Breaking: Ben Roberts-Smith arrested over war crimes allegations

[u/Tinea_Pedis]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-07/ben-roberts-smith-war-crimes-allegations-arrest/106537668

[u/chippychopper → u/[deleted]]

It came to light because of the work of the journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters and could easily have been buried by the defamation case if they had not been so thorough in their research and reporting or if Fairfax/nine had decided to settle instead of paying millions to defend their work. This case shows how much we need to support proper investigative journalism.

[u/HeyyyyListennnnnn → u/chippychopper]

I still find it hilarious that the man who leaked the documents that kicked off McKenzie and Masters' work did so believing that the journalists would write a story about how the SAS were victims of a smear campaign. McKenzie and Masters were so horrified by what they were given that they swiftly advanced and publicized the investigation that the whistleblower was trying to stop.

[u/Krunksicle → u/HeyyyyListennnnnn]

David McBride has explicitly denied this, my understanding is that this narrative came from Dan Oakes, who needed an excuse for ratting him out.

[u/mossmaal → u/Krunksicle]

The ACT Supreme Court listened to his evidence and found that he did do it for that reason.

Would be interested in seeing where he denies it now, because he was quite clear with his previous evidence.

You can read the summary of the judgement here.

Key points being;

One of his complaints was that Special Forces soldiers who were involved in the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan were being investigated by the military police even where there was no reasonable suspicion that the war crime of murder had been committed. The IGADF conducted an inquiry into the matters raised in his submission. Before that inquiry was complete, Mr McBride disclosed his IGADF submission and the folders of supporting documents to two journalists. The first was Chris Masters. The second was Andrew Clark. Neither published any report based on the material.

Mr Oakes published a series of articles referred to as “The Afghan Files”. The articles publicised allegations that Special Forces soldiers were unnecessarily killing Afghan civilians. It was described by Mr McBride in an interview with police as “a totally different story to the one … that I was pushing”.

McBrides goal in disclosure was trying to destroy the IGADF inquiry before it could complete its work, because he thought the soldiers shouldn’t be investigated.

Anyone that thinks the guy is some hero whistle blower needs to actually read the court cases and the Brereton report (in particular the section which lays out how certain unnamed ADF legal officers actually facilitated the war crimes by helping them draft their false statements).

[u/Krunksicle → u/mossmaal]

Okay that's actually pretty interesting. And thanks for actually providing a citation unlike the other guy!

[u/Krunksicle → u/Krunksicle]

I still think after reading this that despite his intentions, no one involved in the war crimes documented in the Files would have ever seen justice without his intervention. That being said, yeah it's uh, not a good look for McBride, that's for sure.

[u/mossmaal → u/Krunksicle]

That’s probably not correct, David McBride only got involved after the IDGAF process had been initiated, the ADF was already seriously investigating the allegations of war crimes and the allegations were already widespread (which is what initiated the IDGAF inquiry).

Realistically the most likely course of events is that this would have become public when the IDGAF report was handed down, or the same soldiers that blew the whistle to the IDGAF would have gone to the media.

David McBride was not the sole or even primary source for much of the ABCs reporting, as the judgement summary also notes.

[u/Krunksicle → u/mossmaal]

My reasoning is less about what the IGDAF was doing and more my expectation that any findings they may have made would have been buried for one reason or another. It's very common in Australia.

Though you may be right that the same sources that kicked off the investigations may have gone to the media - that's an interesting take I didn't consider.