way.
NEWS REPORT: Good evening. He was locked up for five years in Guantanamo Bay, much of that time in solitary confinement.
Not to mention beaten, tortured, et al...
TARA BROWN: It's been an emotional and confronting week for this family.
JODIE SPARROW: Can you see him, kids?
TERRY SPARROW: Yes. He's still got those things on his legs though.
JODIE SPARROW: No, he's walking free, look. He hasn't got shackles on.
TARA BROWN: See it through their eyes, no matter his crimes nor how long he's been away, this detainee will always be their dad. And what was it like seeing him on the tarmac there, Bonnie?
BONNIE SPARROW: Surprising that he's back. I didn't think he'd come back for like a few more years.
TARA BROWN: Do you think he should be in jail?
BONNIE SPARROW: Nuh, he's been in jail for long enough, I reckon.
TARA BROWN: Terry was just a toddler when David Hicks left. He's grown into a quiet boy with his father's looks. Footy is his passion but too much of the time he practises on his own. These are the moments when dads come in handy. What is it like not to have a dad around?
TERRY SPARROW: Not fun, because Mum never plays or fights with me.
TARA BROWN: Is she any good at football?
TERRY SPARROW: No.
In fact, there wasn't much time in the interview Terry wasn't wearing a football jersey. Football or "footy" is a big part of Australian culture. So not only did David Hicks "run off" and leave his son behind, he left his "footy-loving" son behind. No doubt this carefully stage-managed portrayal will only serve to convince the "average Joe" of the further wickedness of Hicks.
TARA BROWN: So, how are you coping then with all the fuss about this bloke David Hicks who does happen to be your father?
BONNIE SPARROW: Oh, I'm coping.
TARA BROWN: Are you?
BONNIE SPARROW: Hasn't affected me really, nah.
TARA BROWN: Bonnie is a stunning girl, but she's also a very troubled teenager and is reluctant to open up. Do you consider David Hicks to be your dad?
BONNIE SPARROW: No, I call him David.
JODIE SPARROW: She's been acting up more since all the publicity with him being caught.
TARA BROWN: And she says she doesn't care.
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, she says that, but you know, like, she does. I know she does. She's just not going to tell anybody how she feels.
TARA BROWN: And how much of that is about being a 13-year-old and how much of it is about being abandoned by her dad?
JODIE SPARROW: I think it's a lot about her dad. I mean, I love her so much but she's really — yeah, she makes parenting really hard, really hard.
Bonnie's responses in this interview are quite disturbing. Very monotone, dissociated, robotic sorts of responses. How much of that might actually be due to Hicks leaving the family can only be speculated at this point. But Brown intends to draw a very clear causal link with Hicks, and objectivity be damned.
TARA BROWN: Jodie Sparrow and David Hicks became parents very young in life. She was 20. He was 17. And it's clear she still has a soft spot for him.
JODIE SPARROW: He's got a heart of gold. He'll do anything for anybody.
TARA BROWN: They'd met at a local rodeo where he was competing. But, four years on, they'd drifted apart and Jodie ended it. For a while, David had access visits to the kids but they stopped suddenly and so did any financial support.
JODIE SPARROW: And he just said his life wasn't suitable for children, and that was it.
TARA BROWN: And did he explain to you in any way what his life was?
JODIE SPARROW: No, he wouldn't tell me anything. He just said, 'It's not suitable' and 'You wouldn't understand' and all that sort of stuff. So, maybe that's when he decided — when he converted to that, um, religion.
TARA BROWN: To Islam?
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, yeah, that's it, yeah.
"That religion". The smirk on Tara Brown's face at this point was disgusting to behold. A secondary interview objective accomplished - reinforce the Islam-Terror connection in the public mind.
TARA BROWN: In 1999, Hicks trained with the Kosovo Liberation Army but peace broke out before he made it to the front line. He came home, converted to Islam, and then headed to Pakistan to fight in the war in Kashmir. He crossed the border into Afghanistan, signed up with the Taliban, trained with al-Qaeda, and met with Osama bin Laden.
Back home in South Australia, Jodie and the kids just thought he was a deadbeat dad. When did you first learn he was in trouble?
JODIE SPARROW: Um, well, I'd heard a rumour that he was fighting for this Taliban, but you don't always believe, like, common gossip.
TARA BROWN: Did you know what that meant?
JODIE SPARROW: No, I had no idea who, what they were, or anything, and then, like, the way I sort of got explained it, is like he was, a um, soldier on the back of a camel. And then we're sitting there and, like, they said they'd captured an Australian and that and, um, yeah, I thought, 'No, no it can't be', and then ASIO had come over and, yeah, opened up the folder and there was a mug shot. I just couldn't believe it.
TARA BROWN: What did ASIO tell you about what he'd been doing?
JODIE SPARROW: They didn't. They just said he was training under, um, that al-Qaeda.
TARA BROWN: al-Qaeda.
JODIE SPARROW: Al-Qaeda, yeah — I can never pronounce it.
TARA BROWN: al-Qaeda.
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, they just said he was training under that. That's all they said really.
