(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
(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
I’d advise that you do some research before making claims like this
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."
No you:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/27/war-crimes-whistleblower-david-mcbride-reveals-why-he-went-to-the-media
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."
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.
“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
So it’s either A:
Or B:
I choose B, but hey, you know better because of some random BBC article and an ABC hit piece
ABC : [which I’m sure is also oversimplified, poorly worded for an international audience]
"He spent months staying back at night gathering secret files from his work computer, compiling an internal complaint about the ADF leadership alleging 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 says.
His complaint was dismissed."
"McBride fled to Spain, leaving his two young daughters with his ex-wife Sarah in Canberra. He also left behind four plastic tubs filled with classified documents in a lounge room cupboard at his apartment.
In his absence, the AFP conducted a search and found the secret files."
Principled Einstein. Obviously.
He couldn’t have taken them to Spain: that wouldn’t be responsible and he’d probably get busted. He could destroy the documents, but he wouldn’t be able to take credit and try to drive up more awareness. Don’t mistake intelligence for stupidity
that wording is misleading at best. 2 things were true
lol, no.
"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."
yours is not what the ABC reporters, who were also under investigation for criminal security breach, and later had their investigation dropped, told the court were his intentions. what you wrote were his after the fact criminal defense strategy that he claimed were at the heart of why he leaked the documents.
the court found they were not, and that he was not entitled to whistleblower protection.
Telling a mod of the community you’re in to “blow me”? Brave move.
I find it amusing how confidently incorrect they are quoting some BBC article (because the BBC would have the best idea as to what is going on in Australia).
ABC : [which I’m sure is also oversimplified, poorly worded for an international audience]
"He spent months staying back at night gathering secret files from his work computer, compiling an internal complaint about the ADF leadership alleging 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 says.
His complaint was dismissed."
"McBride fled to Spain, leaving his two young daughters with his ex-wife Sarah in Canberra. He also left behind four plastic tubs filled with classified documents in a lounge room cupboard at his apartment.
In his absence, the AFP conducted a search and found the secret files."
Principled Einstein. Obviously.
Source.
yes, lol, that was his defense, but the court decided it wasn’t his original intent, which is why they found him guilty, and not protected by whistleblower statute
Same article: