Is David McBride a whistleblower, a criminal or both?
The army lawyer says he leaked secret documents to defend Australian soldiers accused of illegal killings in Afghanistan, not expose them.
The case of David McBride – father, soldier, lawyer and media-declared “whistleblower” – is less clear than it looks.
On Friday, as a few dozen supporters stood at his back, the former major gave a short speech outside the ACT Supreme Court, where he had just felt compelled to plead guilty to sharing some of the Afghan War’s dirty secrets with the ABC six years ago.
A previous version of this article said no Australian soldier had been charged with war crimes in Afghanistan. This was incorrect. Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz has been charged with murder. David McBride was a major, not a captain, as first written.
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