Head honcho quiet on coverup claims
A former SAS commander central to coverup claims is unwilling to speak about revelations he possibly handled a ‘‘buried’’ report into possible civilian deaths.
Colonel Jim Blackwell may be hauled before the Operation Burnham inquiry after evidence emerged linking him to a report that contradicted Defence Force denials of possible civilian deaths. Blackwell has been named repeatedly during a week-long hearing held by the inquiry, which ended on Thursday as the new evidence came to light. A number of Special Air Service (SAS) commanders who gave evidence may now have to front the inquiry again.
The former director of special operations did not appear on the list of witnesses chosen by the Defence Force this week. He is now listed as a director of Oravida, among numerous other companies.
Stuff called Oravida and requested to speak to Blackwell yesterday. An Oravida representative responded by saying he would not comment.
A lawyer for the Defence Force, Lucila van Dam, told the inquiry on Thursday that Blackwell said he had not remembered seeing the report when asked.
Whether he will front the inquiry is not yet known, but inquiry lawyers have said they want to question him.
Under the Inquiries Act, a person can be summoned to give evidence under oath.
A person who lies, misleads, or fails to appear before an inquiry can face a maximum fine of $10,000.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) report which Blackwell is documented as handling is pivotal to claims of a coverup, made in the 2017 book Hit & Run.
Co-authors and journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson alleged six civilians were killed and 15 injured during an Sas-led raid in Afghanistan in 2010.
Blackwell became an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002. Stephenson, in the Sunday Star Times in 2010, reported Blackwell as being the driving force behind publicity surrounding SAS commando Willie Apiata receiving the Victoria Cross.
An email sent by Blackwell emerged during a defamation court case which led to the Defence Force paying out Stephenson, according to a 2016 New Zealand Herald report. The Defence Force had wrongly claimed Stephenson had not interviewed a source in a story, when in fact he had.
The email read: ‘‘Get a signed and witnessed statement by [the commander] that he has not done an interview with Stephenson.
‘‘The more that we can prove that [Stephenson’s] statements continue to be false, then the earlier that we can stop parties requesting an enquiry ...’’
Blackwell left the Defence Force in 2015, and became a director of Oravida two years later. The export company has previously attracted controversy. National MP Judith Collins was reprimanded by former prime minister Sir John Key in 2014 for failing to disclose a meeting in China with Oravida executives and a Chinese border control official. The meeting included her husband, David Wong-tung, who was a director of the company at the time.
The 2010 ISAF report confirmed civilian deaths may have occurred from rounds fired from a US Apache helicopter, and a further investigation by the United States was launched. ISAF announced this in two press releases.
Yet an apparent ‘‘misunderstanding’’ of the report’s findings led the Defence Force to deny possible deaths until Stephenson aired a documentary Collateral Damage in 2014.
The report was then found among a bundle of documents from a safe by an adviser to Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman, who then publicly said deaths ‘‘couldn’t be ruled out’’.
Lawyer for the inquiry, Kristy Mcdonald, QC, questioned former Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Tim Keating on Thursday. He was the 11th senior officer to deny knowledge of how the report fell into Defence Force hands this week.
‘‘That document has been stuffed in a safe in the office of the chief of defence force, and buried,’’ she said.