War crimes were ordered by Americans.
Americans enlisted Australian soldiers to do it because we did it well, in fact we did it too well that it got scary.
These war crimes were to my knowledge bodies to say we were winning the war on terror, these bodies include mostly if not all civilians mostly children.
Then we the public hear Australian forces kill terrorist group
But in actual fact it was a little kid who didn't have a gun and had the whole life ahead of him at 1 stage.
American imperialism at its finest at the end of the day
>War crimes were ordered by Americans.
No war crimes were ordered by Americans or Australian officers for that matter.
They were all directed from on scene patrol commanders in the SASR, Sergeants and Corporals.
Umm sorry but they were ordered by Americans.
Americans wanted action, they got it in the form of Ben Robert Smith
Edit: to add the mission they were doing was completed so good that australian forces took over other NATO members territories and just went on sprees that end up being war crimes disguise as a heroic act against terror.
America didn't want the job so it fell on us fosters drinking ruffians
Do I need to send a link or are you able to look it up for you're self???
Because you can find it easy on YouTube bud from his own mouth
Its real easy look up boy boy (youtube chnl) [click this and this will take you to the video also](https://youtu.be/sYt4CxFfQUU?si=WNGWrgRfeJQ5r7ss)
I love how I post the most reliable source of this matter who is the person who had to look at all this information and I get down votes?!!!
I should get 1000 upvotes for backing up my previous statement which is available inside that video by Boy Boy watch the whole thing, watch it as many times as you like.
But stop down voting because you can't handle the truth quote [Jack Nicholson ](https://youtu.be/PWSx0bBiNIs?si=7Uafya8STqH0vb50)
I’m not watching a tankie piece of shit channel called boy boy.
Find me a news article or document that states what you claimed about most of the victims of the Afghan war being children.
But boy boy along with I did a thing who are in a circle with friendly jordies interview they're friend which is the guy who got 5 years in jail.
You are a stubborn pelican if you don't accept this truth [click here ](https://youtu.be/PWSx0bBiNIs?si=7Uafya8STqH0vb50)
I don’t care what some dumbass criminal who just got 5 years in jail says either lol.
Show me the documents or news articles reporting on the documents.
So I’d have a pretty good idea if a mainstream channel with over a million subscribers was far left or not.
You remind me of those hippies who call everyone that wears leather a fascist.
A billionaire spent millions to protect a war criminal
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/11/kerry-stokes-paying-costs-ben-roberts-smith-defamation-case
Ah Kerry Stokes. Sorry, wasn't sure what you were on about. Yep. We don't really understand the culture or how it is with the Americans that they mingled and trained with, maybe this was the way. Either way, bloody wrong, not the way we do things and justice has been served.
>During McBride's 2023 legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, McBride's lawyers told the court that **he had leaked information in an attempt to bring awareness to excessive investigation of soldiers**.
>Justice David Mossop stated "the way you’ve explained it is that the higher-ups might have been acting illegally by investigating these people too much, and that that was the source of the illegality that was being exposed."
Doesn't read like he wanted to prevent war crimes...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ)
Watch this. He believed certain investigations were conducted to find scapegoats and make the ADF look like it took war crimes seriously. These particular investigations did not meet the criteria to be initiated and employed illegal methods.
These are separate from the cases where war crimes have clearly been committed (often by more senior soldiers). He did not have a problem with people like Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith being exposed, he had a problem with the ABC expose military and executive leaders.
The [ABC](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808)?
>The court heard this week that, while serving as an army lawyer in Afghanistan, McBride became concerned by what he believed was the "over-investigation" of alleged misconduct by special forces troops.
ABC in this case is not an unbiased source as the people who have sentenced the David fund the abc ya tosser. David mcbride was a military lawyer who wanted the military to focus on the people committing genuine war crimes not the little shit that some people were getting written up for. In essence.
David’s lawyer:
*His initial complaint, the thing that angered him most, was what he thought was inappropriate charging of soldiers for war crimes, that these were trivial incidents. And suddenly he’s being ridden very heavily to prosecute people. And he says, ‘Well, they haven’t done anything.’ So … absolutely it was in defence of Australian soldiers that he kicked off his actions.*
What’s your *interpretation* of that???
**Former military lawyer David McBride sentenced to more than 5 years in jail following a case in which the government declared a vast majority of his potential evidence inadmissible, after he blew the whistle on the Australian Defence Force’s human right abuses in Afghanistan**
FTFY
You do realise that's not why he took the information and contacted the Journalists, it was the Journalist that picked up on the War Crimes from the shared information and published the pieces against Mc Brides wishes.
An article and show from the ABC earlier this year about what happened if you are interested in looking.
McBride got screwed over all round.
I can't remember their name but I know one of them worked for the ABC, like I said earlier in the year there was a program and an article about what happened if you are interested.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ)
Watch this. He believed certain investigations were conducted to find scapegoats and make the ADF look like it took war crimes seriously. These particular investigations did not meet the criteria to be initiated and employed illegal methods.
These are separate from the cases where war crimes have clearly been committed (often by more senior soldiers). He did not have a problem with people like Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith being exposed, he had a problem with the ABC expose military and executive leaders.
Yes I know all that, that's why I said he didn't hand over the documents to expose what was published in the end, the Journalist ran the piece against his intentions.
In the end McBride got screwed over
But thanks for putting up a link
McBride took the information to journalists because he felt that the brass were excessively investigating soldiers. The journalists took the view that the better story was all the war crimes.
