David Hicks wants to profit from his story.

Terrorism: Poor guy, I would feel sorry for him except for the part that he is an Al Qaeda supporting Jew hating Taliban loving terrorist. I do want to see him try to explain all of his activities as youthful mistakes.

FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has told supporters he should be able to profit from telling his story because he never committed a crime. Hicks - a convicted terrorism supporter - was allowed to talk publicly about his experiences for the first time after a US-imposed gag order expired yesterday, but he has remained tight-lipped. Adventurer and businessman Dick Smith revealed Hicks wants to profit from his story - predicted by media analysts to be worth up to $1 million. Hicks said he agreed to a plea bargain in a US military commission only to avoid being "locked up forever" after spending more than five years at Guantanamo Bay. "He says he has never supported terrorism but the reason he agreed with the plea bargain is that if he didn't sign up he would be locked up forever," said Mr Smith, who has mentored Hicks since his prison release. "He says to me that he has never ever supported terrorism and that it is quite unfair that he shouldn't even earn $5 an hour to write his book, and I said: 'Well, that is how it is'." "My personal advice is earn nothing from it. Tell your story and remain poor," he said. Hicks' father, Terry, said the gag order and proceeds-of-crime laws had frustrated his son since his release from Adelaide's Yatala prison. "He is frustrated at these so-called laws brought out to stop him from doing things," he said. "This is something he can't understand."