8chan/8kun QResearch AUSTRALIA Posts (16)
#19231995 at 2023-07-24 12:24:05 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition
>>19220746
>>19231979
War Memorial 'acknowledges gravity' of Ben Robert-Smith murder finding
STEPHEN RICE - JULY 24, 2023
The Australian War Memorial has quietly added a notice to its displays honouring Ben ?Roberts-Smith "acknowledging the gravity" of the finding in his failed defamation case that he murdered unarmed detainees in Afghanistan.
The AWM has previously stated it would leave displays featuring Mr Roberts-Smith in place, despite calls for the collections to be removed from display or contextualised with information about defamation court findings.
The notices have been installed next to collections featuring the Victoria Cross recipient's uniforms and portrait, bearing a statement from AWM chairman Kim Beazley AC, on behalf of the war memorial's council.
"The memorial assists in remembering, interpreting and understanding Australia's experience of war and its enduring impact. This includes the causes, conduct and consequences of war," the notice reads.
"The memorial acknowledges the gravity of the decision in the Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG defamation case and its broader impact on all involved in the Australian community."
The wording of the notices reflect a statement issued by Mr Beazley soon after judge Anthony Besanko handed down his findings almost two months ago that several allegations of war crimes against Mr Roberts-Smith by newspapers he was suing were substantially true.
Mr Beazley noted "this is the outcome of a civil legal case, and one step in a longer process".
"We are considering carefully the additional content and context to be included in these displays. The memorial acknow?ledges Afghanistan veterans and their families who may be affected at this time."
Greens senator David Shoebridge has called for these items to be removed from display immediately, while former principal AWM historian Peter Stanley has suggested "we might pause before effacing him from our national war museum".
"Removing his portrait and uniform might satisfy a modish desire to obliterate the memory of his actions but by "cancelling" him, we would lose the chance to tell the truth; to explain how the trial's evidence contradicts the heroic story that the memorial, among others, cultivated," Professor Stanley said.
The War Memorial holds Mr Roberts-Smith's VC and other medals. The memorial galleries also display two portraits of him by artist Michael Zavros, one in formal uniform, the other in a combat stance holding a pistol.
Zavros is quoted in AWM collection material stating: "I like the idea that we see him momentarily isolated, at one with himself, potentially in a moment of reflection. Less the brave war hero, rather a man, singled out and celebrated. It is an honour that sits well on him at the same time that it sits heavily."
Former AWM director Brendan Nelson was a notable supporter of Mr Roberts-Smith during the trial, and the case was largely bankrolled by billionaire Kerry Stokes, a former chair of the memorial's council. Both provided character references for the soldier.
Dr Nelson awarded the former soldier greater prominence at the memorial than many other VC recipients, extolling his courage and commitment.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/war-memorial-acknowledges-gravity-of-ben-robertsmith-murder-finding/news-story/3387c4d35922698a3bae460aecbbfbff
#16086498 at 2022-04-16 11:47:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition
>>16053237
Marathon Ben Roberts-Smith trial reaches crucial watershed
Deborah Snow - April 16, 2022
1/3
There have been few civil courtroom contests in Australia to match the sheer scale and drama of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case as it has unfolded over the last three months.
Gripping headlines have sprung from allegations of skulduggery on and off the battlefield, raw emotion has spilt into the courtroom as the one-time war hero's most intimate personal relationships have been pulled apart, there have been guest appearances (on opposing sides) by Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie and former defence minister Dr Brendan Nelson, and rare insights into the minds and methods of SAS elite soldiers.
Add to that the proxy contest between two of the country's largest media conglomerates - Seven West Media, whose chair, Kerry Stokes, is bankrolling Roberts-Smith's lawsuit, and Nine, the owners of this masthead - and the label "marathon" doesn't begin to do the saga justice.
The trial began in the middle of last year after two-and-a-half years of preliminary procedural skirmishing. But it was forced into temporary suspension as the pandemic raged. When hearings resumed at the start of February this year, there were confident predictions it would all be wrapped up within 10 weeks.
Instead, 11 weeks on, Nine has only just called the last of its witnesses while Roberts-Smith's military allies will not begin testifying until Tuesday.
This week, then, marks an important watershed. Despite the wave of negative headlines for the Victoria Cross recipient (who instigated the action), it's still too early to predict who will emerge the ultimate victor. But many of Nine's witnesses have exceeded the expectations of its legal team.
The company's mastheads, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, are defending their stories on the grounds of truth, meaning there's little room for shades of grey in the competing narratives.
Nine's barrister, Nicholas Owens, SC, acknowledged as much when he advised presiding judge Anthony Besanko at the outset that: "Your honour will be asked to choose between two diametrically opposed stories incapable of being reconciled to one another."
A unique feature of the case is its hybrid nature - what the president of the Australian Bar Association, Matt Collins, QC, calls a war crimes trial "masquerading as a defamation action".
The gravest allegations the media outlets have levelled against Roberts-Smith are the six unlawful killings of prisoners which they say he committed or was complicit in over the course of several missions to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Nine has also alleged that the Victoria Cross recipient brutalised prisoners, bullied two junior soldiers, endeavoured to intimidate several other SAS troopers to get them to change or drop their evidence to the Brereton inquiry (which was conducting its own probe inside government into war crimes allegations) and that he sought to conceal evidence by burying USB sticks with classified photos on them in his backyard and setting fire to his laptop.
He has also been accused of striking his former lover, Person 17, after she fell drunkenly down a set of stairs at a Parliament House dinner. His estranged wife, Emma Roberts, swore he'd threatened her with the loss of their children if she didn't back up his alleged lie that he was separated at the time of the affair.
Roberts-Smith has denied all wrongdoing. He says the stories have ruined his life and reputation. He insists the only people he ever killed in Afghanistan were lawfully slain during combat. His senior barristers, Arthur Moses, SC, and Bruce McClintock, SC, say the media outlets have been drip-fed rumours and gossip by bitter former comrades, jealous because of Roberts-Smith's high profile, his Victoria Cross and other military awards. There has been evidence from some soldiers of "pro" and "anti" Roberts-Smith camps inside the regiment.
