(Not me) Official video from David McBride’s Official Youtube channel. If you don’t know who he is - I don’t blame you, with how little coverage this story has gotten

  • downpunxx@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    Blow me.

    BBC: "McBride, 60, admits he gave troves of document to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), saying he was concerned about the attitudes of commanders and what he then thought was the “over-investigation” of troops, the court heard.

    But instead the information he provided underpinned a series of reports in 2017 called The Afghan Files, which gave unprecedented insight into the operations of Australia’s elite special forces in Afghanistan, and contained allegations of war crimes."

    • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zoneOPM
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      5 months ago

      No you:

      According to the affidavit, McBride wanted Australians to know that “Afghan civilians were being murdered and Australian military leaders were at the very least turning the other way and at worst tacitly approving this behaviour”.

      He continued: “At the same time, soldiers were being improperly prosecuted as a smokescreen to cover [leadership’s] inaction and failure to hold reprehensible conduct to account.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/27/war-crimes-whistleblower-david-mcbride-reveals-why-he-went-to-the-media

      • downpunxx@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        oh, HE said that once he got into trouble and needed a better defense than “whopps i was completely 100% percent wrong about why i exposed these highly sensitive national security documents, and now i need an excuse to stay out of prison”?

        you don’t say

        "He believed the dossier he compiled would show the ADF’s chain of command was so concerned about the perception of unlawful killings that they were scapegoating soldiers and undermining special forces’ confidence to do their work.

        Instead, ABC journalist Dan Oakes found they contained evidence that Australian forces had committed war crimes and lied to conceal them.

        “The more I looked into it, I couldn’t conceive how anyone would think these guys were being too tightly monitored. It was precisely the opposite,” he recently told the Four Corners programme."

        • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zoneOPM
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          5 months ago

          Riddle me this then: Why would he hand evidence of war crimes being committed to a journalist if HE wanted people to know that soldiers weren’t committing war crimes?

          That Four Corners episode came out fairly recently. Tell me, what motives would Dan Oakes, an investigative journalist with a reputation, have to disparage a whistleblower who is about to be prosecuted? I dunno, maybe he doesn’t want to be the target of prosecution himself and distancing from him is protection?

          Why do you keep referring to the BBC article? It’s quite poorly worded and oversimplified for an international audience. You won’t find many articles about David McBride’s motives from before the case because he was secret then, the ABC gave him up.

          • downpunxx@fedia.io
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            5 months ago

            “Why would he hand evidence of war crimes being committed to a journalist if HE wanted people to know that soldiers weren’t committing war crimes?”

            because he’s a moron

            The reporters weren’t ultimately prosecuted because they did nothing wrong in exposing the war crimes, freedom of the press, the public’s right to know, bad publicity for the prosecution service, take your pick

            OF COURSE THE ABC GAVE HIM UP, he’s a moron, on the moron scale he’s an 11, his mum slapped herself, his teachers quit and are now living lives of public piety and humiliation in Tibet

            • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻@aussie.zoneOPM
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              5 months ago

              So it’s either A:

              • David McBride is an idiot who misinterpreted what was happening as a defence lawyer investigating war crimes
              • War crimes happened
              • Commanders and Politicians aren’t smart enough to cover up war crimes committed by PR exercises like Ben Roberts-Smith by investigating otherwise innocent soldiers

              Or B:

              • David McBride is not an idiot
              • War crimes happened
              • Commanders and Politicians are smart enough to attempt to cover up war crimes committed by the likes of Ben Roberts-Smith (Australia’s most decorated soldier, was used to ‘sell’ the war to Australians).

              I choose B, but hey, you know better because of some random BBC article and an ABC hit piece