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DAVID Hicks's enthusiasm for dying as a Muslim martyr has been revealed in a letter he wrote to his mother while he was training with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001.The letter is one of a series released by the Australian Federal Police as part of their bid to persuade a federal magistrate that the confessed terrorist, who is due to be released from an Adelaide jail on December 29, should become only the second Australian subject to a terrorism control order."There are many privileges in heaven," Hicks said in the letter."One reward I get in being martyred - I get to take ten members of my family to heaven who were destined for hell. But first I also must be martyred. "Islam will rule again but for now we must have patience ... we are asked to sacrifice our lives for Allah's cause - why not?" Hicks also described himself as a "fit, young Muslim, ready to defend Islam", and in another letter wrote of the "poison" of the West, which he said was trying to crush Islam. "Jihad is still valid to this day," he wrote. Barrister Andrew Berger, for the AFP, yesterday outlined the sophisticated terrorism training Hicks underwent at camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he learned to use shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles capable of bringing down airliners.Mr Berger said the evidence repudiated any suggestion that Hicks was "all talk, no action"."Rather than a dog whose bark was worse than his bite, (Hicks) has demonstrated a willingness to take action," Mr Berger said. "While there was no evidence that Hicks had threatened Australians, Hicks's anti-Semitism and fervour made him a risk to the governments and people of Israel and the US."Outside the court, Hicks's father, Terry, said the letters were "storytelling" and a compilation of "other people's thoughts". Mr Hicks said his son had turned his back on Islam in 2002 after becoming a prisoner of the US in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hicks was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Adelaide's Yatala prison in May to serve his seven-month sentence, which was secured as part of a plea bargain with US military prosecutors that involved a guilty plea on a single terror offence. Barrister Larissa Detmold, for Hicks, told the court that Hicks's co-operation with the US and Australian governments following his capture in Afghanistan in December 2001 showed that he had turned his back on his former beliefs. Federal Magistrate Warren Donald will decide today whether to issue the control order. Melbourne man Jack Thomas is the only other Australian to be subject to a control order. The AFP has asked for conditions including that Hicks must report to a police station three times a week, comply with a midnight-to-6am curfew and not leave the country. Hicks does not have a passport. Ms Detmold said she did not oppose the application, but she asked that Hicks be required to report to police only weekly.As in the days of Noah....