(continued)
#15968687 at 2022-03-29 08:23:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #21: MIL-CIV ALLIANCE Edition
Joe Biden acclaims 'essential' ANZUS
BEN PACKHAM - MARCH 29, 2022
Scott Morrison has marked the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Alliance by announcing a cyber and critical technology centre to be established within the nation's peak intelligence ?assessment agency to deploy cutting-edge technologies to protect Australia's security.
The Prime Minister announced the new centre at a dinner to mark the milestone for the alliance - a pact US President Joe Biden declared on Monday was "essential to our shared safety and prosperity".
Mr Biden's "Asia tsar" Kurt Campbell relayed the President's words to guests including leading figures in politics, business and defence at the Parliament House dinner, saying the Australia-US alliance was not only a historical document but essential to strengthening Indo-Pacific security into the ?future.
Mr Morrison said Australia and the US's shared intelligence commitments were a major pillar of the alliance, and with "changing geopolitical realities", Australia was "stepping up to do more".
The new Cyber and Critical Technology Intelligence Centre will be located within the Office of National Intelligence to harness rapidly evolving technology and meet the security challenges that technology presents.
"This multi-agency centre will ensure Australia, working with our allies, can better anticipate and capitalise on emerging technologies," Mr Morrison told guests at the dinner, hosted by the American Australian Association, the United States Studies Centre and the Perth USAsia Centre.
He said the centre would work across the intelligence community and with non-?government R&D partners "to fund, shape and deploy cutting-edge science, research and technology to deliver better capa?bilities into the future".
"Beyond defence and intelligence, today Australia and the US work together on a wide and expanding canvass - cyber ?security, space, supply chain resilience, critical minerals, quantum computing, low emissions technologies and more," Mr Morrison said.
In his message, Mr Biden commended Australia's "strong response" to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and "the strength of your voice in upholding the values that guide us as ?democracies".
"Seventy years ago, our countries came together at the Presidio in San Francisco and established an enduring partnership - as stated in the ANZUS Treaty - to strengthen the fabric of peace in the Indo-Pacific region," the White House Indo-Pacific co-ordinator said, reading the letter from Mr Biden.
"Today, the ANZUS partnership is essential to our shared safety and prosperity."
Mr Morrison said the alliance was one of "trust, commitment and sacrifice" that "continues to be renewed for our times".
"We come to this partnership as equals. We come to this partnership bringing everything we have, and to share it ... standing equal," he said.
Guests at the dinner included Labor leader Anthony Albanese, US charge d'affaires Mike Goldman, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, her Labor counterpart Penny Wong, former prime minister John Howard, former foreign minister Julie Bishop and former US ambassador Joe Hockey.
ONI director-general Andrew Shearer, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess and Australian Secret Intelligence Service director-general Paul Symon were also among the guests, along with ?Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty, Foreign Affairs secretary Kathryn Campbell and Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo.
News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch and chief executive Robert Thomson attended, along with Herald and Weekly Times chair Penny Fow?ler, Pratt Foundation chair ?Heloise Pratt, and Boeing Australia president Brendan Nelson, a former defence minister and Liberal leader.
The Australian's editor-in-chief Christopher Dore said Sir Keith Murdoch, who established the Australian American Association in 1948, saw clearly "the shift in Australia's interests from our sentimental and emotional attachment to Britain to our practical and actual relationship with the US". He said Sir Keith would be "extremely proud" the alliance continued to thrive.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/joe-biden-acclaims-essential-anzus/news-story/22488a6b29466e7ff6d0da6917cb85ae
#15640346 at 2022-02-16 08:58:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #21: MIL-CIV ALLIANCE Edition
>>15631870
>>15640316
Who is Chau Chak Wing? The alleged 'puppeteer' behind foreign interference plot
Anthony Galloway - February 15, 2022
1/2
There are few political donors better connected or more controversial than Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing.
Mr Chau has often made headlines for his generous donations but serious accusations have been made against him a number of times in Federal Parliament, most recently on Monday when Labor senator Kimberley Kitching claimed he was the "puppeteer" behind a foreign interference plot.
He responded on Tuesday, labelling the claim "baseless" and inviting Senator Kitching to repeat her comments outside Parliament.
"I am shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday," he said.
"It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege as a platform to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.
"I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia."
In 2019 Nine, owner of this masthead, was ordered to pay Mr Chau $225,000 in damages after a Federal Court judge found he was defamed in an article on The Sydney Morning Herald's website that went online in October 2015. Last year, Nine and the ABC were ordered to pay Mr Chau $590,000 in damages for a joint investigation with Four Corners that aired in June 2017. The subsequent reimbursement of Mr Chau's legal expenses, plus paying their own expenses to defend the cases, cost the media outlets millions of dollars.
The outlets were found to have erred in suggesting Mr Chau paid "bribes" in the form of political donations and for imputations that he carried out the work of the Chinese Communist Party's secret lobbying arm, the United Front Work Department. The media outlets' defences that their reporting was in the public interest were rejected by the courts.
Since then, barely a word has been written about Mr Chau. Until this week.
Senator Kitching's accusation in a Senate estimates hearing relates to foreign interference whereby the "puppeteer" hired an employee to begin identifying and bankrolling candidates likely to run for Labor in the federal election.
The head of Australia's counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, told the same hearing that ASIO stepped in to foil the plot and that no current Labor candidates were of any concern to his agency. He said it was critical that Australia did not let the fear of foreign interference undermine stakeholder engagement or stoke community division, as that would have the "same corrosive impact on our democracy as foreign interference itself".
Mr Chau has long been a well-connected businessman with ties to both major parties. He has donated more than $4 million to Australia's major political parties since 2004 - although it is believed they have stopped taking money from him. He has also donated more than $45 million to Australian universities, making him one of the biggest donors in Australian history.
Politicians who have previously met Mr Chau include former prime ministers John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, as well as former foreign affairs ministers Julie Bishop and Bob Carr.
But there is a now wide gap between what Australian politicians are prepared to say about Mr Chau within the Federal Parliament and outside its walls.
Speaking at the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum on November 16, 2020, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the institution at the University of Sydney had risen "thanks to the generosity of the man whose name that it bears", as well as three other philanthropists.
"Four great philanthropists. We should not take that for granted - their generosity," Mr Albanese said at the event, which Mr Carr and former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson also attended, but not Mr Chau.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has seen an invitation to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to attend the same event, which was declined by his office.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton appeared to be pointing this out in Parliament on Tuesday, when he said "we don't hang out in a museum with Bob Carr … and other murky figures".
