“Boxing makes me feel like a soldier again,” said former Major David McBride (58). Every day he and his dog Jake go to Australia’s most famous beach to train. “There’s always someone stronger than you at Bondi Beach,” he laughs.

But the former army lawyer for Australia’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) hasn’t worn his uniform for years. He is in a protracted battle with his former employer. McBride was among the first to report unlawful killings and atrocities committed by elite Australian forces in Afghanistan.

His revelations sparked a major investigation and international outcry. The so-called Brereton Inquiry, released in November 2020, found that Australian commandos killed at least 39 unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians between 2009 and 2013.

The incidents mainly took place in Uruzgan, where the Netherlands cooperated with Australia between 2006 and 2010. Dutch witnesses were therefore also heard during the investigation. Not long after the Brereton report was published in 2020, the Ministry of Defense stated that no Dutch military personnel were involved in the incidents being investigated.

Cold-blooded murders

“It wasn’t done in the heat of the moment, it was cold blood killing. Afghan prisoners were just shot in the head,” McBride said. The shooting of Afghans was a lurid ritual of harassment that ‘bleeding‘ was mentioned. The military fabricated an alibi and then planted guns on victims’ bodies to justify their actions.

Two years after the inquiry confirmed that Australian war crimes had taken place in Afghanistan, no one has been prosecuted. Only whistleblower McBride has to appear in court. He is on trial for leaking state secrets.

It’s a process that’s been hanging over his head for years. “It’s been almost ten years since I went to the army command with my concerns for the first time. I prefer not to think about that, but it cost me a lot.”

He never thought he would become known as a whistleblower. “My job was everything to me, I was good at it too. You don’t just become the army lawyer for the elite force. But I saw that we were completely lost,” he says.

Not only did he hear about the war crimes, he saw the perpetrators get away with it. “The army commanders knew about it but chose not to do anything because they didn’t want to damage the army’s reputation,” McBride said.

Kind of Watergate

So he went to the media and leaked confidential documents. Australian public broadcaster ABC published the Afghan Files in 2017, covering Australian atrocities in Afghanistan. “I was hoping it would be like Watergate, where I would leak the documents and journalists would ask the tough questions and hold the government accountable.”

But in 2018, McBride was charged by the state with violating national security. A year later, police raided the ABC newsroom and threatened to prosecute investigative journalist Dan Oakes as well. That was later withdrawn. McBride hoped that the case against him would also be dismissed by a new government, but to no avail.

He invokes the Public Interest Disclosure Act, a law governing the disclosure of information in the public interest. But the law offers whistleblowers little protection, including the Human Rights Law Center, which has been calling for the law to be tightened for years.

head of the snake

McBride bears a permanent reminder on his body of his mission to hold the Australian Army Command to account. A snake’s head rests on her left hand and spirals from her arm down her back.

“In Afghanistan, ‘cut off the head of the snake’ was code for anti-Taliban missions, but it was also used as a justification for killing innocent Afghans,” McBride said. Now he has reversed the meaning. “I see it as my mission to cut off the head of the Australian Army command serpent.”

No wallflower

Today McBride appeared in court, which ruled that the legal battle should continue. McBride is on trial for five crimes, including leaking state secrets and stealing documents. If convicted, he faces more than 50 years in prison. The case will continue next year, a date has not yet been set.

McBride’s price is high: he struggles with depression and loneliness. His marriage fell apart and his two teenage daughters know little better than their father is involved. Also, he was seen as a traitor by his old buddies.

“People said I don’t know war, I don’t know what happens in the heat of battle. But I don’t do that, I’ve seen several wars,” he says. “Whistleblowers are not wallflowers. We are soldiers who believe we must do the right thing.”