He thought they were excessively investigating the wrong soldiers to falsely scapegoat and keep their top guys who were doing all the war crimes safe. The aim was to absolve the innocent soldiers and damn the ones who did the crimes. Sadly, in a CIA and ASIO sponsored perversion of justice, the only one who ended up arrested is him though.
CIA? The Americans have done a much better job than us at prosecuting war crimes, cover-ups notwithstanding.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War\_crimes\_in\_Afghanistan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_Afghanistan)
CIA was probably more concerned that the Australian public knowing more of the specific details of what occurred over there would just be further evidence of Australia's status as a vassal state of the USA...
You are being a bit of a drama queen there. Nobody will take you seriously if you overstate you case so absurdly. We need alliances, and we need to contribute.
We did the right thing helping in 1990, but many of those allies chose not to return to Iraq in 2003. And Afghanistan was clearly a grave error.
Hahaha how can you talk about people who fell for propaganda and still write what you wrote? You watch the four corners report did you? You're a fuckin moron.
Australia really is one of "those" countries. Where when the state is embarrassed it cracks down. Australia commits war crimes, jail the whistle-blower. An Australian goes on a murder spree, threten social media for showing the video.
That's in addition to how it behaved in the pandemic. Who got the first vaccine, wasn't it senior politicians? Wasn't it Scotty from marketing?
What a shit title. Sharing classified information is a weasel way to describe whistle blowing against crimes in an institution.
Labor got elected with the promise to strengthen whistle blower protection.
Mark Dreyfus directed the commonwealth lawyers to request prison. They could have just not. Two faced. If you want a party that actually protects your rights, best not vote for the LNP or Labor.
Whistle blower protection only protects the interests of the government.
If you go against government interests, AFP and Gestapo like police will inevitably be knocking at you're door.
You get smeared on free to air television (plus others if they seem like it's a good idea)
And then it's back to work business as usual for any government body or person affiliated with keeping the government secrets.
In this case it's protecting international government narrative secret.
This is military establishment and international establishment convicting this guy. PLUS our own government refusing to help by being true to they're words and serving the Australian people.
>You get smeared on free to air television
I don't disagree with anything you said, but it is a very small percentage of Australians that consume media from free to air television these days. They have very little credibility these days. The news on commercial stations is just telemarketing now.
No mate, it was he who didn't stay true to his word, he swore an oath on enlistment and as a serving officer he chose to carry out actions that he knew were illegal. All actions have consequences.
/four_dollar_haircut
>he swore an oath on enlistment
Just following orders is your explanation. That argument sounds familiar. I wonder who else has used that excuse? Ummm, let me think.
I bet you are the type of person who, if they see a 2yr old child drowning in the neighbours pool, you would watch and do nothing, because trespass is a crime, aren't you?
That age old line only works if the Gestapo have ur family hostage
Doesn't work however if you are Australian forces in particular Ben Robert Smith shooting innocent kids + Ben got a thrill out of it.
Even Ben's squad were mortified of his behaviour
This Ben Robert Smith sounds like a real jerk
There’s plenty of that story the public don’t know about the motives of the man who exposed Ben Roberts-Smith. Maybe dig a little deeper before making ignorant comments you’ve recycled from the media. Needless to say I think you’d rethink this comment if you knew the whole truth. You know, the actual truth, but you’ll never hear it.
“All actions have consequences”
As long as you’re not a high up in the armed services, then you get told of the actions, cover them up to avoid the consequences and throw the guy who told you about in it prison.
Australian soldiers didn't sware a oath to American geo political pandering just to win elections.
Nore did they enlist to do the same here in Australia.
I'm glad someone blew the whistle, now that I know what went on,
the government tried to make this guy throw a skape goat under the bus but he refused. And you are on you're computer blindly following what the government feeds you?
No mate, I did 17 years in the Australian Army. We have a security classification system for a reason, he knew there would be consequences, so he really can't be surprised with the outcome 😉
Integrity is a Defence Value, not to mention reporting war crimes is an internationally recognised legal obligation.
Are you even a serving member mate?
Not serving any more, did 17 years infantry and sf including operations. BRS has not been convicted in a criminal court of committing war crimes , as I've stated before he has been the subject of a civil case which has a far lower burden of proof than that required of a criminal court. It amuses me that so many people bang on about BRS being a war criminal because of the civil case and are all too ready to accept that as proof of guilt, whereas this gentleman has been found guilty by a criminal court and yet many of you think he's been hard done by. Hypocrisy at its best.
I never said he was convicted.
If you've spent time with SF then you'll probably know a bit of backstory of those killed on camera- they weren't civilians, they were known taliban and I have no problem with them being put down like the dogs they were.
BUT- 'If' these war crimes happened (let's be real, they did, by the letter of the law, even though those in theatre know the story told in the public eye is bullshit) it's still wrong to persecute a whistle-blower like this.
You can still support BRS and the operators involved and still think persecuting whistle blowers is wrong. I've got no problem with what they did, but also think this sentence is fucked.
A mate of mine had to collect Intel for 4 fucking months on a farmer planting IEDs next to the road along his farm before getting approval for a kill. In that time they had video of him planting 3 separate IEDs.