Asked why he attended the event, a spokesperson for Mr Albanese said: "As an alumnus, Mr Albanese regularly attends events at Sydney University."
(continued)
#15640316 at 2022-02-16 08:44:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #21: MIL-CIV ALLIANCE Edition
>>15631870
Anthony Albanese attended Chau Chak Wing event after ASIO warning
Anthony Albanese gave effusive praise for Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing just weeks after ASIO warnings over foreign influence risks.
Samantha Maiden - February 16, 2022
Labor leader Anthony Albanese offered effusive praise for the Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing at a dinner in Sydney in 2020 just weeks after ASIO warnings over foreign influence risks.
Dr Chau, who previously hit the headlines for spending $70 million on James Packer's mega mansion, is the Chinese businessman named in Parliament this week as the "puppet master" ASIO was referring to in a major speech.
The businessman has slammed the claims as "reckless" and "baseless" and ASIO has refused to confirm or deny the allegations made under parliamentary privilege.
Despite previous warnings by ASIO to both the major parties about taking money from two Chinese donors including Dr Chau Chak Wing and the risk of foreign influence operations, Mr Albanese attended an event in his honour in November, 2020.
Government sources, that are trying to elevate the issue of China's influence in the Labor Party ahead of the election, briefed journalists last night that the Prime Minister had declined the invitation on the basis of national security advice.
But Mr Albanese paid tribute to the billionaire's generosity in his speech, offering effusive praise for the businessman who has donated an estimated $40 million to Australian universities.
"The Chau Chak Wing Museum has risen thanks to the generosity of the man whose name that it bears, but also along with the Ian Potter Foundation, the Nelson Meers Foundation and Penelope Seidler AM,'' he said.
"Four great philanthropists. We should not take that for granted for their generosity."
Dr Chau was not in attendance and remained in China as a result of border closures. He does not read or speak English but has been a generous donor to both the major political parties and the universities.
Mr Albanese said Dr Chau's museum was more than just a good news story.
"It is a reminder and a reassurance that beyond coronavirus, a brighter future is within our reach, if we dare to dream it,'' he said.
"It will open minds and it will connect people a bit more powerfully to their place in our human race. It is an honour to be here"
Mr Albanese's speech was delivered just a month after ASIO boss Mike Burgess told Senate estimates in October, 2020 that he would write to all federal MPs warning they were potential targets for foreign spies looking to steal Australia's secrets and gain a foothold in the nation.
"We see evidence of intelligence services deceptively cultivating politicians at all levels of government who will advance the interests of the foreign countries,'' Mr Burgess said.
Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching used parliamentary privilege on Monday night to ask Mike Burgess, the head of Australia's spy agency ASIO, whether the property developer was the mystery man involved in the alleged plot.
Dr Chau has slammed the allegations as baseless.
"I am shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday," he said in a statement.
"It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege as a platform to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.
"I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.
"In 2017, the ABC and Nine journalist Nick McKenzie made a similar allegation in a Four Corners report. The Federal Court subsequently awarded me very substantial damages which I donated to charity."
Dr Chau has previously been awarded $590,000 after a judge found he was defamed by an ABC program that portrayed him as a Communist Party member.
His lawyers argued the program carried six false and defamatory imputations including that he "betrayed" his country through espionage, is a member of China's Communist Party and made enormous donations to influence politicians.
By naming Dr Chau under parliamentary privilege on Monday night, Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching cannot be sued for defamation.
The well-connected Dr Chau has always had powerful friends in high places and over the years has been photographed with former Prime Minister John Howard, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Australian war memorial director Brendan Nelson and former foreign minister Julie Bishop.
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-attended-chau-chak-wing-event-after-asio-warning/news-story/942a450b49a38fe476141c2054c196b3
#14716172 at 2021-10-04 06:40:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition
>>14716165
2/3
Courtroom Showdown
Ben Roberts-Smith's path to the battlefields of Afghanistan was set at an early age.
He was educated at a prestigious private boys' school in Western Australia that has spawned politicians and mining magnates. Following in the footsteps of his father, a retired army major general and state Supreme Court justice, he joined the military at 18.
He went on to become the only current member to receive the military's two top honors. He was awarded the Medal of Gallantry in 2006 and the Victoria Cross in 2011, both for actions in Afghanistan.
In 2013, the year he left the full-time army, he was named Australia's Father of the Year. Two portraits of him are displayed in the nation's war memorial, as is a uniform he wore in Afghanistan, for which the memorial had to make a special mannequin because Mr. Roberts-Smith stands about 6 feet 8 inches tall.
"Wherever he went, wherever it was, he was the subject and object of what I would regard as reverential mobs," Brendan Nelson, a former defense minister who once led the war memorial, said during the defamation trial.
That changed in 2018, after The Age, a Melbourne newspaper, and its sister newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times published a series of articles reporting that a powerful and charismatic senior officer had killed or been involved in the murder of Afghan detainees.
Mr. Roberts-Smith was not named in the articles, but he later asserted that he was clearly identifiable. Soon after their publication, he began defamation proceedings against the newspapers.
The papers, which under Australian law have the onus of proving that what they reported was substantially true, have said in court that Mr. Roberts-Smith was involved in six killings, none of which occurred "in the heat of battle."
But over nearly two weeks of testimony in June, Mr. Roberts-Smith strenuously denied the allegations, saying that five of the deaths occurred during combat and that the sixth never happened.
In a packed Sydney courtroom, he painted a noble image of special forces soldiers. "I did everything that I was supposed to do, and I followed the rules," he said.
His virtuous portrayal sometimes clashed with bizarre and lurid details that emerged during the trial. Mr. Roberts-Smith admitted hiring a private investigator to spy on a girlfriend at an abortion clinic after they had agreed to end her pregnancy. He told the court that soldiers had used the prosthetic leg of an Afghan he had killed - an armed Taliban insurgent in his telling, and a prisoner in the journalists' - as a drinking vessel.
As for the centerpiece allegation - that he kicked an Afghan man off a cliff and witnessed his murder - Mr. Roberts-Smith said, "Frankly, I can't see how they can believe it, because none of it adds up."
