Australian general says US warns war crime allegations could prevent work with Australia’s SAS

Australian general says US warns war crime allegations could prevent work with Australia’s SAS
The US authorities warned that allegations of warfare crimes towards Australian troopers in Afghanistan might stop US forces from working with Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment, Australia’s defence power chief stated on Wednesday.
General Angus Campbell advised a Senate committee that he acquired a letter from the US defence attache in Canberra in March 2021 suggesting the elite SAS could have been “tainted” by the allegations of warfare crimes in Afghanistan raised in an Australian warfare crime investigation report that was made public in 2000.

Campbell stated “one individual” had his “posted position adjusted” following the letter.

Angus Campbell advised a Senate committee that he acquired a letter from the US defence attache in Canberra in March 2021 suggesting the elite SAS could have been “tainted” by the allegations of warfare crimes. (Sydney Morning Herald)

The letter warned that the Brereton report, which detailed “credible information” that Australian troopers had unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians, might set off a US legislation that stops the nation’s navy working with items linked to “gross violations of human rights”.

“I received a letter from the defence attache of the United States Armed Forces based in Canberra, to me, indicating that the release of the Brereton report and its findings may initiate Leahy Law considerations,” Campbell stated.

Campbell stated he didn’t imagine he knowledgeable the defence minister on the time and had not knowledgeable the present defence minister, Richard Marles.

Campbell was quizzed by senators on why he had not suggested successive governments about such a letter from Australia’s most vital safety treaty accomplice.

Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie requested whether or not the federal government ought to have been suggested of such a “pretty big matter”.

Current Defence Minister Richard Marles (centre) had not been knowledgeable in regards to the letter. (Twitter)

Campbell replied: “I think there’s a difference between ‘may’ and ‘does’. So the defence attache was indicating that it ‘may’, rather than it ‘does’.”

“I don’t think this was an issue advised beyond,” Campbell stated.

Marles’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Police in March charged the primary Australian veteran for an alleged killing in Afghanistan, three years after the Brereton investigation discovered that 19 Australian particular forces troopers might face expenses for unlawful conduct through the battle.

Former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz, 41, was charged with the warfare crime of homicide within the loss of life of an Afghan who was shot in 2012 in a wheat subject in Uruzgan province.

Police are working with the Office of the Special Investigator, an Australian investigation company established in 2021, to construct instances towards elite SAS and Commando Regiment troops who served in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

More than 39,000 Australian navy personnel served in Afghanistan through the 20 years till the 2021 withdrawal, and 41 have been killed there.

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Source: www.9news.com.au