Australian News

601 readers

46 users here now

A place to share and discuss news relating to Australia and Australians.

Rules

Follow the aussie.zone rules
Keep discussions civil and respectful
Exclude profanity from post titles
Exclude excessive profanity from comments
Satire is allowed, however post titles must be prefixed with [satire]

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Banner: ABC

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

David McBride: former army lawyer sentenced to five years for stealing and leaking Afghanistan war documents (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Complete bullshit. Regimes that punish whistleblowers harder than war criminals reveal themselves as dreaming of tyranny.

The entire trial was cooked, and I'm furious :(

That non parole period is nuts too, pure revenge. What danger does this man represent? If he's out on the streets some war criminals better watch their backs?

edit: I should add, it's also quite frustrating that at the end of all this top brass has had no light shone on them, which was his initial goal on leaking. He thought the SAS was being investigated overmuch as a distraction from leadership failures. I guess we'll never know. A slap on the wrist for the executioners, no systematic investigation, and an inconvenient man in gaol.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I dunno about other universities, but I'd say the UQ protests actually are focused on something they have more ability to change than McBride's conviction. Boeing has a very cosy relationship with UQ, and their core demand is to end that partnership and stop their own university being complicit in genocide by association.

A UQ student has more ability to change what corporations UQ partners with than they do to change court decisions made in Canberra.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that's fair, I mean I hate Boeing as well because of their dodgy safety record. But getting UQ to dissociate with Boeing is hardly likely to actually achieve anything in the context of war. Weapons companies don't give a shit about morals - otherwise they wouldn't exist. When students protest something it makes the news, and making the news is not something David McBride has been doing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

getting UQ to dissociate with Boeing is hardly likely to actually achieve anything in the context of war

Absolutely fair. But it's the one thing UQ students have the most ability to affect, and if Boeing and other weapons manufacturers lost their associations with every research institution because of similar protests, that would have a much more sizeable impact.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Indeed, even if you don't care about the war, I don't like the idea of foreign companies influencing our taxpayer-funded research