17 Nov 2023
Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride has pleaded guilty today. The people who committed the crimes, and the officers who covered them up, remain without charge or investigation. Rex Patrick reports.
I guess pleading guilty was the right thing for an honest person to do. After you’ve been denied whistleblower protection, after you’ve been told your jury would not be allowed to see all the evidence, after you’ve been told your duty to your country and public interest do not trump obedience with the strict letter of the law, and with the Attorney-General content on letting you face the gallows, what are you left to do?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride has pleaded guilty today.
The people who committed the crimes, and the officers who covered them up, remain without charge or investigation.
David McBride has pleaded guilty to handing over to a journalist classified documents that revealed Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
After you’ve been denied whistleblower protection, after you’ve been told your jury would not be allowed to see all the evidence, after you’ve been told your duty to your country and public interest do not trump obedience with the strict letter of the law, and with the Attorney-General content on letting you face the gallows, what are you left to do?
With no legal protections as a whistleblower, today’s outcome was almost inevitable for David McBride – that’s why for months parliamentarians, former justices, eminent Australians and members of the community have pleaded with the Attorney-General to intervene.
He’s hidden behind a coward’s shield, suggesting wrongly that he could only intervene in exceptional circumstances.
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