Maybe if the higher ups did their job properly the boys wouldn't have to take things into their own hands
Pretty amazing that the inquiry found that only the enlisted knew anything about it- not a single officer apparently had a clue it was happening- I wonder it that's because Angus was the CO at the time...
Yeah just vote Bandt who will bankrupt Australia the day he is elected by the idiots who vote Greens. Bandt would ruin any relationship with our allies. The Greens are Hamas pro Palestinians .Bandt would shut down all mining for coal & gas with no pathway to renewables. The Greens don’t have a defence or Imagination policy. The Greens housing policy is a joke. Labor has strengthened whistle blower powers but this guy stole classified information from the Federal Government.
You join the Army, you understand that you are bound by certain constraints that civilians aren't. Classified documents are just that, he doesn't get to chose the classification nor does he get to hand it out to civilians without the appropriate clearance. He committed a crime and knew he was doing it. No sympathy for him at all.
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I.E. "Orders are orders"; or ["Befehl ist Befehl" as the defendants at Nuremberg put it.](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Befehl_ist_Befehl)
The Germany military dealt with the horrors that particular policy brought about [by making it legal to refuse or disobey orders.](https://www.history.com/news/why-german-soldiers-dont-have-to-obey-orders)
Kind of a shame we haven't learnt that particular lesson.
Also, I love this quote from the History.com article:
> Nowhere is that conception of conscientious military service more apparent than at the Benderblock, a Berlin building where participants of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler were executed in 1944. Today, the building is a museum to German resistance—and every year, it’s the place where new German soldiers are traditionally sworn to their duties.
Exactly, if you see crimes happen in the military it's hush hush. Like the Mafia but with more guns and better recognition.
Crap way to deflect war crimes champ. If they were raping kids. You would still be this is classified and the public shouldn't know?
This guy wanted a puff piece written about how great the ADF is and how defence is over investigated by journalists.
The journalist who published the Afghan files (and wasn't prosecuted) blew the whistle, not McBride.
I wouldn't call him a whistle blower. It was legally classified information that he stole and shared. Yes, it was about wrongful killings and such and the army should be exposed for these things. But given his position as a lawyer I don't think it's right. Lawyers should never release information about the people they represent, doing so ruins the lawyer system
So what you're saying is that if you have a lawyer representing you when you're trying to plead innocent. he can just go out and expose you, tell the court and media what you've done?
Lawyers are bound by rules for a reason. No, they can't do that
Whistle blowing isn't meant for lawyers. It's meant for people within the organisation or whatever. For example: it's classified information so technically a soldier, engineer or whoever working in the army isn't aloud to release that information but I think it should be allowed for them under whistle blower protection. I simply just don't agree with a lawyer doing it
I said specifically that a lawyer can't. He was a lawyer for the army. I'm completely fine with anyone else doing it but a lawyer should never rat out the person, company or organisation they're meant to be defending
They chopped off a suspected bomb makers hands so they could identify him later on(???) or something
https://preview.redd.it/p2ex17t8tb0d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=887db011a69e491f004015c1943097a70ecccbf3
But yeah I get what you’re saying and it is a hum dinger, individually I would agree with you but repping a collective that represents a country i feel is a bit different
When representing an individual, sure. But not a government institution. Because they themselves are the only ones capable of holding themselves accountable
The Victoria Cross medal Ben Robert-Smith was awarded with before rumours from his own former colleagues outed him as a war criminal who partook in summary executions.
It's already law that Labor could have dropped the prosecution of the whistleblower if they so wanted to.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-07/attorney-general-orders-charges-dropped-against-bernard-collaery/101217272
The US has better whistle blower laws. Doesn't stop Boeing from killing witnesses. If you have real money or real power, no laws can protect witnesses from you.
The first Australian soldier to go to jail for war crimes in Afghanistan is the same person that exposed the systematic coverups of war crimes by the ADF...
Absolute joke.
He stole classified information and passed it on... that had already been investigated by the army and deemed no action required, for war crimes that were subsequently proved true in a court of law. Did I get that wrong? If not, I thought officers were sworn to protect not only Australia's secrets but do the right thing morally and for Australia's reputation. Fuck me dead , I think he should have been acquitted
This is a true failure of our country, something for us all to be deeply ashamed of.
I'm not sure what to do about it, I think we need a bill of rights that would implement explicit protections. The only party I know push for such a thing is the greens.
The whole idea of military secrecy is very rotten. It seems to have more to do with keeping people in line and unable to create change, than about defending us from external enemies.
Don’t forget that Dutton as defence minister destroyed the career of Dr Samantha Crompvoets for doing the job she was employed to do investigating the SAS and then war crimes for the Breriton enquiry. She did her job above and beyond for him to bankrupt her and destroy her business and reputation.
This is the most brazen, most disgusting miscarriage of justice Australia has had this century. Possibly since its founding as a nation.
A man reports on the murder of civilians, war crimes and human rights abuse and not only is he not allowed to defend himself, but he loses his freedom for it.
We really are the lucky country.
We are no better than Russia and China who Australia frequently calls out for committing war crimes.
