Latest news with #SpecialAirServiceRegiment
Sydney Morning Herald
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Roberts-Smith's rabid band of supporters has an outspoken new member
'That is not the way we fight. We have a long and hard-won reputation as being feared fighters, but fighters who engage according to the Geneva Convention,' d'Hage says. Loading Given many critics' apparent aversion to examining those pages, here is a distillation of key evidence. On April 13, 2009, Ben Roberts-Smith kicked an old man to his knees and instructed a junior soldier, in an exercise of 'blooding', to shoot him in the head. Soon after, he frogmarched a second Afghan man fitted with a prosthetic leg, threw him to the ground, and killed him with a burst of machine gun fire. On October 12, 2012, a third unarmed and detained man was executed by an Afghan partner force member upon Roberts-Smith's instruction. And on November 11, 2012, Ali Jan, a father of three with no established links to the Taliban, was handcuffed and kicked over a small cliff by Roberts-Smith, who then ordered two comrades to drag him to cover, where he was shot dead. At numerous speaking events, Age investigative journalist Nick McKenzie and I have argued the following: It is morally wrong to kill or order the execution of captives. It is strategically wrong because it turns the population further against your mission. All those Australian soldiers bravely patrolling the fields of Uruzgan as a protective force against the Taliban were placed at greater risk. And it is wrong to force an act upon a fellow soldier so destructive of conscience and self-respect. Soldiers who have earned the Special Air Service Regiment's sandy beret are rightly proud. When they returned to civilian life as psychological wrecks because of what they saw and did, as did occur, the damage was obvious. From my own observation, the self-harm to the regiment was the main reason for a brave group of Special Air Service Regiment soldiers to speak up. Nick and I both know they did so with extreme reluctance, all under subpoena, because of a view within the ranks that dobbing in your mate was a worse sin than exposing a war crime. That view was shared by members of the uber wealthy. Billionaire Kerry Stokes has spent millions on Roberts-Smith's case. Multi-millionaire John Singleton funded a full-page newspaper advertisement describing attacks on the war hero as 'disgraceful'. And now Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, is quoted querying why this 'brave and patriotic man' should be 'under such attack'. I can only wonder what is in their minds. Do they believe that in their real world, ruthlessness is a necessity that should be honoured? Last December, my brother Roy and I spoke to a well-heeled audience of Aussie expats in Singapore. We were warned ahead of time that there would be a pro-Roberts-Smith sentiment and opposition expressed to our reporting. Loading The day before, Roy and I had walked the grounds of the Alexandra Hospital. We found a small plaque commemorating the massacre of 250 patients and staff by Japanese forces on February 14, 1942. I spoke the next day of the shock that is still felt about those helpless victims being dragged into the garden and bayonetted to death. And I asked how we could condemn the Japanese while excusing our own. There was no answer.
The Age
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Roberts-Smith's rabid band of supporters has an outspoken new member
'That is not the way we fight. We have a long and hard-won reputation as being feared fighters, but fighters who engage according to the Geneva Convention,' d'Hage says. Loading Given many critics' apparent aversion to examining those pages, here is a distillation of key evidence. On April 13, 2009, Ben Roberts-Smith kicked an old man to his knees and instructed a junior soldier, in an exercise of 'blooding', to shoot him in the head. Soon after, he frogmarched a second Afghan man fitted with a prosthetic leg, threw him to the ground, and killed him with a burst of machine gun fire. On October 12, 2012, a third unarmed and detained man was executed by an Afghan partner force member upon Roberts-Smith's instruction. And on November 11, 2012, Ali Jan, a father of three with no established links to the Taliban, was handcuffed and kicked over a small cliff by Roberts-Smith, who then ordered two comrades to drag him to cover, where he was shot dead. At numerous speaking events, Age investigative journalist Nick McKenzie and I have argued the following: It is morally wrong to kill or order the execution of captives. It is strategically wrong because it turns the population further against your mission. All those Australian soldiers bravely patrolling the fields of Uruzgan as a protective force against the Taliban were placed at greater risk. And it is wrong to force an act upon a fellow soldier so destructive of conscience and self-respect. Soldiers who have earned the Special Air Service Regiment's sandy beret are rightly proud. When they returned to civilian life as psychological wrecks because of what they saw and did, as did occur, the damage was obvious. From my own observation, the self-harm to the regiment was the main reason for a brave group of Special Air Service Regiment soldiers to speak up. Nick and I both know they did so with extreme reluctance, all under subpoena, because of a view within the ranks that dobbing in your mate was a worse sin than exposing a war crime. That view was shared by members of the uber wealthy. Billionaire Kerry Stokes has spent millions on Roberts-Smith's case. Multi-millionaire John Singleton funded a full-page newspaper advertisement describing attacks on the war hero as 'disgraceful'. And now Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, is quoted querying why this 'brave and patriotic man' should be 'under such attack'. I can only wonder what is in their minds. Do they believe that in their real world, ruthlessness is a necessity that should be honoured? Last December, my brother Roy and I spoke to a well-heeled audience of Aussie expats in Singapore. We were warned ahead of time that there would be a pro-Roberts-Smith sentiment and opposition expressed to our reporting. Loading The day before, Roy and I had walked the grounds of the Alexandra Hospital. We found a small plaque commemorating the massacre of 250 patients and staff by Japanese forces on February 14, 1942. I spoke the next day of the shock that is still felt about those helpless victims being dragged into the garden and bayonetted to death. And I asked how we could condemn the Japanese while excusing our own. There was no answer.
The Age
22-05-2025
- The Age
Investigators probe Ben Roberts-Smith over more murders and video drinking from dead man's prosthetic limb
The secretive agency investigating war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith over multiple murders, including cases not canvassed in his marathon defamation trial, has secured the co-operation of new witnesses. Amid the damning fresh evidence is footage of the disgraced ex-soldier swilling beer from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed. Roberts-Smith's comprehensive loss before the full bench of the Federal Court – which affirmed the finding that the Special Air Service Regiment veteran ordered the murder of four Afghans – paves the way for the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) to move to prosecute the former corporal. The OSI is examining suspected murders beyond the four cases that were part of the ex-soldier's failed bid to clear his name. Five sources with knowledge of the OSI's ongoing four-year investigation said its investigators had secured co-operation from key witnesses who had not participated in Roberts-Smith's defamation trial. The OSI is working closely with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as it builds its case against Roberts-Smith, having collected statements from over a dozen SASR soldiers who claim Roberts-Smith arranged or participated in executions, including an incident in which he kicked a bound civilian off a small cliff. The OSI has also uncovered a video of Roberts-Smith drinking from the prosthetic leg of a man he had earlier executed during an Easter Sunday 2009 operation targeting a compound called Whiskey 108. The video was filmed in a makeshift bar called the Fat Lady's Arms at the Australian army base in southern Afghanistan and contradicts Roberts-Smith's evidence during his defamation trial when he told Justice Anthony Besanko he had never drunk from the plastic leg.
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Investigators probe Ben Roberts-Smith over more murders and video drinking from dead man's prosthetic limb
The secretive agency investigating war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith over multiple murders, including cases not canvassed in his marathon defamation trial, has secured the co-operation of new witnesses. Amid the damning fresh evidence is footage of the disgraced ex-soldier swilling beer from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed. Roberts-Smith's comprehensive loss before the full bench of the Federal Court – which affirmed the finding that the Special Air Service Regiment veteran ordered the murder of four Afghans – paves the way for the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) to move to prosecute the former corporal. The OSI is examining suspected murders beyond the four cases that were part of the ex-soldier's failed bid to clear his name. Five sources with knowledge of the OSI's ongoing four-year investigation said its investigators had secured co-operation from key witnesses who had not participated in Roberts-Smith's defamation trial. The OSI is working closely with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as it builds its case against Roberts-Smith, having collected statements from over a dozen SASR soldiers who claim Roberts-Smith arranged or participated in executions, including an incident in which he kicked a bound civilian off a small cliff. The OSI has also uncovered a video of Roberts-Smith drinking from the prosthetic leg of a man he had earlier executed during an Easter Sunday 2009 operation targeting a compound called Whiskey 108. The video was filmed in a makeshift bar called the Fat Lady's Arms at the Australian army base in southern Afghanistan and contradicts Roberts-Smith's evidence during his defamation trial when he told Justice Anthony Besanko he had never drunk from the plastic leg.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Australia's most decorated soldier loses appeal against war crimes defamation ruling
Australia's most decorated living war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith on Friday lost his appeal of a civil court ruling that blamed him for unlawfully killing four Afghans while he served in Afghanistan. A federal court unanimously rejected his appeal of a judge's ruling in 2023 that Mr Roberts-Smith was not defamed by newspaper articles published in 2018 that accused him of a range of war crimes. Justice Anthony Besanko had ruled that the accusations were substantially true to a civil standard and Mr Roberts-Smith was responsible for four of the six unlawful deaths he had been accused of. Mr Roberts-Smith has never faced criminal charges, which must be proven to the higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt. He was not in the Sydney court on Friday to hear the ruling, and his lawyers refused to comment. They have a final option of appealing to the High Court. Mr Roberts-Smith, 46, is a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who was awarded the Victoria Cross and the Medal for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan. Around 39,000 Australian soldiers served in Afghanistan and 41 were killed. His SAS colleagues are among those calling for him to become the first of Australia's Victoria Cross winners to be stripped of the highest award for gallantry in battle. Mr Roberts-Smith has been financially supported by Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes whose media business Seven West Media is a rival of Nine Entertainment that published the articles that Mr Roberts-Smith argued defamed him.
