Yesterday, the 19th of November 2020, the final report examining the conduct of Australian Special Forces during the war in Afghanistan was released by the Defence Chief General Angus Campbell. In the report, it discloses "credible information" relating to allegations made about 39 unlawful killings and two allegations of cruelty involving 25 current of former Defence Force personnel in 23 separate incidents.
Defence Chief General Angus Campbell has unsurprisingly unreservedly apologised to Afghanistan for unlawful killings by Australia’s special forces.
Very obviously, if you give men guns and power, then they will want to use them and the fact that this has happened is unsurprising but nevertheless still both a deep tragedy for the families of the deceased as well as a complete moral failure by the Defence Force. Saying sorry doesn't bring people back to life and apologising from the other side of the world, is weasely.
However, quite apart from the incident itself is the lengths to which there has been a mass cover-up and the equally morally hazardous use of power at home.
There are several things to note about this:
Australian Federal Police officers have left the ABC's Sydney headquarters more than eight hours after a raid began over a series of 2017 stories known as the Afghan Files.
ABC managing director David Anderson said the broadcaster "stands by its journalists" and "will protect its sources". An AFP statement said the warrant was not linked to an AFP raid on a Canberra News Corp journalist's home on Tuesday. The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and were based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to the ABC.
- 5th Jun 2019, ABC News
Firstly it means to say that the ABC, that is Australia's national broadcaster, dared to tell the truth and still got raided by the AFP.
Secondly and I find this bordering on criminal, there is reason to suggest that the phone call which tipped of the AFP came from an (02) 9288-XXXX exchange number. I know for a fact that there were news reporters from other media outlets who were informed about this before it happened and given that a raid by the AFP on the national broadcaster makes for excellent television ratings, that means that those rival media outlets have profited as a result of this. The beauty of this for them is that because advertising contracts aren't directly connected with the passing on of what should be classified information, then the Proceeds Of Crime Acts do directly apply.
Why the AFP were alerted by an (02) 9288-XXXX exchange number will probably never ever be investigated but using the instrument of the police to prosecute truth telling, ought to send chills through the people of Australia.
Thirdly, the former ADF officer David McBride who had the bravery to speak up against what is almost certainly a war crime, is still facing prosection for having done so. If telling the truth is going to send you to prison and using the power of the AFP is the weapon deployed by the relevant Minister, then you can expect that even more morally hazardous actions resulting in death, will absolutely occur in future.
The worrying thing about this is that although there will be investigations into the alleged unlawful killings (notice the difference between 'unlawful killing' and 'murder') because the justice process quite rightly needs to determine matters of fact before considering what is appropriate, the actions of the Minister, the Australian Federal Police, whoever made the phone call, and the media outlets involved, will not be investigated. Questions to do with how those various parties both received information and how they passed it on, generally aren't either criminal or civil torts. Someone acting with serious information and passing it on to someone relevant are the actions of a standard reasonable person; it's just that what's legally reasonable, what's authorised, what's morally hazardous, and what is corrupt, are often way to expensive to bother to prosecute.
No comments:
Post a Comment