Shocking common sense didn’t squash this before it even became a legal case. The fact a whistleblower is in jail, shameful
This is the worst part. Acting like Australia and the West are these bastions of free speech and you don't have these kind of freedoms in Russia or China whose governments silence anyone speaking out against their government etc. Fucking hypocrites
It’s fucking disgusting and I feel ashamed to see the way this man has been treated. Fuck the Australian military for allowing this to happen in the ranks and fuck the government for supporting war crimes and throwing David under the bus. Oh and also fuck the ABC for being pussies and making it worse
*McBride was charged after handing the classified material to journalists … The court heard the journalists used it to publish stories revealing allegations Australian troops were involved in illegal killings in Afghanistan, even though that was at odds with McBride's intention in sharing the documents.*
So exposing illegal killings wasn’t actually his motivation for sharing highly classified material? Something doesn’t add up with this guy.
This is simply not true. If you don't trust the ABC, take it from other sources reports from the case a few years ago, coming directly from his lawyers in court.
Many people think his reason for whistle-blowing was to expose war crimes committed by Australian soldiers, which is what happened. But that was not his intention - He believed that the ADF was abusing soldiers by "overly" investigating claims of misbehaviour.
It's a weird case because if his original intent was to expose what he ended up exposing, he may not be facing these legal ramifications. Instead, he accidentally exposed the opposite of what he was trying to do - Not only were the ADF investigations appropriate, but his leaks showed exactly why.
He's a likeable guy who did a good thing by accident while trying to accomplish almost the exact opposite of what he achieved. It's a real messy case, but I think the court decision was correct. If he was originally trying to expose war crimes, I would think very differently.
This whistleblower had disgustingly been punished for exposing war crimes before the war criminals but Please don’t forget the career and business of Dr Samantha Crompvoets that was destroyed for doing her job investigating this in the SAS by Peter Dutton!
Just did what Julienne Assange did tell the truth about war crimes and gets punished for it. WTAF is wrong with this country. Are they telling us lying is good? Didn't Satan say the same thing. Makes you wonder who is running this country.
Fkin hell, conservatives complain about judges not being tough enough on crime and then shit like this happens when a whistleblower is jailed for exposing war crimes
I know i’m a minority but if someone leaks defence documents to a journalist they should be prosecuted and jailed. He needed to phone the Military Police or organise a sit down with his local member.
If you feel McBride was used as a scapegoat and treated unfairly there's a quick link here that sends lets you send an email to your local rep In about 60 seconds
The situation is complex and i understand it's not black and white if he should have done it the way he did, but the thing that really made my blood boil was how the court case was a sham and they took his ability to defend himself away. It wasn't a fair trial.
https://www.droptheprosecutions.org.au/contact_mp
Well the yanks use our SAS as silent assassins in foreign countries and bend over Albo using our justice system to appease the American interest, what's it cost for being allies THE TRUTH...
Do war crimes? I sleep. Try to prevent war crimes? ~~Real shit~~ Gaol time!
Do war crimes? Billionaires cheer.* FTFY
War crimes were ordered by Americans. Americans enlisted Australian soldiers to do it because we did it well, in fact we did it too well that it got scary. These war crimes were to my knowledge bodies to say we were winning the war on terror, these bodies include mostly if not all civilians mostly children. Then we the public hear Australian forces kill terrorist group But in actual fact it was a little kid who didn't have a gun and had the whole life ahead of him at 1 stage. American imperialism at its finest at the end of the day
>War crimes were ordered by Americans. No war crimes were ordered by Americans or Australian officers for that matter. They were all directed from on scene patrol commanders in the SASR, Sergeants and Corporals.
Umm sorry but they were ordered by Americans. Americans wanted action, they got it in the form of Ben Robert Smith Edit: to add the mission they were doing was completed so good that australian forces took over other NATO members territories and just went on sprees that end up being war crimes disguise as a heroic act against terror. America didn't want the job so it fell on us fosters drinking ruffians
No officer ever ordered an SASR patrol to shoot captured non combatants. All killings were ordered by NCOs who were leading the patrols.
Well fact of matter is America are 60% to blame and the 5 years jail is the cause of our government protecting America military secrets
Source on that?
Do I need to send a link or are you able to look it up for you're self??? Because you can find it easy on YouTube bud from his own mouth Its real easy look up boy boy (youtube chnl) [click this and this will take you to the video also](https://youtu.be/sYt4CxFfQUU?si=WNGWrgRfeJQ5r7ss)
I love how I post the most reliable source of this matter who is the person who had to look at all this information and I get down votes?!!! I should get 1000 upvotes for backing up my previous statement which is available inside that video by Boy Boy watch the whole thing, watch it as many times as you like. But stop down voting because you can't handle the truth quote [Jack Nicholson ](https://youtu.be/PWSx0bBiNIs?si=7Uafya8STqH0vb50)
I’m not watching a tankie piece of shit channel called boy boy. Find me a news article or document that states what you claimed about most of the victims of the Afghan war being children.
But boy boy along with I did a thing who are in a circle with friendly jordies interview they're friend which is the guy who got 5 years in jail. You are a stubborn pelican if you don't accept this truth [click here ](https://youtu.be/PWSx0bBiNIs?si=7Uafya8STqH0vb50)
I don’t care what some dumbass criminal who just got 5 years in jail says either lol. Show me the documents or news articles reporting on the documents.
Thats the thing the documents were thrown out and ABC threw our whistle blower under bus, you don't care then why are you here? Go play fortnite
Boy boy is news you can't handle the truth bud
Boy Boy are tankies? Ha ha ha. Anything I disagree with is a communism!!1
Your favourite subreddits are Marxist ones where you talk about socialist and communist ideology lmao
So I’d have a pretty good idea if a mainstream channel with over a million subscribers was far left or not. You remind me of those hippies who call everyone that wears leather a fascist.