Three Afghan witnesses, testifying through an interpreter via video from Kabul, told a very different story. They said that they had known Mr. Jan as a laborer who had no Taliban connections. Two said they had seen a "big soldier" kick him off a cliff and later found Mr. Jan's body with bullet wounds.
Mohammed Hanifa, who said he was Mr. Jan's step-nephew, testified that he had been detained alongside Mr. Jan. Both had their hands tied behind their backs, he said.
"I told Ali Jan, don't laugh or don't smile, because they do not like when you smile or when you laugh," he said.
But then the big soldier came, Mr. Hanifa said, and Mr. Jan smiled. The soldier "kicked him really hard," and Mr. Jan "was rolling down, rolling down until he reached the river. The soldier was looking at him. He was standing and looking at him."
Shortly after the Afghan men testified in late July, the proceedings were delayed until November because of a coronavirus outbreak in Sydney. The trial is expected to run well into next year.
(continued)
#14019856 at 2021-06-30 06:21:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
#16 - Part 10
Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry and Ben Roberts-Smith Defamation Trial - Part 2
>>13907649 Roberts-Smith hired investigator to check woman was having an abortion
>>13915189 Ben Roberts-Smith used pre-paid phones due to phone hacking fears, defamation trial hears
>>13922371 Ben Roberts-Smith tells defamation trial soldiers were allowed to use 'whatever force was necessary'
>>13929610 Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case: Elite soldiers 'covered up' cliff execution, court told
>>13929643 PDF: MP Andrew Hastie set to testify on allegedly 'blooded' rookie soldier in Ben Roberts-Smith case
>>13936569 Video: Media's barrister circles Ben Roberts-Smith, campaign by campaign
>>13949295 Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial resumes after war veteran tests negative for COVID
>>13955973 Ben Roberts-Smith denies murdering Afghan prisoner and watching execution of elderly man, court hears
>>13979274 Ben Roberts-Smith in fiery exchange with Channel 9 lawyer - calling accusations he cheated on bravery medal to cover up killing teenager "disgusting"
>>13979328 Ben-Roberts Smith punched woman in face in Canberra hotel room, court told - 'The whole story is a fabrication,' soldier says
>>13979455 Afghan translators who helped military flown to Australia on protection visas
>>13984690 There are two versions of the facts at Ben Roberts-Smith's defamation trial. Neither is kind to the SAS
>>14003827 Former defence minister Brendan Nelson backs 'revered' Ben Roberts-Smith
>>14003854 Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial headed for adjournment due to COVID lockdown
>>14012226 Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial halted for a month because of Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak
#14003854 at 2021-06-28 09:26:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
>>13848125
Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial headed for adjournment due to COVID lockdown
Jamie McKinnell - 28 June 2021
The defamation trial of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith is "bedevilled by the virus", his barrister says and appears headed towards an unavoidable adjournment.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Canberra Times, along with three journalists, over a series of articles they published in 2018.
But as his legal team closed their case on Monday after three weeks of evidence, the barrister for two of the newspapers, Nicholas Owens SC, told the Federal Court the prospect of their witnesses travelling to Sydney had been complicated by the city's COVID lockdown.
"The problem is, although people could get here, there is a prohibition on them returning home or a very great burden placed on them in relation to their travel home," he said.
Mr Owens said witnesses from WA, Victoria and Queensland would either be barred completely from returning after being in Sydney or endure various forms of hotel or home quarantine.
He accepted it was an "entirely unsatisfactory" position, but one which the court had been "driven to by unforeseen circumstances".
Mr Roberts-Smith's barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, said it was "a terrible quandary" and his client very much wanted the case to continue and conclude.
"This case is bedevilled by the virus I'm afraid," he said.
Mr McClintock said he was not willing to forego the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses in person, making audio-visual link appearances unlikely.
Justice Anthony Besanko has adjourned the trial until Tuesday morning to consider the situation.
Earlier, former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson told the court Mr Roberts-Smith was "the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century".
Dr Nelson, who was the director of the Australian War Memorial from 2012, was today called as a witness by Mr Roberts-Smith's legal team to give evidence about his reputation prior to the articles.
"Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, MG, was the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century since Keith Payne VC of the Vietnam war," he told the Federal Court in Sydney.
"Wherever he went, wherever it was, he was the subject and the object of what I would regard as reverential mobs," he continued.
Mr Roberts-Smith has denied all allegations in the stories, including alleged involvement in unlawful killings in Afghanistan, bullying of Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) colleagues, and domestic violence against his then-lover in a Canberra hotel in 2018.
Dr Nelson said he "immediately" knew the first article was about Mr Roberts-Smith, despite him not being identified by name, due to references like his tattoos and stature.
Dr Nelson explained his concern for Mr Roberts-Smith after noticing changes in him following the publication.
"He'd become despondent, he'd become anxious, introspective, much less willing to engage in public events which he had willingly given of himself to previously, and the invitations to do so had declined," Dr Nelson said.
The proceedings have moved online in the fourth week of the trial due to Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown, with members of the public excluded from the city's Law Courts building.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/ben-roberts-smith-Brendan-Nelson-defamation-trial/100248658
#14003827 at 2021-06-28 09:20:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
>>13848125
Former defence minister Brendan Nelson backs 'revered' Ben Roberts-Smith
Michaela Whitbourn - June 28, 2021
Former federal defence minister Brendan Nelson has described Ben Roberts-Smith as "the most respected, admired and revered" Australian soldier in more than half a century and accused the media outlets at the centre of the war veteran's Federal Court defamation case of trying to tarnish his good reputation.
Giving reputation evidence, Dr Nelson, a former director of the Australian War Memorial, said he had become "very concerned" about Mr Roberts-Smith's mental health in the wake of a series of articles starting in June 2018. The newspapers "seemed to be intent on bringing him down," and the former soldier had become despondent, anxious and introspective, Dr Nelson said in Sydney on Monday.
The former Liberal minister gave evidence on the 15th day of Mr Roberts-Smith's defamation trial against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over articles that he says accuse him of war crimes, and an act of domestic violence against a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair. Mr Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier, denies all wrongdoing. The newspapers are seeking to rely chiefly on a defence of truth, but also say he is not identified in some of the articles.
