Guilty of Truth: Whistleblower McBride Sentenced for Years
David McBride exposed more than war crimes.
Published: 2024-05-17
Punishing Whistleblowers to Silence Truth
The story of whistleblower David McBride is dreadfully familiar.
He observed illegality and obtained evidence for it. He went "up the chain of command" to report it. Receiving no effective response, he went to the media. He was then prosecuted for and found guilty of revealing state secrets. Nobody who committed the crimes which were revealed by the evidence he provided has even been charged.
The story dovetails horrifically with that of John Kiriakou, the US whistleblower of the CIA torture program (extending that of Craig Murray, former UK diplomat, who was the international whistleblower of the same evil). Kiriakou has my deepest respect. I recommend his article on McBride's heroism.
There is one aspect of McBride's story which is rather under-reported. It involves the motivation of whistleblowers and the morality of journalists and is somewhat nuanced.
The Law as a Political Tool
This newsletter has been publishing on the McBride story for over 18 months. Two articles and a podcast are available, all with source citations, to learn more of McBride's protest and the political and legal case against him.
From a legal perspective, Justice Mossop summed the entire case up in his sentencing. The government will not brook people leaking its internal secrets, irrespective of legislation (though poor) to protect government whistleblowers. The government even denied witnesses (early in the proceedings) and impounded its "property" (documents) which would have enabled a defence for McBride. At its heart, the McBride case is legal, though in a manner not widely understood.
David McBride trained for the British Special Air Services at Sandhurst. He became a lawyer for the Australian equivalent. Whilst in Afghanistan advising the SAS of their rules of engagement to ensure the legality of their operations he observed selective, which is to say, politically motivated, prosecution of SAS members. This action, of selectively using the law for political purposes is deeply offensive to a principled lawyer.
Political Persecution
McBride was aware of various egregious violations of the rules of engagement which occurred during his two tours with the Australian SAS to Afghanistan. War is horrific and to some degree he could understand some of this behaviour. That which disgusted him was that some SAS soldiers were being investigated for far less egregious violations of the rules of engagement than others. This was being done to protect politicians, to hang some members of the SAS out to dry, and in so doing to ensure that the more egregious behaviour was not revealed. The Australian Defence Force's investigations were complicit in this political persecution of soldiers who were risking their lives carrying out of the orders of their commanders. This seems to have been McBride's outrage. His initial outrage was at the leadership of the Australian Defense Forces and the Australian political leadership above them for this duplicity and betrayal of SAS soldiers.
As mentioned, after having received no satisfaction from reporting to the Australian Defense Forces he provided internal documents to the media. They in turn, when examining the documentation, identified the war crimes. This would garner far more traction with an audience than selective prosecution, and so this is the story which was revealed. In a sense, the journalists betrayed McBride.
Is there anything wrong with this? What is the task of a journalist? Should they have been limited in scope by the wishes of the whistleblower (if indeed McBride conveyed this wish to them)? In a practical sense, using the war crimes provided the greatest attention and from that attention, awareness of the selective prosecutions may also have been achieved.
This subtlety in journalistic intentions or ethics has become largely irrelevant in McBride's case, for at its heart is government secrecy and the abuse of power to preserve it. There is very good reason for this.
It was not just the Australia SAS who were committing war crimes in Afghanistan. There was a culture of dehumanization and abuse. There are credible allegations against Canadian Special Operations Forces. The same is true of their British SAS counterparts and US special services units. This, in the opinion of this author, is the root of the national and international political requirement to punish the whistleblower.
Secrecy
Justice Mossop stated that McBride's lack of contrition was part of Mossop's motivation for the length of sentence he applied.
A “lack of contrition [all] give rise to the need to give general deterrence – to prevent any further disclosures of this kind.”
Further investigations into the dehumanizing culture (and consequent war crimes) within Western special military service units could have lead to extremely dangerous political outcomes in many Western capitals. The political leadership behind the pressure on Australia to stamp this out could not care about what moral justifications Justice Mossop gave. They care only about limiting damage to themselves.
Therein lie the instructions for those who wish to attempt to address the scourge of war, and the evil which lies within it. To direct this mirror at all political leadership which enables war. The McBride case is yet another to support the reasoning behind the Nuremberg principle that aggressive war is the supreme crime for within it are contained all of the other crimes.
Lest we forget.
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Sources
Whistleblower McBride Sentenced to 5 Yrs., 8 Mos., Joe Lauria and Cathy Vogan, Consortium News, 2024-05-13
The Heroism of David McBride, John Kiriakou, Consortium News, 2024-05-16
JTF2 command 'encouraged' war crimes, soldier alleges, CBC News, 2011-01-18
SAS unit repeatedly killed Afghan detainees, BBC finds, Hannah O'Grady and Joel Gunter, BBC, 2022-07-12
“They’ve Shot Many Like This”, Human Rights Watch, 2019-10-31
🎧 Another Australian Whistleblower: The David McBride Story, YesXorNo, 2023-11-30
McBride: An Offer You Can't Refuse, YesXorNo, 2023-11-21
The Intolerable Persecution of David McBride: Moral Courage Shines Again, YesXorNo, 2022-11-05
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A lack of contrition..for having reported war crimes and politicized prosecution of war crimes. Sounds like McBride’s moral compass is still intact. No wonder the AUKUS powers consider him such a threat.