Posts by Alfie
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David Fisher says the NZDF has destroyed evidence critical of our involvement in Afghanistan to prevent the media getting hold of it.
Evidence relied on by the NZ Defence Force to shelve a highly critical report of our decade-long deployment to Afghanistan was destroyed, it has said.
This means there are no documents left in existence to support a senior military commander's decision to refuse to accept a report which raised serious questions about the way the Defence Force ran our longest, large-scale military mission.
See: NZDF says a critical report was too inaccurate to be released but destroyed evidence proving it
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Legal Beagle: A war crimes inquiry; or…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Debatable, if you read the material I linked.
I presume you’re referring to one of my earlier comments Rich -- probably my reference to war crimes. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court…
A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility.[1] Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, perfidy, rape, using child soldiers, pillaging, declaring that no quarter will be given, and using weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.
That sound pretty clear to me.
(My bolding) -
This is interesting. Speaking with Gavin Ellis this morning, Kathryn Ryan said RNZ had discovered a NYTimes report from 2010 -- two days after the abortive raid reported in Hit and Run. That report named the same two villages as the book, which suggests that the Defense Department's "Look... over there... another village" claim is complete and utter bollocks.
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Legal Beagle: A war crimes inquiry; or…, in reply to bob daktari,
ego and potentially good PR material...
You nailed it in one, Bob.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Sound and Light, in reply to Kaipara Possum,
Im not going to be a bloody Herald every day on the slim chance that there is something is announced in there.
I'm the opposite. I'm sick of visiting Stuff and the Herald -- two of NZ's major news sites -- and finding their lead story is bloody Adele. Again. Maybe entire newsrooms went to the shows and thought them important enough to dominate the news for several days.
When you live in London there are plenty of top acts performing every week. But (barring disasters) they'd never make front page news in a month of Sundays. Maybe a mention on the entertainment pages, if you're lucky.
Our major news organisations really do go out of their way to appear distinctly regional these days.
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Legal Beagle: A war crimes inquiry; or…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Whoever in the chain of command found themselves in court could rely on the fact that they had information that the village was a “military objective”.
That excuse wouldn't hold water for the second raid several days later, where they blew up the remaining parts of the civilian homes they'd almost destroyed in the first raid. That in itself is a war crime.
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Dr Jon Johansson, a senior lecturer in politics at Victoria University, discusses the relationship between the military and politicians and asks why a final green light for the failed operation was ever required from then PM John Key.
Bill English, an empiricist if ever there was one, needs to familiarise himself with the evidence produced and then reassert control. One way he could do this is by standing Keating down until an inquiry is conducted - because by his words and actions Keating is a barrier to finding out the truth.
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Legal Beagle: A war crimes inquiry; or…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
The executive branch of government has far less influence in respect of a Police investigation than it would an inquiry, I suspect.
The illegal and unjustified Police raid on Nicky Hager's home following the publication of Dirty Politics would tend to suggest otherwise.
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Here's a cynical variation on John Key's multiple hats sleight of hand from David Fisher's story.
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee refused to be interviewed about New Zealand's time in Afghanistan, as did his predecessor Jonathan Coleman and generals at the NZDF.
Brownlee - whose job it is to guide the military's path - said: "I became Minister of Defence quite some time after the last deployment left Afghanistan so I haven't handled issues relating to the Provincial Reconstruction Team."
Coleman, who was minister during the time the eight personnel died in Bamiyan, said he wouldn't comment because he was no longer minister.
Passing the Defence Minister's hat.
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Legal Beagle: A war crimes inquiry; or…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
You may note that I’m suggesting an investigation is the most important thing.
Indeed. But given the barely credible spin being employed this morning, can you appreciate my scepticism that either this government or an SAS-dominated military can be trusted to conduct a genuinely independent investigation?