An at-times emotional Dr Nelson said "I'll try not to get angry about this" as he recounted a media conference in 2018 about an exhibition on First Nations Australians' military service, at which there was "not one single question" on that topic but a string of questions about Mr Roberts-Smith. He was asked if he regretted his support for Mr Roberts-Smith and if the former soldier should have his Victoria Cross removed.
"It has been devastating, the impact on him," Dr Nelson said. He added he was cautioned by a very senior public figure, "not the prime minister", seemingly about his public association with Mr Roberts-Smith.
Dr Nelson said he recognised Mr Roberts-Smith "immediately" in two stories in June 2018 referring to a soldier dubbed "Leonidas". The articles referred to tattoos and a "fearsome warrior", Dr Nelson said, and it was clear to him this was a reference to the two-metre-tall Mr Roberts-Smith, a "tall, imposing, warrior-like figure" who has a number of tattoos.
Prior to the articles, Mr Roberts-Smith was "the most respected, admired and revered Australian soldier in more than half a century, since Keith Payne, VC, of the Vietnam War", he said.
Dr Nelson recalled that "wherever he went … he was the subject and the object of what I would describe as reverential mobs", and he witnessed people at the War Memorial "fall into his arms" describing their experiences.
He said he was "certainly unaware of any such behaviour" when asked about the allegation of domestic violence, which has been vehemently denied by Mr Roberts-Smith.
Dr Parbodh Gogna, formerly chief medical officer and surgeon-general of the Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force in Canberra, said via audiovisual link from the Bahamas that there was a "large cloud" hanging over his friend Mr Roberts-Smith since the articles and he had become withdrawn and apprehensive.
During re-examination by his own barrister on Monday, Mr Roberts-Smith said he "didn't ask for any of my medals nor did I expect any recognition" for doing his job, and it was "disgraceful" of the newspapers to challenge the basis for his Victoria Cross in court.
Mr Roberts-Smith has taken leave during the trial from his position as general manager of media company Seven Queensland. His employer, Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes, is chairman of the Australian War Memorial and is funding the defamation case.
The Federal Court streamed the trial online on Monday after the NSW government imposed a two-week lockdown in Greater Sydney on Saturday following a growing cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to Bondi. The parties and their lawyers remained in court.
Barrister Nicholas Owens, SC, for the media outlets, said the "bottom line … with much regret", was the proceedings would likely need to be halted temporarily within days because most witnesses to be called by the newspapers would be affected by hard border closures or quarantine restrictions in their home states.
"As soon as things are open again, we're ready to go," Mr Owens said
"This case is bedevilled by the virus," Mr Roberts-Smith's barrister, Bruce McClintock, SC, said.
Justice Anthony Besanko will make a decision about the timetabling of the trial on Tuesday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/former-defence-minister-Brendan-Nelson-backs-revered-ben-roberts-smith-20210628-p584v4.html
#13984711 at 2021-06-26 01:10:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
>>13984699
3/3
Former SAS members to give evidence
Nine's lawyers have argued Mr Roberts-Smith's alleged murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners took place in circumstances that had nothing to do with the "heat of battle" or the "fog of war", foreshadowing that 21 current and former SAS members will give evidence against Mr Roberts-Smith.
That includes Australia's Assistant Defence Minister, senator Andrew Hastie, a former SAS captain who last year told the ABC he encountered a toxic "warrior culture" when he was deployed to Afghanistan.
"There were two warrior cultures - there was a bad one, which was built on self-adulation, ego, and the worship of war itself, and there was a better warrior culture, which was about quiet professionalism, service before self and protecting our country," he said.
Giving evidence in support of Mr Roberts-Smith will be around a dozen of his former SAS comrades, and character witnesses including former Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson who in 2018 launched the exhibition From The Shadows, focusing on Australia's special forces.
"We can't apply the prism of our comfortable sanctimony to judgments about what they have to do in the operations we send them to conduct," Dr Nelson told reporters at the time.
But the two sharply contrasting cases presented in the Federal Court have painted a picture of a fighting force unravelling under the pressure of repeated tours inside a war zone where their strategic goals (the defeat of the Taliban) ultimately stood little chance of success.
As the case has been unfolding in the Federal Court in Sydney, news has been emerging from Afghanistan of the Taliban retaking districts in Uruzgan Province where Australian troops were stationed during the conflict.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-26/ben-roberts-smith-defamation-trial-sas/100245286
#13979285 at 2021-06-25 11:37:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
>>13979279
3/4
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers and three journalists for articles published in three newspapers from the second half of 2018.
He says the reports falsely claim he committed six war crime murders in five missions in Afghanistan, that he bullied other soldiers and that he assaulted a women with whom he was having an affair.
Under cross-examination on Wednesday, the war hero was quizzed about intimidating letters Nine newspapers alleges he sent to an SAS soldier with "mafia-style threats".
Nicholas Owens SC, for Nine, told the court Emma Roberts-Smith had lambasted her then-husband following media reports of his allegedly sending the threatening letters.
The court heard Ms Roberts-Smith said to her husband: "What the f*cK are you doing. What is this all about".
Mr Owens then alleged Mr Roberts-Smith admitted he had sent a letter to a soldier, known as Person 18, to which his wife replied, "No more f*cking lies Ben.
"You know they can trace your fingerprints and where this letter was sent."
Mr Roberts-Smith denied sending the threatening letters and refuted Mr Owens' assertion that after the conversation he burnt remaining envelopes "in your firepit at home".
Mr Roberts-Smith did admit burning computer hard drives by pouring petrol on them.
He denied doing so to conceal evidence from the official Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) inquiry into the conduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan.
"If I'm not going to trade in a computer, I'm going to destroy the hard drive," he said.
"I've burned laptops in 2010 and 2012. It's not anything to do with anything."
Around 60 witnesses will testify at the 12-week trial, including 21 SAS soldiers, Emma Roberts-Smith and deputy defence minister and SAS veteran, Andrew Hastie who will give evidence against Mr Roberts-Smith.
Former Australian War Memorial director, Dr Brendan Nelson and 14 SAS soldiers will give evidence in support of him.
Last week, the war hero was questioned about an incident in which it was alleged by Nine newspapers that he had kicked a man known as Ali Jan off a cliff in 2012 and killed him.