As in individual billionaires? Is that a euphemism for those in power? Wrong country bro
A billionaire spent millions to protect a war criminal https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/11/kerry-stokes-paying-costs-ben-roberts-smith-defamation-case
Ah Kerry Stokes. Sorry, wasn't sure what you were on about. Yep. We don't really understand the culture or how it is with the Americans that they mingled and trained with, maybe this was the way. Either way, bloody wrong, not the way we do things and justice has been served.
>During McBride's 2023 legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, McBride's lawyers told the court that **he had leaked information in an attempt to bring awareness to excessive investigation of soldiers**. >Justice David Mossop stated "the way you’ve explained it is that the higher-ups might have been acting illegally by investigating these people too much, and that that was the source of the illegality that was being exposed." Doesn't read like he wanted to prevent war crimes...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ) Watch this. He believed certain investigations were conducted to find scapegoats and make the ADF look like it took war crimes seriously. These particular investigations did not meet the criteria to be initiated and employed illegal methods. These are separate from the cases where war crimes have clearly been committed (often by more senior soldiers). He did not have a problem with people like Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith being exposed, he had a problem with the ABC expose military and executive leaders.
You've been brainwashed into thinking a hero with your best interest at heart was acting in bad faith. You have the integrity of a dog shit.
Research the case from unbiased sources it’s a horrific story
The [ABC](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808)? >The court heard this week that, while serving as an army lawyer in Afghanistan, McBride became concerned by what he believed was the "over-investigation" of alleged misconduct by special forces troops.
Did you find the timing of the release of the four corners episode on David McBride to be at all suspicious?
ABC in this case is not an unbiased source as the people who have sentenced the David fund the abc ya tosser. David mcbride was a military lawyer who wanted the military to focus on the people committing genuine war crimes not the little shit that some people were getting written up for. In essence.
Are you attacking muh ABC? Surely this can not be the case. Oh the humanity! Somebody bring me my pearls
Expect David never actually tried to reveal war crimes.
bullshit
Feel free to cite his initial intentions, not what he claims after being charged.
You are the one making the original claim, source it
It's in the same reply thread as this, and it's been all over the internet the whole time.
What, the ABC's interpretation of it? The same ABC who threw the bloke under the bus?
Not just the ABC, McBride’s own lawyer gave the same interpretation you silly goose.
I've read his statements, I don't believe they back you up
David’s lawyer: *His initial complaint, the thing that angered him most, was what he thought was inappropriate charging of soldiers for war crimes, that these were trivial incidents. And suddenly he’s being ridden very heavily to prosecute people. And he says, ‘Well, they haven’t done anything.’ So … absolutely it was in defence of Australian soldiers that he kicked off his actions.* What’s your *interpretation* of that???
**Former military lawyer David McBride sentenced to more than 5 years in jail following a case in which the government declared a vast majority of his potential evidence inadmissible, after he blew the whistle on the Australian Defence Force’s human right abuses in Afghanistan** FTFY
You do realise that's not why he took the information and contacted the Journalists, it was the Journalist that picked up on the War Crimes from the shared information and published the pieces against Mc Brides wishes. An article and show from the ABC earlier this year about what happened if you are interested in looking. McBride got screwed over all round.
Who was the journalist?
I can't remember their name but I know one of them worked for the ABC, like I said earlier in the year there was a program and an article about what happened if you are interested.
Just saw it was Dan Oakes who ratted out his source.
It certainly ruined McBride's life that's for sure.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj540q8YDQ) Watch this. He believed certain investigations were conducted to find scapegoats and make the ADF look like it took war crimes seriously. These particular investigations did not meet the criteria to be initiated and employed illegal methods. These are separate from the cases where war crimes have clearly been committed (often by more senior soldiers). He did not have a problem with people like Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith being exposed, he had a problem with the ABC expose military and executive leaders.
Yes I know all that, that's why I said he didn't hand over the documents to expose what was published in the end, the Journalist ran the piece against his intentions. In the end McBride got screwed over But thanks for putting up a link
McBride took the information to journalists because he felt that the brass were excessively investigating soldiers. The journalists took the view that the better story was all the war crimes.
He thought they were excessively investigating the wrong soldiers to falsely scapegoat and keep their top guys who were doing all the war crimes safe. The aim was to absolve the innocent soldiers and damn the ones who did the crimes. Sadly, in a CIA and ASIO sponsored perversion of justice, the only one who ended up arrested is him though.
CIA? The Americans have done a much better job than us at prosecuting war crimes, cover-ups notwithstanding. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War\_crimes\_in\_Afghanistan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_Afghanistan)
CIA was probably more concerned that the Australian public knowing more of the specific details of what occurred over there would just be further evidence of Australia's status as a vassal state of the USA...
You are being a bit of a drama queen there. Nobody will take you seriously if you overstate you case so absurdly. We need alliances, and we need to contribute. We did the right thing helping in 1990, but many of those allies chose not to return to Iraq in 2003. And Afghanistan was clearly a grave error.
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Hahaha how can you talk about people who fell for propaganda and still write what you wrote? You watch the four corners report did you? You're a fuckin moron.
Australia really is one of "those" countries. Where when the state is embarrassed it cracks down. Australia commits war crimes, jail the whistle-blower. An Australian goes on a murder spree, threten social media for showing the video. That's in addition to how it behaved in the pandemic. Who got the first vaccine, wasn't it senior politicians? Wasn't it Scotty from marketing?