Did you get that, folks? We'll just repeat it a few times for the hypnotic imprinting effect. "Al-Qaeda".
TARA BROWN: He has said that he has met Osama bin Laden, that he trained with him, that he worked for him. To know that he is that closely linked to al-Qaeda ...
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, it's a bit surprising, especially to actually speak to that man and be that close to him.
TARA BROWN: And to support him.
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, yeah, and to support him too, yeah. I don't know. I honestly don't know what was going through his head.
Yes, David Hicks has confessed to a good many things indeed. Of course, we know how such confessions are obtained in Guantanamo Bay. And Tara Brown really lunged when she said, "And to support him". It was like watching a coiled snake strike out. Jodie Sparrow became visibly more confused after that comment. No doubt she was serving up a feast for a predator like Brown.
TARA BROWN: David Hicks was one of the first terror suspects imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. It's taken a controversial five years to convict him of providing material support for terrorism.
JODIE SPARROW: I'd say that he, he's a follower. They would have seen a vulnerable person, I think, from the whole beginning. My belief is that he's been brainwashed. That's what I think. I think that he's gone to them because he's craved for this family environment.
Here I think Ms. Sparrow is projecting. Perhaps Hicks left because he was unable to live with the injustices going on elsewhere in the world and (somewhat foolishly) decided to sign up and fight for causes he had come to believe in (Kosovo, Kashmir etc) via his conversion to Islam?
TARA BROWN: It's fine to say he craved a family. He had a family back here, in Australia.
JODIE SPARROW: But, yeah.
TARA BROWN: He had two beautiful kids.
JODIE SPARROW: No, I mean, yeah — you know yeah, it's weird, it's …
TARA BROWN: And he didn't go off and join the peace corps or the UN.
JODIE SPARROW: That would have been a lot better.
TARA BROWN: You know he armed himself ... J
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah.
TARA BROWN: … and he trained with the enemy. He trained with terrorists.
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, yeah.
TARA BROWN: This is not a peace-loving, family-craving man?
JODIE SPARROW: No, it's not really, when you point it out like that. I don't know what to say, really. I don't know why he done it. I don't know why he stopped seeing his children.
Brown is having a field day with Jodie Sparrow's head. Again, Jodie is more visibly confused after this exchange. Brown intends to hammer one point home to the audience - David Hicks deserted his family, ergo, he is evil.
TARA BROWN: There are many Australians who are very angry with what he's done.
BONNIE SPARROW: Yeah.
TARA BROWN: Should Australia be angry?
BONNIE SPARROW: Yeah.
TARA BROWN: Why is that?
BONNIE SPARROW: Because he fought against us and decided to go with the Taliban people.
TARA BROWN: But do you think your father is a terrorist?
BONNIE SPARROW: Nuh, well, no, not really.
This was one of the most disgusting parts of the interview. Brown shamelessly manipulated Hick's daughter into the appearance of supporting a manufactured public opinion (anger that "Australia" as a whole should feel because he's a filthy Ter'rist), against her own father. Bonnie sounded like she was reading lines off a script in this part of the interview. The poor kid.
TARA BROWN: If I was to say to you, 'What is a terrorist?
TERRY SPARROW: Oh, they're people with tea towels on their head, they kill people, they're suicide bombers. That's all I know.
TARA BROWN: Do you think your dad's a terrorist?
TERRY SPARROW: I got told that he went and trained with the terrorists.
TARA BROWN: Well do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing?
TERRY SPARROW: Bad.
TARA BROWN: And what do you think about your dad doing a bad thing?
TERRY SPARROW: Disappointed.
TARA BROWN: Disappointed. It must be confusing because you obviously love him, don't you, because he's your dad?
At this point, I felt quite uncomfortable trying to stay present, not react, and keep the emotions below the neck. I had an overwhelming urge to throw things at the television.
TERRY SPARROW: Yeah. 'Dear Son, how are you, Terry? I am very proud to see that you are boxing. I saw you with your gloves on'.
BONNIE SPARROW: 'Hello, my little daughter. Thank you for your letter. You looked very pretty and I liked your hair'.
TARA BROWN: While David Hicks is a stranger to his children, over the last couple of years they've been getting to know him through his letters.
JODIE SPARROW: 'Thank you for doing a great job of bringing them up. You've always been an excellent mother. As soon as I finish writing this I'm going to write to the children. It's going to be the hardest thing I've ever had to do all my life'.
BONNIE SPARROW: 'I miss you, Bonnie, and I think about you all the time. I can't wait to hold you in my arms and give you a big hug and kiss'.
TERRY SPARROW: 'We will be just like best friends'.
BONNIE SPARROW: 'Be a good girl for your mother. I love you so much. Bye, bye. Love, Dad'.
TARA BROWN: David Hicks is no ordinary dad.
Despite all the things that the children just quoted in the letters from David, the first thing is a cut to Brown saying "David Hicks is no ordinary dad". That's right folks, despite how much he looks and sounds human - he's a Ter'rist... don't ever forget that! Perhaps Brown is actually accusing Hicks of being that which she herself is. It fits the psychopathic M.O.