It is Nine's allegation, which Mr Roberts-Smith rejects, that he murdered the unarmed villager, after interrogating him, and then colluded with fellow soldiers to cover-up an unlawful killing. Mr Owens claimed the blood stains on the man's arms suggested he had been cuffed, and claimed wounds to his mouth showed physical trauma.
Mr Owens said a strip of skin on the man's wrists showed he had been restrained with flexi-cuffs before being shot.
"He was wearing flexi-cuffs when he was shot wasn't he," Mr Owens asked Mr Roberts-Smith, who replied "no, he was not".
"You interrogated three men you had found for more than an hour, assaulted those men, eventually killed one of those men?" Mr Owens put to Mr Roberts-Smith, who said, "no, absolutely not".
Mr Roberts-Smith told the court the man was killed while hiding in a cornfield and was a "spotter" relaying intelligence to the Taliban about the location of Australian soldiers.
In the trial's first week, Mr Roberts-Smith broke down several times, once while recalling the 2010 Battle of Tizak, for which he awarded the medal for valour, the Victoria Cross.
On the second occasion he broke down, it was recalling discovering that one of the soldiers he had killed in the same battle - of 76 insurgents shot dead during 14 hours of fighting - was a 15-year-old boy.
Asked by Mr McClintock, how he dealt with that fact, Mr Roberts-Smith said "I struggle".
He was also asked about Mr Owens' opening statement in week one in which the lawyer called the ex-soldier "a mass murderer".
Mr Roberts-Smith said he was both sad and "very angry" at accusations of he had executed unarmed Taliban fighters, or men who had been "PUCed", and were persons under control.
"I spent my life fighting for my country. I did everything I possibly could to ensure I did it with honour," he said.
"I listened to that ... and it breaks my heart actually."
(continued)
#13936573 at 2021-06-19 10:49:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition
>>13936569
2/3
Crucial timing differences
On Friday Roberts-Smith shifted uncomfortably in the witness box as he was asked to accept that a crucial time window he'd first estimated as being around 10 minutes long was, in fact, much longer, perhaps up to one and half hours.
He was challenged on why the supposed "spotter" hadn't already been flushed out by troops on each side of the creek bed, who were carrying out detailed searches of the area.
Then came a tussle with Owens over the meaning of the word "cliff". Roberts-Smith agreed there'd been "very steep terrain" near where he'd been operating. But, he told the media's barrister, "a cliff is a cliff and that is not a cliff to me."
After challenging nearly every detail of the incident as described by Roberts-Smith, Owens moved to the crunch: "I want to put it to you that you have invented the story of the [spotter] in the cornfield". "No" Roberts-Smith replied.
A second incident, also central to the media outlets' defence, turns on the death of an insurgent with an artificial leg which occurred during an SAS search of a compound designated Whisky 108 in 2009.
At the time, Roberts-Smith was second in command of a patrol dubbed Gothic 5. Roberts-Smith says he rounded a wall outside the compound in the course of the search operation and encountered the man carrying a weapon, at which point he opened fire and killed him. But the media outlets assert Roberts-Smith machine-gunned the man when he'd already been rendered harmless.
On Friday morning, Roberts-Smith amended one key aspect of the evidence he'd given the previous day on this incident, denying (when challenged by Owens) that he'd spoken to anyone about it overnight. Owens put forcefully to the Victoria-Cross winner that his account of this incident was also concocted - a charge denied by the former soldier.
Owens has been getting Roberts-Smith, step by step, to reconstruct his exact movements through these and four other contested events in a time frame between 2009 and 2012. Maps, diagrams, photos and satellite images have been repeatedly handed to the former soldier, with Owens asking him to mark his position at different stages of each operation.
The meticulous scene-setting will no doubt play a central role when Nine (owner of the Age and the Herald) calls a number of former SAS colleagues of Roberts-Smith's to testify against him down the track.
The witness list shows it will also call his former wife, Emma Roberts, and his former lover, a married woman identified only as Person 17 with whom he had an affair in late 2017 and early 2018.
In another extraordinary development in this already extraordinary case, Andrew Hastie - a former SAS captain who served in Afghanistan and is now the assistant minister for defence - is listed as a "likely" witness for the media outlets while former minister for defence Brendan Nelson will give evidence for Roberts-Smith.
Nelson was one of the first to ring and commiserate with Roberts-Smith when the first articles appeared on a June weekend in mid-2018, the ex-soldier told the court this week.
"He was disgusted with what had been written. And he had identified that it was talking about me."
This was a reference to the fact that the initial articles had not identified Roberts-Smith by name, but through the pseudonym "Leonidas" after a warrior of ancient Sparta. (The ex-soldier has a Spartan helmet tattooed across part of his chest). Roberts-Smith says this and other clues in the text made clear he was the subject of the allegations, and a subsequent article, in August of that year, did identify him by name.
(continued)
#11734641 at 2020-11-22 06:17:39 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #11 - THE SILENT WAR CONTINUES Edition
>>11734632
2/3
The war in Afghanistan was one that many Australians had lost track of. It had dragged on for 15 years after the September 11 attacks first led to a Western coalition invading the battle-weary nation. As the war's progress stagnated, the bravery of individual elite special forces soldiers on capture and kill missions informed the public narrative pushed by defence and successive governments. Much of it was true.
But while Brereton's inquiry would concentrate on the actions of a relatively small number of soldiers who allegedly went rogue - 25 soldiers are allegedly responsible for 39 murders - it would inevitably risk tainting Australia's entire Afghan contribution.
'Enormous challenges'
Justice Brereton has never spoken publicly about his work, but an annual report released by the Office of the Inspector-General in February gave the first glimpse of the judge's methodology. He appointed a small team of trusted military lawyers, led by experienced barrister Matt Vesper. More lawyers and investigators could have expedited the probe, but a larger, less cohesive taskforce would be at risk of skating over key lines of inquiry. Instead, Brereton's small team focused on building personal bonds of trust with SAS and Commando whistleblowers.
In his report released on Thursday, Brereton described "enormous challenges in eliciting truthful disclosures in the closed, closely-bonded, and highly compartmentalised Special Forces community, in which loyalty to one's mates, immediate superiors and the unit are regarded as paramount, in which secrecy is at a premium, and in which those who 'leak' are anathema."
