Elite forces probe ‘ugly as it gets’
AUSTRALIA’S elite military fighting force faces its biggest shake-up since the end of World War II to change its command structure, culture and attitude, with shocking evidence today to reveal how far they have been allowed to go rogue.
The four-year inquiry into the conduct of Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016 will be made public later this morning, findings that one senior ADF personnel called “as ugly as it gets”.
Among the probes were special forces’ execution of prisoners or noncombatants and innocent civilians in what almost became a killing competition, some incidents involving revenge for fallen comrades.
Much consideration is now being given as to how to regain the trust of the government and the Australian public in its military.
The investigation by NSW Court of Appeal judge and Army Reserve Major General Paul Brereton, under the auspices of the Inspector-general of the ADF, is expected to find more than a dozen personnel from the elite SAS and 2 Commando regiments have a case to answer for potential war crimes and or failure of duty.
The gravitas of evidence emerging from former soldiers disgusted with their colleagues was such that Major General Brereton and his team went to Afghanistan themselves to gather their own graphic accounts from Afghan civilians.
The Brereton inquiry looked into specific actions of unlawful killings of civilians and prisoners by troops, as opposed to assessing “fog of war” firefight battle outcomes. It is understood at least eight critical incidents have been referred to authorities for potential criminal or disciplinary hearing.
At least 40 other claims of unlawful or unsavoury incidents could not be substantiated or were disproved as false, hearsay or unsubstantiated malicious claims.
But what is said to be clear throughout the report is significant deficiencies in the command structure of the special forces, largely made up of the SAS Regiment and 2 Commando, that allowed some to go rogue. In at least one instance, commanders were not aware of what their senior operators were doing, nor the corrosive competitiveness that was allowed to prevail between units.
The nature of the “elite” operations of Australia’s Special Operations Task Group meant it had become distant from the rest of the armed forces.
News Corp understands Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has been told of the anxiety within politics, the military and the veterans’ community over the inquiry process and perceived attempts by the ADF to “manage the narrative’’.
A press briefing planned by Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell was planned then cancelled last week, and instead Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke, announcing a special investigator would be appointed, along with a three-person oversight panel. While this seemed a standard political move to announce the solution before the problem was revealed, some in Canberra say it goes to a broader concern about the way the ADF was preparing to handle the report’s release.