David McBride, a former Australian military lawyer and whistleblower on alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan spoke to media outside the ACT Courts on August 22. He was there for a preliminary hearing on charges he is facing for theft of commonwealth property, breaching the Defence Act and unauthorised disclosure of information. If convicted, this 55-year-old could spend the rest of his life in jail.
In June this year, the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC's Sydney offices in relation to the "Afghan Files" reports two years ago. McBride admits to being the source of those reports.
McBride accuses his accusers of enabling war crimes and seeking to cover up these crimes:
鈥淭he government should justify why after five to ten years these documents [which McBride admits he leaked] could hold anything the public don鈥檛 deserve to know. I鈥檇 say it is the opposite. They do deserve to know what went on in Afghanistan. There鈥檚 nothing secret about it and we need an open trial but at the moment it is not.鈥
In the same ACT court complex, another whistleblower trial is taking place 鈥 also in secret: that of former Australian secret agent "Witness K鈥 and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. They are being persecuted for blowing the whistle on Australia鈥檚 bugging of Timor-Leste Prime Minister and Cabinet offices during critical negotiations over offshore oil and the maritime boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste.
鈥淭he former secretary of defence has come out and said that we need to protect our secrets or the Americans won鈥檛 give us secrets. But that is a smokescreen. There are no secrets but there is shame,鈥 McBride said.
鈥淚f we kill our own soldiers, if we experiment on them illegally, bug offices of other countries for oil companies, that鈥檚 not a secret, that鈥檚 a crime.鈥