"In such an environment, it is hardly surprising that it has taken time, opportunity, and encouragement for the truth to emerge, and that it has not necessarily done so at the first opportunity or interview, or fully. It is often not the first, or even the second, interview at which the story, either full or in-part, emerges; it takes time for trust to be established, and for the discloser's conscience to prevail over any impediments."
Most of Brereton's witnesses had served in Afghanistan and many were also mentally scarred by their service.
Brereton also appointed an officer dedicated to witness welfare, especially for whistleblowers facing mental health pressures.
One of the few public whistleblowers, SAS medic Dusty Miller, described in August how Brereton not only painstakingly recorded his testimony about the alleged execution of an injured and unarmed Afghan farmer, but later personally called Miller to check on his mental state.
A PR offensive
From the start the Brereton inquiry was clear about its aims. Its focus would not be on "fog of war" or "heat of the moment" incidents. but only egregious and cowardly executions of Afghans prisoners.
No potential evidence was seen as out of reach. Brereton's trip to Afghanistan in 2019, accompanied by federal police detectives, was aimed at corroborating the statements of what the federal police later described in a letter as SAS "eyewitnesses".
While Brereton investigated, he refused dozens of media interview requests. But where Brereton stayed silent, his critics did not. Those sceptical of his exhaustive inquiry approach, or the fact that alleged war crimes were being probed at all, suggested inaccurately that minor "heat of the battle" incidents were under scrutiny.
Meanwhile, reporting in The Age and the Herald was naming one of Australia's best-known Afghanistan veterans, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, as having participated in the execution of prisoners.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott urged Australians not to rush to judge soldiers who were "operating in the heat of combat under the fog of war". Former defence minister Brendan Nelson, a close friend of Roberts-Smith, made similar comments.
Roberts-Smith himself hired a team of lawyers and an expensive public relations firm, run by Sue Cato and employing ex-journalist Ross Coulthart, to counter the serious war crimes allegations he vehemently denies. Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes, a backer of Roberts-Smith who employed him as a senior manager in 2015, funded a defamation action against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, while Roberts-Smith's defamation lawyer, Mark O'Brien, made a formal but false complaint that the Brereton inquiry was biased and leaking information.
(continued)
#11703336 at 2020-11-19 07:40:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #11 - THE SILENT WAR CONTINUES Edition
Kevin Rudd may have to register as 'an agent of foreign influence'
Kevin Rudd is likely to be urged by federal officials to register as an agent of foreign influence because of his vast overseas connections and ongoing involvement in international relations.
The former prime minister has asked the Attorney-General's Department whether he needs to join the foreign influence transparency scheme's public register because he leads a host of international bodies and forums, most of them based in the US and one backed by a Chinese company.
A spokesman for Mr Rudd told The Australian he did not believe he currently had to register because he did not work directly for a foreign government, but Mr Rudd was willing to sign up if he was advised to do so by Canberra.
Mr Rudd would not be the first former prime minister to join the scheme, with Tony Abbott also signing the public register because of his work advising British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on post-Brexit trade policy.
Attorney-General's Department deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey told a Senate committee last month it was "likely" he had an obligation to sign up to the scheme. She said the Department was yet to send a letter to Mr Rudd offering this advice.
"I think we had indicated, based on the information we've been provided by Mr Rudd and through his legal representative, that we thought it likely he would have registration obligations," she said at the Senate hearing.
"We've continued our engagement. I think we still have a letter outstanding from Mr Rudd to respond to, but we haven't taken further action."
Since he lost the 2013 federal election, Mr Rudd has spent most of his time in New York. He chairs several different international groups, including the US-based Asia Society Policy Institute, global water advocacy group Sanitation and Water for All, and the International Peace Institute.
Mr Rudd is also the chairman of the North American chapter of the Global Sharing Economy Forum, which is funded by Chinese company ToJoy Shared Holding Group and has several former world leaders on its board including ex-Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The former Labor leader told The Australian on Wednesday he had approached the department himself several times to discuss registration.
"Under the Foreign Influence Transparency Act, former cabinet ministers are required to register any activity undertaken on behalf of a foreign government organisation or entity. Mr Rudd does not work for any such institution," his spokesman said, "although he regularly engages in international media interviews ... as well as ongoing conversations with foreign governments around the world consistent with his responsibilities as head of an American think tank."
The spokesman also said the former prime minister had gone to the Attorney-General's Department in September 2019 to list his international engagements.
"Mr Rudd's legal representatives also visited the secretary of the Attorney-General's Department in December 2019 to seek clarification as to which of these interests, if any, would be registrable," he said.
"Mr Rudd's lawyers have reminded the Attorney-General's Department on multiple occasions that they were awaiting a reply - most recently by correspondence in June 2020. They have not yet received a reply, nor has Mr Rudd received any "section 45" notice.
"Mr Rudd has been a vocal public supporter of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, and has made this plain to the Attorney-General's Department. He is fully prepared to register any international interests he has based on their advice, which he is yet to receive."
The Attorney-General's Department on Wednesday said its discussions with Mr Rudd were ongoing.
"The department has not issued a section 45 notice to Mr Rudd. As at 18 November, 2020, Mr Rudd has not registered under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme."
Other ex-politicians on the foreign influence transparency scheme's public register include former Liberal Party leaders Brendan Nelson and Alexander Downer, and former communications minister Richard Alston.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/kevin-rudd-an-agent-of-foreign-influence/news-story/3cd49c8ae96f0f331e7a8860cc89fd8a
#11665671 at 2020-11-16 08:18:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #11 - THE SILENT WAR CONTINUES Edition
>>11665665
2/2
Dr Crompvoets' April 2016 report to generals Campbell and Sengelman described conduct that the military insiders she spoke to likened to the Abu Ghraib affair, the Iraq prisoner torture scandal that enveloped the US military in 2004. The crimes disclosed in her interviews with Australian special forces included alleged "competition killing and blood lust" and "the inhumane and unnecessary treatment of prisoners".
In her interview with The Age, the Herald and 60 Minutes, she says some allegedly unlawful behaviour, such as summary executions, were "celebrated and normalised, and almost a rite of passage for some people".
Some of the men she spoke to, such as a soldier who described two unarmed teens having their throats allegedly slit and their bodies disposed of in a river, were in mental anguish. Others were emotionless as they explained how the mistreatment of prisoners became routine as small groups of special forces began writing their own rules of war.
