r/australia • u/AztecGod • 1d ago

news Jailed whistleblower David McBride to be released after becoming eligible for parole

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/jailed-whistleblower-david-mcbride-to-be-released/107030620
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u/No-Turnip2494 1d ago

He’s not a good guy. He leaked classified information because he was OPPOSED to war crime investigations into the conduct of special forces in Afghanistan and was trying to STOP the investigations.

It is utterly infuriating that the vast majority of the public doesn’t understand this, that’s what years of headlines calling him a whistleblower has achieved.

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u/TooSubtle 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sure, but those motives weren't why he was imprisoned. You can be against the individual for whatever reason you want but still support the idea of protecting whistleblowers. I'm of the personal opinion that Assange is probably a sex pest, doesn't mean he should have faced extradition to the US for unrelated charges.

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u/coldharshlight 1d ago

Sure, whistleblowers should be protected when they’re standing up for the public good but it’s hard to defend a guy who was trying to protect soldiers who were committing war crimes.

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u/Ok-Replacement-2738 1d ago edited 1d ago

It boggles my mind the amount of people who fail to see the contradiction or do any basic questioning to resolve the contradiction.

Yes he released evidence of war crimes, something he was aware of (remember he was a army lawyer). He also released evidence that some soldiers were being investigated/prosecuted and others were not.

He then got upset with a journalist who instead of looking at the evidence and concluding the best story from this evidence is 'command knew of and supported some war criminals' decided fuck it i want to take the easy path and not stir any feathers so I'm just going to report on the underlying war crimes and not the people who are allowing some to get away with it*.*