JODIE SPARROW: No, that's what I try and say to the kids. 'You're gonna hear a lot of things and people are going to say things. Just hold your head high, just walk away and just ignore what they say because you know differently. You know. You read the letters from your dad, you know he's not this monster that everyone thinks he is', so, you know …
TARA BROWN: Are you sure that he's not that monster?
Again, the look on Brown's face here just said it all. Predatory and savouring the feast.
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, I reckon — I can't see him being like that, not at all. [..]
This was a point at which Ms Sparrow bristled a little bit. I think she was starting to get sick of being Brown's meal ticket.
TARA BROWN: Okay, where do you reckon we go, frog hunter? [scene of Tara and Terry lifting up stones together in a local creek] David Hicks has seven more months in jail — a long time for a son to plan their time together. In his letters, Hicks has said he wants to do exactly this with Terry. For Terry's sake, you hope he means it. [cut back to Jodie Sparrow] Do you believe that if you walk out on your kids and you don't talk to them for 10 years that you have a right to come back?
JODIE SPARROW: You don't have a right. I don't think you have a right because you didn't — you never bothered with them. I mean, he has since he's been caught.
TARA BROWN: And if he wasn't caught do you reckon …
JODIE SPARROW: It does make me wonder, yeah, that does make me wonder and the kids have asked me that if he wasn't caught would he be writing to us now, would we hear from him. My answer is probably not, I don't think so.
TARA BROWN: Do you think he owes you and the kids an apology?
JODIE SPARROW: The kids deserve an apology.
And they do. But it's portrayed here as more evidence of Hicks' inherent wickedness, not the faults of an imperfect (ie. typical) person who was unwittingly scooped up to serve as a US patsy.
TARA BROWN: As a baby, Bonnie was Daddy's princess. Today, Bonnie's in two minds about seeing him. So have you forgiven him yet for leaving?
BONNIE SPARROW: Nah.
TARA BROWN: Will you ever forgive him?
BONNIE SPARROW: If I get to know him and trust him more, then maybe.
TARA BROWN: And what does he have to do to earn your trust again?
BONNIE SPARROW: Prove to me and my brother that he cares about us and that he's going to, you know ...
JODIE SPARROW: I think she wants to see him but I think she's so scared of getting hurt again, 'Daddy walking out and never seeing me again'. I think that's her biggest fear. Have you worked out yet what you want to do when you leave school?
TERRY SPARROW: I want to be a doctor.
TARA BROWN: At school, Terry's been tormented by some of the other kids about his father. Rather than being ashamed of Hicks, Terry has defended him, using his fists and ending up with a suspension. Can anything he does in the future or, or his past — will that make you stop loving him?
TERRY SPARROW: If he walks out again, then yeah.
TARA BROWN: If he walks out on you again?
TERRY SPARROW: Yes.
TARA BROWN: So, he gets one more chance?
TERRY SPARROW: Yes.
TARA BROWN: For these kids, the issue is bigger than terrorism, and it's much more personal. The plain fact is David Hicks doesn't have much to boast about except, perhaps, Bonnie and Terry and their willingness to give him another go. For these two, and their mother, his greatest crime would be letting them down again. What about your hopes for him and for you and being a family one day again. Could that ever happen?
JODIE SPARROW: No, I don't think so. I just want my kids to have the opportunity. It's all about them, it's all about them, and I'm glad he's back here and I'm glad he's out of that place.
More manipulation of the kids. It's almost like a cage is being prepared for Hicks here - "Right, you made it out alive. Now shut up, disappear off the radar quietly and look after your family - or else".
TARA BROWN: Most Australians see David Hicks as a terrorist.
JODIE SPARROW: Mmm.
I'm sure that's what Tara would like us to believe.
TARA BROWN: In your eyes, who is David Hicks?
JODIE SPARROW: He's, um, the father of my kids and, yeah, I just really can't see him as a terrorist. I'm sorry, but I just can't. I can't see him meaning to hurt anybody, you know, not the Dave I knew, anyway.
Again, Jodie bristles a bit here. Perhaps she started to get an inkling of what Tara Brown's agenda really was.
TARA BROWN: Today for the first time, Jodie got to visit the man she hasn't seen in 10 years. So, is he the Dave you remember?
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, he is, actually. It was fine, he seems pretty normal.
TARA BROWN: And does it feel like 10 years since you've last seen him?
JODIE SPARROW: Yeah, yeah, we've both aged a bit, even he said that, yeah. So, yeah.
TARA BROWN: What message did you take in there from Terry and Bonnie?
JODIE SPARROW: They said they love him and they miss him and they're looking forward to seeing him.
TARA BROWN: And how did he react to that?
JODIE SPARROW: Emotional, yeah. I think he was really excited and emotional knowing that his kids are gonna be there to support him.
And one last push of the audience's emotional buttons just to hammer the point home.
If David Hicks ever watches that interview, he can be assured that Channel 9 is chomping at the bit to make him Australian public enemy #1. And the unstated threat is there - shut up, or else.
