A former Guantanamo detainee wrote in his diary that Western society was “full of poison” introduced by Jews.
The “jihad diary” of David Hicks, written while he was training with terrorists in Pakistan in 2000, was part of a dossier released this week by Australian Federal Magistrate Warren Donald.
Hicks, 32, from Adelaide, South Australia, trained with al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan before being caught by U.S. forces in 2001. He became the first “enemy combatant” to be convicted by the U.S. military commission. Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge to providing material support for terrorists.
On Tuesday, Donald relaxed the control order on Hicks, who was released from jail last December. He was repatriated to Australia last May from the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison, where he spent five years, to serve out the rest of his sentence in his home country under house arrest terms.
The diary was seized at Hicks’ home during a raid by Australian Federal Police and ASIO, the country’s spy agency.
In a letter to his mother, Hicks wrote that Satan was aligned with Western society, which was “full of poison” introduced by Jews. “Muslims fight against Jews and they kill them,” he wrote.
George Newhouse, a human rights lawyer, said at the time of Hicks’ release that he needs to “renounce the offensive and deeply anti-Semitic views he has espoused previously.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