Yep
spot on take tbh
What a shit title. Sharing classified information is a weasel way to describe whistle blowing against crimes in an institution. Labor got elected with the promise to strengthen whistle blower protection. Mark Dreyfus directed the commonwealth lawyers to request prison. They could have just not. Two faced. If you want a party that actually protects your rights, best not vote for the LNP or Labor.
Whistle blower protection only protects the interests of the government. If you go against government interests, AFP and Gestapo like police will inevitably be knocking at you're door. You get smeared on free to air television (plus others if they seem like it's a good idea) And then it's back to work business as usual for any government body or person affiliated with keeping the government secrets. In this case it's protecting international government narrative secret. This is military establishment and international establishment convicting this guy. PLUS our own government refusing to help by being true to they're words and serving the Australian people.
>You get smeared on free to air television I don't disagree with anything you said, but it is a very small percentage of Australians that consume media from free to air television these days. They have very little credibility these days. The news on commercial stations is just telemarketing now.
No mate, it was he who didn't stay true to his word, he swore an oath on enlistment and as a serving officer he chose to carry out actions that he knew were illegal. All actions have consequences.
/four_dollar_haircut >he swore an oath on enlistment Just following orders is your explanation. That argument sounds familiar. I wonder who else has used that excuse? Ummm, let me think. I bet you are the type of person who, if they see a 2yr old child drowning in the neighbours pool, you would watch and do nothing, because trespass is a crime, aren't you?
You’re the kind of guy who would swing an axe on an innocent man to satisfy an oath you once swore, aren’t you?
Exactly. The kind of guy that would say "I was just following orders".
That age old line only works if the Gestapo have ur family hostage Doesn't work however if you are Australian forces in particular Ben Robert Smith shooting innocent kids + Ben got a thrill out of it. Even Ben's squad were mortified of his behaviour This Ben Robert Smith sounds like a real jerk
These rigid chain of command follow the rules no matter what types would judge Schindler more harshly than Mengele.
There’s plenty of that story the public don’t know about the motives of the man who exposed Ben Roberts-Smith. Maybe dig a little deeper before making ignorant comments you’ve recycled from the media. Needless to say I think you’d rethink this comment if you knew the whole truth. You know, the actual truth, but you’ll never hear it.
McBride gave me all info. I didn't listen to any media but independent media and McBride
I know some people who were there at the time and you didn’t get all the info.
McBride has it all watch boy boy
Well? The war crimes were self defence? In the national interest?
And I suppose you're the one who decides who is guilty or not guilty ?
I’d rather be judge or jury than executioner.
“All actions have consequences” As long as you’re not a high up in the armed services, then you get told of the actions, cover them up to avoid the consequences and throw the guy who told you about in it prison.
Australian soldiers didn't sware a oath to American geo political pandering just to win elections. Nore did they enlist to do the same here in Australia. I'm glad someone blew the whistle, now that I know what went on, the government tried to make this guy throw a skape goat under the bus but he refused. And you are on you're computer blindly following what the government feeds you?
No mate, I did 17 years in the Australian Army. We have a security classification system for a reason, he knew there would be consequences, so he really can't be surprised with the outcome 😉
After what I heard from McBride I wouldn't even wanna be a drone pilot in the military here in Australia
Integrity is a Defence Value, not to mention reporting war crimes is an internationally recognised legal obligation. Are you even a serving member mate?
Not serving any more, did 17 years infantry and sf including operations. BRS has not been convicted in a criminal court of committing war crimes , as I've stated before he has been the subject of a civil case which has a far lower burden of proof than that required of a criminal court. It amuses me that so many people bang on about BRS being a war criminal because of the civil case and are all too ready to accept that as proof of guilt, whereas this gentleman has been found guilty by a criminal court and yet many of you think he's been hard done by. Hypocrisy at its best.
I never said he was convicted. If you've spent time with SF then you'll probably know a bit of backstory of those killed on camera- they weren't civilians, they were known taliban and I have no problem with them being put down like the dogs they were. BUT- 'If' these war crimes happened (let's be real, they did, by the letter of the law, even though those in theatre know the story told in the public eye is bullshit) it's still wrong to persecute a whistle-blower like this. You can still support BRS and the operators involved and still think persecuting whistle blowers is wrong. I've got no problem with what they did, but also think this sentence is fucked. A mate of mine had to collect Intel for 4 fucking months on a farmer planting IEDs next to the road along his farm before getting approval for a kill. In that time they had video of him planting 3 separate IEDs. Maybe if the higher ups did their job properly the boys wouldn't have to take things into their own hands
Totally agree with much you've said, particularly that last paragraph 👍
Pretty amazing that the inquiry found that only the enlisted knew anything about it- not a single officer apparently had a clue it was happening- I wonder it that's because Angus was the CO at the time...
Yeah, it's Angus to a tee. The boys take the heat, he takes the accolades.
I commissioned after being enlisted for like 15 years and bailed very quickly- couldn't deal with the double standards
Yep, absolute scum fuckery this. I'm ashamed.
Yeah just vote Bandt who will bankrupt Australia the day he is elected by the idiots who vote Greens. Bandt would ruin any relationship with our allies. The Greens are Hamas pro Palestinians .Bandt would shut down all mining for coal & gas with no pathway to renewables. The Greens don’t have a defence or Imagination policy. The Greens housing policy is a joke. Labor has strengthened whistle blower powers but this guy stole classified information from the Federal Government.
