Alan Jones was a key figure when Australian soldiers were first accused of war crimes in Afghanistan in 2009, and he's part of the reason Australia has not been able to settle the war crimes question since.🧵... In Feb 2009 an Australian element, mostly reservists, were tasked with doing a night raid on an Afghan home just north of Tarin Kot. Finding nothing, they decided to raid an adjacent home while there.

For mine, the most interest part of the Afghanistan report was the section on military ethics, and how failures in ADF ethics training may have contributed to war crimes. 1/10

https://twitter.com/bennpackham/status/1790599840516448412

Reading it I was reminded about this 2007 New Yorker piece about the ongoing US military torture scandal and how it was caused (partially) by Jack Bauer. Yes, that Jack Bauer, from 24.

newyorker.com/magazine/2007/…

A🧵 with some of the major revelations in the Afghanistan Inquiry Oversight Panel. Initially so much of the criticism seems to be directed against the strategic decision makers from about 09 onwards, most significantly then CDF and now GG David Hurley The ‘wavering moral compass and declining psychological health’ was well known within the command but, as BRS said to JTF 633 Commander Maj. Gen. John Cantwell in 2012 the SASR ‘weren’t allowed’ to have mental health problems…

Some of Ben Robert-Smith's more coherent and intelligent supporters are taking about the ROE mess in Afghanistan, and how it may complicate any potential criminal war crimes trials. 🧵 The @MusorianDigger of YouTube/FOI fame posted this (provenance unknown) detailing the two main offensive Rules of Engagement used by ISAF: ROE 429-A and 429-B.

On its surface, the #4corners seemed to be, yet there was an essential dimension of this story that was either ignored or not understood. 1/15

https://twitter.com/markhumphries/status/1772212399439020060

The 2013 ROE amplification, mentioned in the piece as the ‘seven steps required before shooting’ had to be understood. At its face, it’s a document of restraint stopping the SASR from killing the wrong people and this is the way 4 Corners characterised, but…

In the wake of the David McBride verdict, a 🧵 with context around some of the leaked material that made it into the press thanks to @MurdochCadell . First up: Jalbay. These killing were covered in my book Find Fix Finish and by 4Corners. The SASR were hunting a man named Mullah Ismail, who left behind 'VRI' (a mobile phone signature) after attending a funeral. The McBride disclosures included information an investigation in the killings.

Andrew Hastie has a bit of history with Ben Roberts-Smith and while he only did one SOTG tour as an SASR officer, he saw the panoply of issues. 🧵

https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/1668878571048189952

Hastie was in Afghanistan in October 2012 basically on a short familiarisation tour. He'd been in country before as a cavalry officer, but not with the SASR. He was sent out to the village of Syachow on a kill/capture mission with Ben Roberts-Smith.

The Brereton Report alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith was one of at least 25 soldiers who committed murder in Afganistan, with the defo trial revealing more alleged perpetrators. How much responsibility should lie with the command that trained and deployed them? 🧵 There are a thousand ways in which Special Operations Command could bear responsibility, directly and indirectly (see previous threads), but there's one contributing aspect of the murders which I think SOCOMD should be taken to task over.

In the full Ben Roberts-Smith judgment there's one very concerning aspect found in the section relating to the alleged assault on BRS's mistress (named as Person 17): 🧵 On the stand the Person 17 alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith claimed to be able to access her bank accounts, and that he accessed a flight manifest and manipulated her phone remotely, accessing the messaging app Telegram.

It seems the most contested award that BRS was conferred was the Commendation of Distinguished Service, given to him on Australia Day 2013. This is an award usually reserved for officers but it wag given to BRS a corporal for 'leadership and command'🧵 The citation says BRS 'took responsibility for mentoring and developing both his own patrol and the personnel of the wider (Task Group)… His efforts ensured the effective transfer of his professional knowledge and experience to a new generation of special forces soldiers.’

The BRS judgement directly and indirectly calls into question some of the circumstances around the awarding of the VC and the VC character vetting process. The judge found that BRS murdered and ordered murder in front of a number of soldiers in 2010. Also the prosthetic leg of one of the murdered men hung in a prominent place in the Aus base for two years before the VC action. Something the vetting process could have picked up?

Some commentators in the wake of the BRS judgement have said he should keep his awards and medals as the case doesn't relate to those engagements. The full judgement proves that isn't exactly true. First the Medal of Gallantry: BRS was awarded was the Medal of Gallantry after a 2006 engagement atop Koran Ghar mountain. BRS and his patrol had been sent up to the peak to set up a clandestine observation post and there, according to a SITREP offered as evidence...

Reading the full BRS judgement and the Justice has accepted that a number of of other Australian soldiers committed murder, or conspired to commit murder (not to mention many who he said perjured, conspired etc). Those who may be visited by the AFP soon are: Person 5: This was BRS's patrol commander in 2010, having been in the British SF beforehand. Judge found that he had told other soldiers that he was going to 'blood' a rookie soldier before the W108 mission, meaning he was going to order a junior soldier to murder a prisoner.

🧵: Former SOTG Legal Officer @MurdochCadell is in the dock today, charged with unlawful exposure of information relating to current war crime allegations. Let's look at where we're at with alleged Australian war crimes (all quotes from my book FIND FIX FINISH): So far the only Australian soldiers who have been charged with unlawful killing were special forces reservists prosecuting a kill/ capture raid in 2009.