The Australian government has stepped up its attempt to cover-up alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers and in the last week dropped potential charges in 2 matters.
The government’s cover-up attempt was almost certainly designed to avoid the International Criminal Court (ICC) from investigating and prosecuting the cases.
Because if the ICC did investigate and prosecute the alleged war crimes it would have meant the Australian government had no control and senior defence force officers might have also faced charges.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the same court that recently investigated and issued arrest warrants as reported by the ABC on the 23/11/24:
“The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and one of the last remaining Hamas leaders, Mohammed Deif, who might already be dead.”
The warrants for the Israeli leaders were issued for crimes against humanity and war crimes that the court found reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for. (Click here to read more)
The SMH published an article (30/11/24) titled “Absolutely gutted’: Cases dropped against soldiers over notorious war crimes allegations” which starts off:
The ex-soldier suspected of committing one of the most notorious alleged war crimes involving Australian special forces in Afghanistan will never face justice after an elite investigative agency concluded its case was too weak to put before a jury.
The Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) has told witnesses it will not charge the former Special Air Service Regiment sergeant suspected of brutally murdering an injured and unarmed Afghan farmer.
It is a decision that has shattered the Australian army medic who exposed the alleged crime and agreed to testify against the accused man.
It also highlights the failure of the OSI to achieve results almost four years after it was created by the Morrison government to investigate the Brereton inquiry’s findings that at least 39 Afghans may have been executed by about two dozen special forces soldiers.
Since its formation in early 2021, the OSI has charged only one ex-SAS soldier.
In November, the OSI advised witnesses assisting it in two separate major war crimes investigations that neither would proceed to prosecution based on internal legal advice. Witnesses had agreed to participate in the process often at great personal and professional cost. (Click here to read more)
The start of the cover-up
I published an article in April 2021 titled “Mark Weinberg QC the corrupt former judge appointed by Scott Morrison to cover up Australia’s alleged war crimes” which starts off:
Mark Weinberg QC believes some people such as judges are above the law and accountability, and I know this for a fact because he was filmed on video in 2017 in court saying as much as per below. He is also the person appointed by the Scott Morrison government to cover up the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan committed by Australian troops.
I published an article in June 2017 about Mark Weinberg titled “Australian judges attack political free speech and try to cover-up judicial corruption” and wrote:
“The Supreme Court reserved its decision on whether or not to proceed with contempt of court charges against federal MP’s Health Minister Greg Hunt, Human Services Minister Alan Tudge and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar.”
“Judicial bribery was also raised in court on Friday and implied it should not be reported in the media which is amazingly brazen in an attempt to cover up judicial corruption.”
A journalist and The Australian newspaper are also potentially facing contempt charges and they were represented in court by a barrister named Mr Houghton on Friday for the contempt of court committal hearing. Justice Weinberg asked him a question as per below:
Justice Weinberg asked Mr Houghton whether The Australian would have published a story where judges were alleged to have been bribed and were corrupt.
“It would depend on the context,” he answered.
“Is that a serious answer?” the judge responded. (Click here to read more)
Why would a judge ask a question about the media reporting judicial bribery and then say, “Is that a serious answer?” when he got a response he didn’t like?
Of course the media should report judicial bribery.
Fairfax Media and the ABC’s Four Corners reported in 2015 that the Australian Mafia bribed NSW judges $2.2 million. (Click here to read more) Was Justice Weinberg suggesting judicial bribery like that shouldn’t be reported? From what he said it seems so. (Click here to read more)
Below is the video of Justice Mark Weinberg trying to intimidate the News Corp barrister about reporting judicial corruption.
Mark Weinberg is also the former Victorian Appeal Court judge who found George Pell not guilty which some might say was supported by the High Court judgment. But the High Court did not support Mark Weinberg’s reasoning and came up with their own arrogant and ignorant reasoning in that they in effect found juries are a waste of time and can’t be relied on.
Whatever the case, if you wanted to get to the truth in the alleged war crimes, Mark Weinberg is the last person you would want as the newly appointed “special investigator” to examine the findings of the Brereton inquiry into the alleged Afghanistan war crimes. (Click here to read more)
The cover-up to protect people at the top
Australia’s Brereton Report tried to blatantly cover-up war crimes charges against senior ADF soldiers until it was exposed by another government report.
I published an article in May 2024 titled “Corrupt NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton exposed protecting his mates in the ADF, including Governor-General David Hurley, from war crimes” which starts off:
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) Commissioner Paul Brereton headed up the “Brereton Inquiry” into war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan with Brereton finding “that some responsibility for the “murder” of 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians could not fall on the most senior officers”.
and:
A report by the Afghanistan Inquiry Implementation Oversight Panel was only released on Thursday (16/5/24) and the ABC reported:
Afghanistan panel suggests military top brass be held ‘accountable’ for command failures over alleged war crimes
Serving and former defence chiefs, including Governor General David Hurley, are facing fresh calls to take responsibility for command failures which may have led to alleged war crimes in Afghanistan under their watch.
A report from an independent panel appointed to oversee the landmark Brereton inquiry has finally been released, warning that a lack of accountability from Australia’s military top brass has generated “anger and bitter resentment” among troops and veterans. (Click here to read more)
Trying to protect people at the top was the first step now the government is trying to protect the people at the bottom.
If any of them go down potentially they all go down.
I can’t comment much on the 2 cases dropped in the last week, as reported by the SMH above, but we have all seen a lot of the evidence of war crimes and the fact that after 4 years only one person has been charged is powerful support for a cover-up allegation.