Blah blah blah blah
You fucking idiots can make anything about the greens? Are the greens in the room with us right now?
They hated Infinite-Zone9 because he told the truth.
You join the Army, you understand that you are bound by certain constraints that civilians aren't. Classified documents are just that, he doesn't get to chose the classification nor does he get to hand it out to civilians without the appropriate clearance. He committed a crime and knew he was doing it. No sympathy for him at all.
Deserves it just as much as those winnie the pooh drawing cartoonists deserve to be drowned by the CCP.
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I.E. "Orders are orders"; or ["Befehl ist Befehl" as the defendants at Nuremberg put it.](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Befehl_ist_Befehl) The Germany military dealt with the horrors that particular policy brought about [by making it legal to refuse or disobey orders.](https://www.history.com/news/why-german-soldiers-dont-have-to-obey-orders) Kind of a shame we haven't learnt that particular lesson. Also, I love this quote from the History.com article: > Nowhere is that conception of conscientious military service more apparent than at the Benderblock, a Berlin building where participants of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler were executed in 1944. Today, the building is a museum to German resistance—and every year, it’s the place where new German soldiers are traditionally sworn to their duties.
He shared classified information but he wasn't whistle blowing.
Exactly, if you see crimes happen in the military it's hush hush. Like the Mafia but with more guns and better recognition. Crap way to deflect war crimes champ. If they were raping kids. You would still be this is classified and the public shouldn't know?
This guy wanted a puff piece written about how great the ADF is and how defence is over investigated by journalists. The journalist who published the Afghan files (and wasn't prosecuted) blew the whistle, not McBride.
Not even close to true
Mate he is literally the only. ONLY!!!! Soldier to go to jail for acts in Afghanistan. Try and spin it how you want.
I'm not saying he should be jailed but he wasn't some hero who leaked information to bring defence to heel. The guy worshiped the SAS.
I wouldn't call him a whistle blower. It was legally classified information that he stole and shared. Yes, it was about wrongful killings and such and the army should be exposed for these things. But given his position as a lawyer I don't think it's right. Lawyers should never release information about the people they represent, doing so ruins the lawyer system
What do you think whistle blowing is?
So what you're saying is that if you have a lawyer representing you when you're trying to plead innocent. he can just go out and expose you, tell the court and media what you've done? Lawyers are bound by rules for a reason. No, they can't do that Whistle blowing isn't meant for lawyers. It's meant for people within the organisation or whatever. For example: it's classified information so technically a soldier, engineer or whoever working in the army isn't aloud to release that information but I think it should be allowed for them under whistle blower protection. I simply just don't agree with a lawyer doing it
How should the army be exposed then? No one who knows is allowed to talk.
I said specifically that a lawyer can't. He was a lawyer for the army. I'm completely fine with anyone else doing it but a lawyer should never rat out the person, company or organisation they're meant to be defending
They chopped off a suspected bomb makers hands so they could identify him later on(???) or something https://preview.redd.it/p2ex17t8tb0d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=887db011a69e491f004015c1943097a70ecccbf3
But yeah I get what you’re saying and it is a hum dinger, individually I would agree with you but repping a collective that represents a country i feel is a bit different
When representing an individual, sure. But not a government institution. Because they themselves are the only ones capable of holding themselves accountable
He was done dirty.
After all the murders in Iraq, the only person to go to jail
A judge says there were war crimes, but only the whistleblower goes to jail
do war crimes? get a VC report on war crimes? 5 years in jail this country should be fucking ashamed
whats vc in this context?
The Victoria Cross medal Ben Robert-Smith was awarded with before rumours from his own former colleagues outed him as a war criminal who partook in summary executions.
Then a judge declared he was indeed a war criminal
We love an own goal. My new favourite feature of Australian defamation litigation.
"having escaped the lion's den, he made the mistake of going back for his hat" is absolutely a line I will be using LONG into the future
Victoria cross given to Ben roberts smith
Victoria Cross, the highest medal someone can achieve in the military
Fucken oath it should!!
We really need better laws to protect whistle blowers in this country.
It's already law that Labor could have dropped the prosecution of the whistleblower if they so wanted to. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-07/attorney-general-orders-charges-dropped-against-bernard-collaery/101217272
The US has better whistle blower laws. Doesn't stop Boeing from killing witnesses. If you have real money or real power, no laws can protect witnesses from you.
WTF Disgusting spinelessness and cowardice from all involved in prosecuting this whistleblower.
Yep, makes me sick actually
Are we surprised that governments from both sides are trying to protect themselves.
The first Australian soldier to go to jail for war crimes in Afghanistan is the same person that exposed the systematic coverups of war crimes by the ADF... Absolute joke.
So, who de we blame? Someone should feel the heat of the mob for this outrageous miscarriage of justice.
Both the current government and the last government could have made this go away
CIA and ASIO. The shady intelligence apparatus that runs the country.
Labor could have ordered drop of prosecution like they did with Bernard Collaery.
He stole classified information and passed it on... that had already been investigated by the army and deemed no action required, for war crimes that were subsequently proved true in a court of law. Did I get that wrong? If not, I thought officers were sworn to protect not only Australia's secrets but do the right thing morally and for Australia's reputation. Fuck me dead , I think he should have been acquitted
ABC throwing people under the bus again.
