The military whistleblower who revealed Australian war crimes committed in Afghanistan has been released from federal prison after a lung cancer diagnosis, reports Joe Lauria.
David McBride speaking to his supporters shortly after his release on Thursday in Canberra. (Cathy Vogan for CN)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
David McBride, the military lawyer who leaked evidence of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan to the media, was released on parole Thursday after being diagnosed with cancer, following more than two years in prison.
McBride was sentenced to six years when he pleaded guilty after the trial judge in November 2023 denied him a public interest defense and allowed government agents into the courtroom to seize reams of McBride’s documentary evidence in the name of protecting “national security.”
McBride was convicted of unlawfully communicating naval, military or air force information other than in the course of his “official duty” as well publishing confidential information outside of his “duty.” He was also convicted of theft of government property.
McBride gave the government documents to journalists at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which revealed covered-up murders of unarmed civilians by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. A four-year government inquiry later found 23 possible war crimes, including the murder of 39 Afghan civilians.
After the broadcast, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters, commandeering computers to seize a number of documents while making changes to others. Prosecutors ultimately declined to pursue charges against the ABC journalist who broadcast the report, deciding to go after McBride instead.
McBride’s defense rested on the court accepting his argument that his oath to the British crown meant that his duty to inform the nation of government wrongdoing transcended his obedience to military orders. His lawyers invoked the Nuremberg principles in which a soldier has a duty to break an oath to report serious crimes.
But his trial judge, Justice David Mossop, rejected that defense. “There is no aspect of duty that allows the accused to act in the public interest contrary to a lawful order,” he told the court as he ordered that agents of the Attorney General’s office could remove classified documents from the defense’s possession, which McBride’s team had intended to present to the jury.
Because of those regressive rulings, McBride accepted his attorneys’ advice that, left with no viable defense, he should plead guilty.
In its report Thursday, the ABC repeated a misconception about the McBride case:
“[His] aim was to expose what he believed was the ‘over-investigation’ of soldiers in Afghanistan. But his decision backfired, with the ABC’s The Afghan Files story instead revealing allegations that Australian Army soldiers were involved in illegal killings.”
In fact, McBride alleged that lower-level Australian soldiers were being over-investigated while their superiors were escaping scrutiny. “I’ve always been about the leadership. I’ve always thought that we have serious problems in the defence force,” he told the ABC. “The war crimes were a symptom of … bad leadership and the people in my sights have always been the generals.”
Davd McBride with his legal team and dog Jake arrive at the Supreme Court for his trial in November 2023, where he would plead guilty on all counts. (Joe Lauria)
McBride was made to pay a severe price for having the courage to the reveal crimes of his government. His trial judge upheld the authoritarianism of a political system that puts obedience to the military and to the state before justice, with the blood of innocent Afghans meaning too little to move the court.
In May of last year his appeal was rejected in a hearing that lasted three minutes.
McBride told Consortium News in Canberra on Thursday he believes he was released because of his lung cancer diagnosis. Australia’ Attorney General Michelle Rowland, who granted McBride parole, initially wrote a 30-page assessment in June giving reasons why he should not be released.
McBride’s cancer was detected about a month ago and he said it would probably be bad optics to keep him imprisoned once his illness was made public. He will be operated on within the next four weeks to have part of his lung removed and will be hospitalized for a week.
In a statement after his release, McBride thanked the prison staff who “treated me with professionalism, respect and humour for my entire time in custody.”
“I’d also like to thank my fellow prisoners at the AMC,” he said. “They too showed me humour, respect and character that I will never forget. Many of them I hope to see again, and help if I can, as they helped me.”
McBride thanked Attorney General Rowland for “sparing us another long fight over the question of parole. After all we both want the same thing, a better Australia for our children, so it seems a waste to be fighting each other, rather than working together.”
A joyous McBride met with his friends and supporters at a Canberra pub on his first day of freedom. Consortium News‘ Cathy Vogan was there and filmed this report:
Cathy Vogan contributed to his article.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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