Guantanamo : My Journey

In 1999 a young man from suburban Adelaide set out on an overseas trip that would change his life forever. Initially, he was after adventure and the experience of travelling the Silk Road. But events would set him on a different path. He would be deemed a terrorist, one of George W Bush's 'worst of the worst'. He would be incarcerated in the world's most notorious prison, Guantanamo Bay. And in that place where, according to an interrogator in Abu Ghraib, 'even dogs won't live', he was to languish for five and a half years, suffering horror, torture and abuse, while Australians were told who he was - by politicians, the media and foreign governments. Everyone had an opinion on him. But only he knows the truth. And now, for the first time, David Hicks tells his story.

David Hicks was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1975. After leaving school, he worked as a jackaroo in the Australian outback before settling in Adelaide. Later, he worked as a horse trainer in Japan before witnessing TV reports of atrocities in Kosovo, which motivated him to travel to Albania. Back in Australia, he developed an interest in politics, especially in disadvantaged, oppressed communities. He then embarked on a journey to Kashmir. During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he was apprehended by the Northern Alliance and sold to the US military, which then sent him to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent five and a half years in detention before returning to Australia.