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Australian whistleblower who exposed war crimes sentenced to over 5 years jail

SuperBanana

SuperBanana

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,782
www.abc.net.au

Former military lawyer David McBride jailed for sharing classified information with journalists

Former military lawyer David McBride is jailed for unlawfully leaking classified documents to journalists after last year pleading guilty to stealing and sharing secret military information.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Seriously disgusting that it came to this. So far, none of the soldiers have been jailed or even gone to court. Only the whistleblower. The judge stated "It's important to deter others from such conduct. They must know that breaching their legal obligations … will be met by significant punishment."

If you're wondering what he exposed it was called "The Afghan Files" and the allegations were regarding the Australian special forces include at least 10 accounts of possibly unlawful killings of unarmed men and children and collecting severed hands from dead combatants.
 
mccauslander

mccauslander

Member
Jun 2, 2019
321
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
God I love my country /s

Seriously, the political class in this backwater "country" is corrupt to the core. Just see how Labor is prioritising a surplus over actual cost of living relief, or how they're approving more gas projects and ditching environmental legislation reforms. And the Libs are worse.

It's so demoralising.
 
Zeus

Zeus

Corrupted by Vengeance and Powered by Friendship™
Member
Oct 27, 2017
241
mccauslander said:
God I love my country /s

Seriously, the political class in this backwater "country" is corrupt to the core. Just see how Labor is prioritising a surplus over actual cost of living relief, or how they're approving more gas projects and ditching environmental legislation reforms. And the Libs are worse.

It's so demoralising.
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And it won't ever change as long as monopolies/the media go completely unregulated.

People think Fox News is bad in the US. Now imagine you live in a country where EVERY media company is rightwing and most are straight up Murdoch mouthpieces. People they don't like get ghosted and any and all negative news to the right gets downplayed or outright unreported by major news outlets. Welcome to Australia!

Nateo said:
Its been a shithole since Liberals got into power. We never recovered.
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Labor is also terrible. I'm not going to fall into that nonsense "They're just as bad as each other" trap but pretending Labor isn't also contributing to the country being so backwards by never changing anything that upsets the corporate cartel (Mining, Property, Gambling and Murdoch) is not helping.
 
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Markratos

Markratos

Hermen Hulst's Secret Account
Member
Feb 15, 2020
3,077
Whistleblowers are modern heroes. Hope history is kind to them.
 
danm999

danm999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,351
Sydney
If it weren't for defamation lawsuits backfiring really feels like nobody would ever get in trouble in this country except for whistleblowers
 
Nateo

Nateo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,667
Zeus said:
Labor is also terrible. I'm not going to fall into that nonsense "They're just as bad as each other" trap but pretending Labor isn't also contributing to the country being so backwards by never changing anything that upsets the corporate cartel (Mining, Property, Gambling and Murdoch) is not helping.
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Labor is def worse now, before Gillard, Labor was far far better we as a country would be in a much better place had they not dropped Rudd for Gillard.
 
Psittacus

Psittacus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,989
The worst part about this case is that the judge explicitly said that his duty as a soldier was to follow orders and only to follow orders.
 
danm999

danm999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,351
Sydney
shit rolls downhill I guess

nobody is ever going to get in trouble for getting us into the war

nobody is ever going to get in trouble for keeping us there for 20 years for no reason beyond simply doing whatever America tells us to

nobody is ever going to get in trouble for any of the actual war crimes which McBride exposed

but with McBride stuff like reputational damage done to Australia and deterrence is relevant

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Adventureracing

The Fallen
Nov 7, 2017
8,108
Nateo said:
Labor is def worse now, before Gillard, Labor was far far better we as a country would be in a much better place had they not dropped Rudd for Gillard.
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Gillard got so much done in her government, she wasn't perfect but she cops way too much shit. The subsequent governments that have followed have been absolute dogshit and that's where the blame should lie.

Unfortunately labor in its current form have decided they won't do anything that's slightly perceived as rocking the boat. After losing the election to Morrison they've just thrown the baby out with the bath water and given up on trying to do the right thing in so many areas.
 
DarthMasta

DarthMasta

Member
Feb 17, 2018
4,199
Didn't realize Australia was using "snitches get stiches" as official policy. This and Jordy's story of getting his house firebombed, makes Australia seem a bit less layback than the public image.
 
Nateo

Nateo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,667
Adventureracing said:
Gillard got so much done in her government, she wasn't perfect but she cops way too much shit. The subsequent governments that have followed have been absolute dogshit and that's where the blame should lie.

Unfortunately labor in its current form have decided they won't do anything that's slightly perceived as rocking the boat. After losing the election to Morrison they've just thrown the baby out with the bath water and given up on trying to do the right thing in so many areas.
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She cops shit because she completely fucked the entire country by getting rid of the plan to tax corporations for pillaging our resources. Rudd had a massive approval there was no reason to get rid of him at all. Moving to Gillard fucked everything and they lost the next election Shorten could of saved us but people are massive fucking morons. Albo has been utterly useless.
 
Daphne

Daphne

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,739
This man is a hero and did everything right every step of the way. The entire system failed him every step of the way.
This makes so fucking sick I can barely contain it.
All it would have taken is the Labor minister to exercise power their express power to stop the prosecution. I firmly put the blame for this on Labor.
Fuck this country - we've always been like this over whistleblowers and anyone who challenges crimes in power.

Zeus said:
Labor is also terrible. I'm not going to fall into that nonsense "They're just as bad as each other" trap but pretending Labor isn't also contributing to the country being so backwards by never changing anything that upsets the corporate cartel (Mining, Property, Gambling and Murdoch) is not helping.
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Seriously. The only hope we have is the Greens. So often they are on the right side while the other two parties are in the wrong.
Greens statement of support for David McBride and whistleblowers.
 
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