Army officer facing sack over debauched party in Afghan bar

A high-ranking officer implicated in the debaucherous special forces antics has been stood down.

A high-ranking officer implicated in the debaucherous special forces antics at an on-base Afghanistan bar has been stood down.

A high-ranking officer implicated in the debaucherous special forces antics at an on-base Afghanistan bar has been stood down and asked to “show cause” as to why he shouldn’t be sacked.

The officer, who was responsible for overseeing ethical standards for much of the army, was this week issued with a termination notice after photographs emerged of him partying with junior soldiers at the unauthorised Fat Lady’s Arms pub set up by Australian troops at their Tarin Kowt headquarters.

Now a colonel based in Sydney, he is the most senior figure to face repercussions over the cultural rot in the special forces since they were linked to dozens of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. The career soldier, whom The Australian has chosen not to name, was a major with the Special Air Services Regiment and commander of its disgraced 2 Squadron when the picture was taken at the bar during the special forces’ ninth rotation in Afghanistan in 2009.

In the photograph, he can be seen cheering on a non-­commissioned officer kneeling beside him and pretending to engage in a sex act with a piece of plastic protruding through his military fatigues.

The colonel was serving as the G1 of Forces Command — a senior human resources role with vast powers for enforcing cultural and ethical standards — when the photograph was revealed among a cache of images made public on Sunday night.

Some of the pictures were taken during a raucous fancy dress birthday bash for a senior non-­commissioned officer at the Fat Lady’s Arms and show one ­soldier in a Ku Klux Klan uniform and burning a cross while others featured off-duty troops simulating lewd sex acts on a separate night out at the bar.

The colonel had been poised to take on a highly influential, new position as the director of the Defence Special Operations Training Education Centre.

The high-profile role would have seen him given overarching responsibility for leading cultural reform across the army’s elite regiments as well as managing the selection process for ­aspiring special forces members.

It is understood he is considering his options.

The disciplinary action comes after Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell last month told a Senate estimates hearing he had been unaware of the existence of the Fat Lady’s Arms at the coalition base in Afghanistan’s ­Oruzgan province and any soldier found to have drunk there should face the sack.

The Australian has been made aware of the identity of several ­officers who allegedly frequented the makeshift pub while on deployment in Afghanistan and who have gone on to hold high-level positions within the army.

Defence confirmed it was investigating the lewd exploits carried out by special forces troops at the Fat Lady’s Arms but would not detail how many members it had identified as having visited the bar nor what action had been taken against them.

“Defence acknowledges behavioural issues centering on the Fat Lady’s Arms in Afghanistan. The Australian Army is inquiring into these issues,” a spokeswoman said.

It comes just months after Justice Paul Brereton revealed the findings of his five-year investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops between 2005 and 2016.

The report, released in November, recommended 19 soldiers be investigated by police in connection with alleged murders of 39 prisoners and civilians and alleged cruel treatment of two others. It found “credible information” that 25 serving or former ADF personnel were involved in serious crimes or at least had been ­accessories to them.

It blamed a “warrior culture” within the SASR for creating an environment in which war crimes were allegedly committed and said the existence of the Fat Lady’s Arms demonstrated how the regiment’s ethical leadership had been compromised.

At least 10 Special Air Service Regiment soldiers have since been issued with termination notices, as Defence scrambles to respond to the damning report.

Justice Brereton did not find any credible information that special forces commanders had any knowledge of or were recklessly indifferent to crimes committed and concealed at patrol commander level, but he said senior officers ultimately bore “moral command responsibility and accountability for what happened under their command”.

The photograph of the colonel and revelations that other officers frequented the Fat Lady’s Arms have been seized on by furious SASR troops who believe they have been unfairly criticised in the Brereton report for the regiment’s “broken” culture.

They said it was proof that senior officers were not only aware of some of the regimental practices condemned in Justice Brereton’s findings but had also participated in them.

The images came to light after allegedly being found on USB drives at the home of decorated war hero, Ben Roberts-Smith, a former patrol commander with the SASR’s 2 Squadron.