Hamburger Hill under the grill

http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/2005/02/16-0006.html is worth a look.

Russell Hill
Crikey's spy in the Defence Department

Is it an "interview" or an "interrogation"? Our Defence operative reports on a Robert Hill's appearance today before the Senate Estimates committee.


There's only one game in town today. And it's not Democrats leader Lyn Allison asking questions about nuclear dumps - let alone Labor's worthy committeewomen Jan McLucas or Kate Lundy hunting down bureaucrats from the Office of the Staturs of Women.It's all about today's Senate interrogation of Robert Hill - or should that be, "interview"?
It would be a stretch to say that Minister Hill was appearing before the Senate Defence estimates committee voluntarily.But not everyone was looking reluctant.

An interesting cast of characters assembled for the inquiry:Labor's Grand Inquisitor, John Faulkner, is clearly enjoying himself back in the limelight. Robert Hill is hunched over with his hands below the table like a naughty schoolboy, drinking lots of water.
There's varying levels of enthusiasm from committee members.Democrats former leader Andrew Bartlett is there, with a copy of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners, tucked under his arm. He's optimistic if he thinks the issue at hand is about the torture of prisoners - it's about the torture of the Minister.

(I wonder if a public servant has ever evoked the Geneva Convention - "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment" - over estimates grilling?)