This will be a growing story next year as they likely drop more charges so I will keep following up.
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Categories: Australian Defence Force
I have also published a video of the above article on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/FRQP_s0OcIs
Excellent reporting again from KCA, from these readings it is hard not to recognise the connection between Canberra and Washington as to who rules Australia, we just have to accept that parts of our judiciary are either totally incompetent or totally corrupt or worse still, same as US Supreme Court, or a combination of both, while back KCA report on Weinberg and his single dissenting decision on Pell with Weinberg receiving some phoney worthless awards from the Catholic Church, the same church that has fame for protecting pedo priests and denying all the compelling evidence against the scores of offending priests.
USA doesn’t prosecute their military involved in war crimes and Australia follows on with same cover ups of alleged criminals within ADF. The likes of Albonese and Dutton wonder why today’s youth have no respect for authority.
Years ago, the medical profession and the clergy avoided scrutiny because they were considered to be “above the law”.
Both were brought down to earth over a period of decades.
It is now the turn of the legal profession and the judiciary to be brought down to earth.
Disciplinary bodies in these professions act as a mutual protection racket.
Solicitors accused of misconduct are afforded protection by the requirement of an almost criminal standard of proof instead of a civil standard (the Briginshaw principle).
The Bar Association discontinues investigation of misconduct by barristers if the barrister is elevated to the bench. This elevation enables misconduct by barristers to go unpunished.
When your colleague from the bar has amassed too many complaints against them, the bar association delays the investigation until they can convince the attorney-general to elevate their mate to the bench.
Judges in the federal courts are unpunishable except by the parliament but the parliament avoids having to review judicial misconduct and incompetence by citing the separation of powers.
This Catch 22 serves as a cover up of misconduct, incompetence and corruption.
Mark Dreyfus has the power as attorney-general to recommend to the parliament that a meeting of both houses impeach a wayward judge but he is too frightened to exercise this power because the corrupt system of government might bully or blackmail him instead.
The people of Australia are ruled by a corrupt government which includes a corrupt senior branch of the public service, corrupt police forces and a corrupt judiciary.
A lazy parliament does nothing to try to stem this corruption.
There was one recent exception this year of a Brisbane based federal court judge was placed under supervision for his failings by a more senior federal judge, same first mentioned federal judge was later personally sued for false imprisonment of a claimant. Any other occupation with a person passing judgement on an other with this history would be terminated and never allowed to return to their occupation.
Years back a state Supreme Court judge was terminated by Parliament in Queensland, strange both mentioned judges come from the same family.
That was in the family courts: Judge Vasta.
The family courts should have done the same to a subsequent judge in NSW but failed in its responsibilities. They elevated the judge from Division 2 to Division 1 instead.
They have a bad reputation and struggle to fill vacancies so they accept mediocre candidates instead.
How can the Australian government just decide they aren’t going to acknowledge the ICC ? It’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so serious. We all know very clearly International law trumps all laws on this globe.
A barrister QC once told me “All foreign law is repugnant.” International law is foreign Law and as such, trumps nothing in Australia.
In 1975 a major Sydney Law firm who acted in a real estate transaction for me, and who, when I informed the Law Firm that there was a major sewer pipe running from from to back of the middle of the block of land
Rang the personal friend lawyer and informed him of this negligence by his Firm.
The answer; “All care BUT NO RESPONSIBILTY TAKEN. Now I shall sue the owner who sold the land to you”
Firm still in Sydney.
I personally learnt to treat the Law with scepticism from an early age, and take Lawyers with large grains of salt, and have never, ever regretted NOT studying the Law as suggested to me by a well placed Barrister-
Sounds like in Mark Weinberg they’ve found their perfect logical replacement for when they eventually have to sack Paul Brereton from the NACC – who now having been found to have officially meddled in the Robodebt RC inquiry, misleading the public, government and in writing misleading the A-G – should have been given the good grace he does not deserve to ‘resign.’ Yet he has not taken the opportunity to slink off quietly like the rat he is, and clearly has no intention to. So unless more public pressure is heaped on he won’t be fired and it will be as you were.
Well if the fix is on to airbrush this sorry saga from our military history given nothing provable happened how can McBride’s continued incarceration be justified?
Is this the Official Playbook?
Well based on the details in this article, it seems to be the case.
In a move that can only be described as “how to get away with murder,” Australia has perfected the art of burying its war crimes in obscurity with a flashy, nonchalant shrug. The recent decision to drop multiple Afghanistan war crime cases is nothing short of an Olympic gold medal in cowardice.
Why bother with accountability when you can just drop the charges and avoid the pesky eyes of the International Criminal Court?
It’s the perfect scam: protect senior military officers from any consequence, toss a bone to a few lower-ranked scapegoats, and hope the public is too distracted by the next crisis to notice.
The Brereton Inquiry’s findings – 39 dead Afghans and counting – are practically old news now. And as for the investigation itself? Well, it’s almost as if the Australian government has decided that justice is an optional extra, not a requirement. But let’s be real: If those at the top fall, it’s game over for the whole show. So, let’s all just pretend that nothing happened, right? After all, a good cover-up is always better than a good trial.
In essence it would appear, that in a masterclass of political sleaze, Australia has once again proven that when it comes to war crimes, it’s far easier to sweep the bloodstained evidence under the rug than to actually confront the uncomfortable truth.
More great and appreciated work from KCA!