David Hicks is yet another convert to Islam who misunderstood his new religion as teaching violence against the unbelievers, and joined the jihad. "Hicks 'took orders from bin Laden,'" from [1] AAP, with thanks to Fjordman:

DAVID Hicks, who has today spent five years in detention at Guantanamo Bay, was a fully fledged al-Qaeda operative who took orders from Osama bin Laden, US prosecutors say.

Colonel Morris Davis, chief prosecutor for the US Office of Military Commissions, has dismissed any notion of Hicks as a young and naive adventurer.

“David Hicks attended basic training, the al-Qaeda basic training, (and) went back for repeated advance courses in terrorism,” Colonel Davis told Fairfax.

“He knew and associated with a number of al-Qaeda senior leadership. He conducted surveillance on the US embassy and other embassies.

“He eventually left Afghanistan and it's my understanding was heading back to Australia when 9/11 happened.

“When he heard about 9/11, he said it was a good thing (and) he went back to the battlefield, back to Afghanistan, and reported in to the senior leadership of al-Qaeda and basically said, 'I'm David Hicks and I'm reporting for duty'.”