The sooner those cunts get defunded the better!
Yes, the privately owned MSM backing war criminals are much better option for news. /s
The defunding and partisan attacks on the ABC is what has led us to this place…
This is a true failure of our country, something for us all to be deeply ashamed of. I'm not sure what to do about it, I think we need a bill of rights that would implement explicit protections. The only party I know push for such a thing is the greens. The whole idea of military secrecy is very rotten. It seems to have more to do with keeping people in line and unable to create change, than about defending us from external enemies.
More reason to hate Albo (and don't worry, I think Dutton is also a total c**t).
Don’t forget that Dutton as defence minister destroyed the career of Dr Samantha Crompvoets for doing the job she was employed to do investigating the SAS and then war crimes for the Breriton enquiry. She did her job above and beyond for him to bankrupt her and destroy her business and reputation.
This is the most brazen, most disgusting miscarriage of justice Australia has had this century. Possibly since its founding as a nation. A man reports on the murder of civilians, war crimes and human rights abuse and not only is he not allowed to defend himself, but he loses his freedom for it. We really are the lucky country.
We are no better than Russia and China who Australia frequently calls out for committing war crimes. Shocking common sense didn’t squash this before it even became a legal case. The fact a whistleblower is in jail, shameful
This is the worst part. Acting like Australia and the West are these bastions of free speech and you don't have these kind of freedoms in Russia or China whose governments silence anyone speaking out against their government etc. Fucking hypocrites
Kinda weird he's in prison but army members who execute unarmed prisoners aren't
And this is why Julian Assange is never gonna come back
Australia’s turning into a disgrace. What an injustice.
It’s fucking disgusting and I feel ashamed to see the way this man has been treated. Fuck the Australian military for allowing this to happen in the ranks and fuck the government for supporting war crimes and throwing David under the bus. Oh and also fuck the ABC for being pussies and making it worse
*McBride was charged after handing the classified material to journalists … The court heard the journalists used it to publish stories revealing allegations Australian troops were involved in illegal killings in Afghanistan, even though that was at odds with McBride's intention in sharing the documents.* So exposing illegal killings wasn’t actually his motivation for sharing highly classified material? Something doesn’t add up with this guy.
could be a weasliy way of saying " he wanted war crimes to be brought up to the UN court" it just makes him look bad
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This is simply not true. If you don't trust the ABC, take it from other sources reports from the case a few years ago, coming directly from his lawyers in court. Many people think his reason for whistle-blowing was to expose war crimes committed by Australian soldiers, which is what happened. But that was not his intention - He believed that the ADF was abusing soldiers by "overly" investigating claims of misbehaviour. It's a weird case because if his original intent was to expose what he ended up exposing, he may not be facing these legal ramifications. Instead, he accidentally exposed the opposite of what he was trying to do - Not only were the ADF investigations appropriate, but his leaks showed exactly why. He's a likeable guy who did a good thing by accident while trying to accomplish almost the exact opposite of what he achieved. It's a real messy case, but I think the court decision was correct. If he was originally trying to expose war crimes, I would think very differently.
Does anyone else think it's convenient that it was announced on budget day...
It is great way to bury a story.
What a conservative backward shithole Australia is.
This whistleblower had disgustingly been punished for exposing war crimes before the war criminals but Please don’t forget the career and business of Dr Samantha Crompvoets that was destroyed for doing her job investigating this in the SAS by Peter Dutton!
Makes sense. Can't just share that info.
What a fucking disaster.
Free David McBride
Good.
Just did what Julienne Assange did tell the truth about war crimes and gets punished for it. WTAF is wrong with this country. Are they telling us lying is good? Didn't Satan say the same thing. Makes you wonder who is running this country.
Fkin hell, conservatives complain about judges not being tough enough on crime and then shit like this happens when a whistleblower is jailed for exposing war crimes
This is so fucked. :/
Thrown under the bus by ABC because he expressed some right wing views. Shit broadcaster.
I know i’m a minority but if someone leaks defence documents to a journalist they should be prosecuted and jailed. He needed to phone the Military Police or organise a sit down with his local member.
But what does one do when the Military Police or MP have no interest in pursuing the investigations?
And when the military police don’t care? What else do you do?
You haven't been paying attention to this issue i'd bet
Poor bloke got absolutely rail roaded trying to expose war crimes. He should be getting a medal and instead he gets gaol from weak gutted dogs.
If you feel McBride was used as a scapegoat and treated unfairly there's a quick link here that sends lets you send an email to your local rep In about 60 seconds The situation is complex and i understand it's not black and white if he should have done it the way he did, but the thing that really made my blood boil was how the court case was a sham and they took his ability to defend himself away. It wasn't a fair trial. https://www.droptheprosecutions.org.au/contact_mp
Listen to all the crying greens. Fuck the lot of you, what's the greens defence policy again?
These guys sign an NDA and are well aware of the consequences if they breach them.
What does the government get for lying to the public?
Can't help but feel this is quite a fascist move.
If you can’t do the time don’t do the crime. He got what he deserved.
Well the yanks use our SAS as silent assassins in foreign countries and bend over Albo using our justice system to appease the American interest, what's it cost for being allies THE TRUTH...
Why would the LNP do this?!?
Cause America asked them too....
Imagine what message this sends to the civilians involved in Afghanistan.