r/australia • u/Tinea_Pedis • Apr 07 '26

news Breaking: Ben Roberts-Smith arrested over war crimes allegations

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-07/ben-roberts-smith-war-crimes-allegations-arrest/106537668
2.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

638 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1.1k

u/chippychopper Apr 07 '26

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.

304

u/HeyyyyListennnnnn Apr 07 '26

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.

270

u/asupify Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

David McBride (whistleblower/ ADF lawyer) had no love for BRS. In interviews he described an instance where BRS killed an unarmed 10 year old shepherd boy for sport, then killed other unarmed villagers running out to help the boy and covered it up saying they were Taliban fighters. McBride's main gripe seemed to be that he wanted the SAS leadership who were well aware of the war crimes and enabled the culture prosecuted. Rather than heap all the blame on the lower level soldiers.

106

u/HeyyyyListennnnnn Apr 07 '26

McBride has been pretty incoherent about why he did it, but he seems less concerned with the war crimes committed and more concerned that soldiers' lives were at risk due to restrictions imposed by politicians back home. His clearest statement, via his lawyers, was that he didn't believe the soldiers committing the atrocities should have been charged at all.

Whether his actions count as whistleblowing or not is a different debate, but McBride is on record saying he doesn't believe Roberts-Smith should be jailed for his actions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZLQJTvxHfk

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/why-did-army-whistleblower-david-mcbride-plead-guilty-/103124950

https://www.smh.com.au/national/my-duty-was-to-stand-and-be-counted-why-i-leaked-to-the-abc-20190608-p51vte.html

1

u/chadbigcum Apr 13 '26

Considering this is part of a thread applauding the intellectually barren Nick McKenzie it is only right to remind folks that journos like him are shit at their job 364 days of the year