She remembers a young SAS soldier telling her how "the rules are different here," as he described the longer leash given to special forces soldiers when compared to regular army soldiers.
"I think that whole idea that the rules are different ... creates an environment that is conducive to things going wrong," she says.
Dr Crompvoets did not spare the chain of command, which sent special forces on multiple deployments and in some cases incentivised high body counts while failing to act on suspicious "killed in action" post-operational reports and briefings.
She wrote how insiders felt it "shameful" that the officers leading the special forces in Afghanistan "muted" concerns about misconduct that were raised at the time. They deployed special forces again and again on capture and kill missions in what by 2012 had become a hopeless war.
Dr Crompvoets' savaging of the bystander culture that festered in the special forces, where pressure to protect colleagues was strong, has already led to major reforms.
She remains in touch with soldiers shattered by what they witnessed and, sometimes, their own failure to challenge more powerful colleagues or officers who would be later rewarded with medals and promotions.
"I don't think we should forget that it's not just those soldiers in the Special Forces units. It's those people around them that potentially facilitated those behaviours as well," she says.
"I also spoke to people who did call out bad behaviour and who were basically belittled and left broken."
In 2018, two years after Dr Crompvoets delivered her confidential findings that war crimes had likely occurred, parts of her report were leaked to The Age and the Herald by military sources. Dr Crompvoets was savaged on social media and in some mainstream outlets, accused of being a left-leaning feminist cultural warrior. The irony was that she was in fact a conduit for the concerns of battle-hardened soldiers.
Former defence minister Brendan Nelson falsely claimed that the war crimes under scrutiny were "fog of war" incidents, rather than summary executions. The execution of prisoners and non-combatants is a crime under international and Australian law.
On Thursday, Lieutenant General Campbell will tell the nation of the scale of alleged war crimes committed by Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. He is releasing the summary of the final report of the Brereton inquiry, the inspector general's exhaustive and forensic probe triggered by Dr Crompvoets' earlier work.
The Brereton inquiry has interviewed more than 350 witnesses on oath and has reviewed thousands of classified files. Witnesses have given detailed statements and some suspects have confessed.
The report is expected to detail "bloodings", in which junior soldiers were encouraged to execute prisoners and civilians. The12 cases reported previously by The Age and the Herald involve Afghans murdered while defenceless and unarmed. Some had their hands bound.
Dr Crompvoets expects backlash from some who will try to blur the fact that Justice Paul Brereton's findings, like her own, are a product of SAS and Commandos who could not stand by any longer.
If you are a current or former ADF member, or a relative, and need counselling or support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.
https://www.defence.gov.au/health/dmh/allhourssupportline.asp
https://www.openarms.gov.au/
https://www.theage.com.au/national/killings-of-afghans-happened-all-the-time-20201115-p56erx.html
#10752790 at 2020-09-23 06:41:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #10 - INFORMATION WARFARE Edition
>>10729992
Malka Leifer extradition promise 'illegal', claims defence
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an "unlawful promise" to Australian political elders including John Howard and former deputy PM Wayne Swan to speed the extradition of accused sex predator Malka Leifer, her defence will claim in a last-ditch bid to scuttle her return to Melbourne to face trial.
The gambit turns on a meeting last October in Mr Netanyahu's Jerusalem office where he told the high-powered delegation that Israel's government would not stand in the way of Ms Leifer's extradition if and when it was approved by local judges.
Following the granting of Australia's longstanding request for her extradition on Monday by the Jerusalem District Court, one of Ms Leifer's lawyers, Nick Kaufman, said Mr Netanyahu's alleged commitment to send her on her way breached due process.
If Israel's peak Supreme Court rejects Ms Leifer's foreshadowed appeal against the extradition order, the final decision rests with Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn, whose approval is required to put her on a plane.
Mr Kaufman told The Australian that the Justice Minister's pledge to "work to expedite" the process reflected the "undue influence" of Mr Netanyahu on the back of his illegal promise to the Australian dignitaries.
"The minister's discretion to extradite is only exercised after an appeal procedure is exhausted and after he has heard submissions from the accused," the lawyer said. "When the Justice Minister welcomes the decision of the District Court and announces prior to the appeal that he will do all in his power to speed up Malka Leifer's extradition to Australia, then he is not, I submit, acting in accordance with accepted principles of administrative propriety."
Neither office of Mr Netanyahu or Mr Nissenkorn would comment.
Ms Leifer, 55, faces 74 charges of sexual abuse including rape against sisters Nicole Meyer, 35, Dassi Erlich, 32, and Elly Sapper, 31, committed in 2003-07 while she was principal of Melbourne's Adass Israel ultra-Orthodox Jewish School. She fled home to Israel in 2008 when the first allegations against her emerged.
The October 29, 2019, meeting with Mr Netanyahu was arranged by Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler, heading the delegation of former prime minister Mr Howard, Mr Swan, former Liberal foreign minister Alexander Downer, another former federal Liberal opposition leader Brendan Nelson and former federal Labor minister Stephen Conroy.
Mr Leibler asked Mr Netanyahu whether his government would be bound by a public commitment by former justice minister Ayelet Shaked to sign the extradition order once the court process was completed.
This was in the context of her sacking by Mr Netanyahu in June 2019 in what was seen as a pre-election power play, and revelations police had recommended criminal charges against then deputy health minister Yaakov Litzman, a leader of the ultra-Orthodox religious right, over alleged witness tampering on Ms Leifer's behalf. "I don't recall him (Mr Netanyahu) specifically saying the justice minister would sign the order, but he said his government would not do anything to interfere with or further delay the process once judicial hearings had been completed," Mr Leibler said.
Mr Kaufman had since asked that he forward any notes or documentation from the meeting, a request Mr Leibler rejected.
In ordering Ms Leifer's extradition, judge Chana Miriam Lomp of the Jerusalem District Court on Monday demolished a defence argument that Australian jails could not cater for the needs of a strictly Orthodox Jewish woman.
As Ms Leifer was not resident in Israel at the time of the alleged sex offences, she should serve time in Australia if found guilty, the judge said.
Saluting her alleged victims, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday said the sisters were "heroes" for fighting for justice.
"The courage, grace and dignity of those Victorians is quite amazing," he said.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/malka-leifer-extradition-promise-illegal-claims-defence/news-story/8f9e1dfa054b84d999ecf71965842440