David McBride: Australian army whistleblower jailed for leaking documents (www.bbc.com)

submitted 6 months ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] carl_marks_1312@lemmy.ml 12 points 6 months ago

In communist China they jail anyone that is exposing the state of commiting war crimes

[-] welldraught@lemmy.ml -1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

But he only exposed some specific soldiers right?(not the state) And why should china be the reference?

[-] StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 6 months ago

Carl marks is being sarcastic. A common anti-communist talking point is saying [communist country] is bad because they jail political dissidents when the west is just as willing

[-] Red_sun_in_the_sky@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 months ago

free hong kong free tibet free taiwan. China iran russia zero rights. Western countries are beacon of democracy.

[-] Tangentism@lemmy.ml -5 points 6 months ago

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.

It seems he wasn't whistleblowing to expose the war crimes but because he felt troops were beyond overinvestigated!

That is absolutely fucking hilarious!

[-] StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 6 months ago

He was a defense lawyer for a couple of soldiers tried for war crimes, he did the leak because he was annoyed the grunts were being charged, but their officers who ordered/let the war crimes happen only saw court as a witness for the prosecution

[-] welldraught@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I have also read that his initial motivation was that of some soldiers being unfairly targeted. This however would only be problematic if one equates soldiers with war criminals. Source friendlyjordies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYYIVoCvsM Roughly around 17th minute

australia really is a journalist hellhole. Also may I ask how is this hilarious? It seems to me that you take poor sources and draw brainless conclusions just as intended. But trying to make whistleblowers seem bad is always very interesting