this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
183 points (96.9% liked)

Australia

3613 readers
92 users here now

A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.

Before you post:

If you're posting anything related to:

If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News

Rules

This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:

Banner Photo

Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Moderation

Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.

Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
lodion@aussie.zone
Fluid@aussie.zone
bestusername@aussie.zone
eatham@aussie.zone
183
If you're seeing this, I'm in jail. (www.youtube.com)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

(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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] No1@aussie.zone -1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

It's a lot messier than most think.

ABC article

McBride's intention was not to leak to expose war crimes, it was to show how troops were being unnecessarily hounded by legal etc , ie 'over-zealous” investigations of special forces'

The ABC discovered war crimes in the leaks and went down that path.

Now McBride looks like the hero being victimised for exposing the war crimes.

[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 4 points 6 months ago

Your link doesn't appear to be working. Here's an archived version of that article.

[–] BeeDemocracy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The abc is not biased at all in this, no. They're not the ones he leaked to.

You make it sound like he accidentally leaked evidence of war crimes. He leaked evidence of war crimes comitted by generals as well as boots on the ground but somehow the abc's top 'investigative reporters' ie gov't stenographers are still missing that.

[–] surreptitiouswalk@aussie.zone 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Did you ready the article? McBride initially posted on his personal blog, which caught the attention of ABC journalist Dan Oakes. The information was leaked to Oakes and the ABC from there.

My reading of the article was McBride didn't initially think there were war crimes committed but:

ADF leadership alleg(ed) that SAS soldiers were being wrongly accused and illegally investigated for war crimes.

“If there is political bullshit going on against soldiers, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re SAS or not, you need to stand up for it,”

McBride didn't think war crimes had happened which is why he asserts that the soldiers were being wrongly accused and investigated. Oakes disagreed.

Now the question is, why is Oakes making this allegation allegation against McBride if it's not true?

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure he thought war crimes were happening, he just thought they were investigating the wrong soldiers to cover up for higher-ranking and more decorated soldiers like Ben Roberts-Smith to pretend that they cared about war crimes

[–] surreptitiouswalk@aussie.zone 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

soldiers were being wrongly accused and illegally investigated for war crimes.

Is honestly pretty unambiguous wording.

And the other evidence against your claim is, why would McBride had been pissed off by the ABC's reporting of his leaked files? If you were right, the ABC's angle would be completely aligned with McBride's. Why would Oakes allege there was disagreement there?

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 7 points 6 months ago

I think he'd be pissed off at the ABC for missing the point and just covering the war crimes, effectively covering up the arses of those higher up.

soldiers were being wrongly accused and illegally investigated for war crimes.

Could mean exactly what I said as well

investigating the wrong soldiers to cover up

That's what I said. The two statements are not mutually exclusive

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 6 months ago

I'm willing to entertain the idea that he may not have intended to whistleblow in order to reveal war crimes.

But if that's the case, why couldn't the government have relied upon a fair trial to establish his guilt? Even if he is guilty, he is owed due process, and being restricted from presenting necessary evidence is a violation of that due process.