Thread by @StuartMcCarthy_

The Ben Roberts Smith defamation trial, high level command responsibility and the International Criminal Court - a thread🧵

Following 'national security' vetting by #auspol government officials over the weekend, Justice Besanko's written ruling on the BRS vs Nine defamation… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Command responsibility in war is poorly understood in the community and has received scant if any serious or sustained media attention in Australia.

The law of command responsibility is laid down in Article 28 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute, aka 'Rome Statute… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Commentary on the SOTG Afghanistan war crimes saga has focused largely on the findings of the November 2020 Brereton Report.

defence.gov.au/about/reviews-…

With respect to command responsibility, the Brereton Inquiry erroneously found:

• SOTG troop, squadron and task group… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Soon after the release of the Brereton Report, then Chief of Army Lieutenand General Rick Burr's highly orchestrated interview with Nick McKenzie for @60Minutes on 23 November 2020 epitomises the ridiculous "we didnt know" defence against command responsibility maintained by the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Earlier this year, a PhD paper by military lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz on the applicability of Rome Statute Article 28 under Australian law was published by the University of Adelaide. Komoleitz in fact served as a legal advisor at SOTG in 2009 and 2010. One of the key findings of his… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Now we turn to some of the publicly available evidence supporting command responsibility charges against senior ADF officers at HQ JTF 633 level and higher, focusing on the sequence of events including the Darwan raid in 2012 ...

On 29 August 2012 three Australian soldiers… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The process of authorising and initiating coalition special forces (including Australian SOTG) 'kill or capture' missions in Afghanistan focused largely on what was known as the Joint Prioritised Effects List (JPEL) or target list. Under this process, an authorised senior… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

One of the first (if not the first) SOTG cordon and search operations in the hunt for Hekmatullah took place at Sola village near the Uruzgan provincial capital Tarin Kowt on 31 August 2012, two days after the murders at Patrol Base Wahab. Although full details of this raid are… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Within days of this raid, then Afghan President Hamid Karzai complained to the Australian government about the killing of two civilians at Sola, identifying them by name - Haji Raz Mohammad and Abdul Jalil.

The public dispute over this raid was front page news in Australia and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Some of the events at Sola village, including the killings of Haji Raz Mohammad and Abdul Jalil, were reported by @markwillacy for @4corners in 'Killing Field' on 16 March 2020.

abc.net.au/news/2020-03-1…

The story includes allegations from witnesses that Haji Raz Mohammad and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

SOTG cordon and search operations in the hunt for Hekmatullah continued in various locations. The next one to have received significant public scrutiny took place at Darwan village on 11 September 2012, two weeks after the raid at Sola.

Extensive details of this raid are… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

RAAF P-3 Orions were used extensively in the overland ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) role in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East in support of operations like this one since 2006.

According to the Daily Telegraph's Ian McPheran reporting from… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The story by Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters on the Darwan raid published in @theage & @smh on 8 June 2018 alleges that Afghan civilian Ali Jan was detained, kicked off a cliff by BRS, then executed in the creek bed below on the orders of BRS.

smh.com.au/politics/feder…

Justice… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The day after The Age story on the alleged murder of Ali Jan was published, Dan Oakes also reported on the Darwan raid for @abcnews. This story included eye witness accounts from interviews conducted by renowned Afghan journalist @bsarwary. Witnesses described the alleged murder… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The ABC was subsequently raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in June 2019, under a warrant naming Dan Oakes, fellow reporter Sam Clark and military whistleblower David McBride.

 abc.net.au/news/2019-06-0…

(16/18)

An intriguing aspect of this story is why the ABC was raided by the AFP but The Age was not, given both media outlets were by that stage in posession of classified Defence documents relating to SOTG operations in Afghanistan, including the raid at Darwan and alleged murders.

One… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Should Australian higher commanders have known that their forces were committing or about to commit war crimes? Absolutely, unequivocally, yes.

Did those commanders fail to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or repress their commission? Absolutely,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…