November platoon
But now to allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan and of ABC fake news:
BEN FORDHAM: The ABC needs to wake up and accept that they’ve got this wrong …
- Ben Fordham Live, 2GB, 26 November, 2021
Back in October 2020, one of the ABC’s top reporters, Mark Willacy, working with the Investigative Unit, accused Australian commandos in the 2nd Regiment’s November platoon of executing a bound and unarmed Afghan prisoner in mid-2012:
US marine says Australian special forces soldiers made 'deliberate decision to break the rules of war'
- ABC News, 21 October, 2020
The ABC’s source was an ex-US marine who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retribution, but was happy to go on camera using a pseudonym, Josh:
MARK WILLACY: The former crew chief was a helicopter door gunner on a night raid with the commandos in northern Helmand province in mid-2012 in which the Australians had taken prisoners.
JOSH: We just watched them hogtie these guys. And we knew that their hands were, you know, tied behind their backs.
MARK WILLACY: He says the Australians called the US pilots to pick them up as well as seven prisoners, but the pilot told them there was only room on the aircraft for six.
JOSH: And you just heard a silence. Then we heard a ‘pop’ and then they said, ‘OK, we have six prisoners’. And so it was pretty apparent to everybody involved on that mission that they had just killed a prisoner that we had just watched them, like, catch and hogtie.
- ABC News (NSW), 21 October, 2020
The US marine was the ABC’s sole witness to the killing and he’d not actually seen it happen. And that is the difficulty with this story.
Now, it must be said Mark Willacy has done amazing work to uncover alleged war crimes and, last year, he won Australian journalism’s highest accolade, the Gold Walkley, for his Four Corners story Killing Fields, which revealed this damning footage of an Australian soldier shooting an unarmed Afghan prisoner:
MARK WILLACY: In the man's hand appears to be a set of red prayer beads, no weapon or radio can be seen. The Afghan is compliant and quiet on the ground.
SAS DOG HANDLER: Down!
SAS SOLDIER C: … you want me to drop this cunt? Do you want me to drop this cunt?
SAS DOG HANDLER: Quake, no! Quake, stop! Leave!
MARK WILLACY: Three shots from close range. The Afghan is dead and Soldier C walks off.
- Four Corners, ABC, 16 March, 2020
Willacy’s stories over the last two years — around two dozen in number — have prompted several investigations.
And his book Rogue Forces, published in August, had shocking new revelations.
Other journalists who’ve done pioneering work in this area, like Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie, told Media Watch that Willacy is brave and principled.
But his story on November Platoon has come under heavy fire, chiefly from platoon commander Heston Russell — who was not identified by the ABC — who dismissed the allegations on The Sunday Project days after the story went to air:
PETER VAN ONSELEN: You were the commanding officer with the platoon all the time and you never saw anything that has been alleged?
HESTON RUSSELL: Absolutely. That is correct
PETER VAN ONSELEN: And you say that no prisoner was ever summarily executed that you saw?
HESTON RUSSELL: So, we’re responding to the direct allegation that this marine on a mission heard seven detainees turn to six and heard a pop and that that was the execution and that never happened.
- The Sunday Project, Ten Network, 1 November, 2020
And in the last few weeks, Russell has ramped up the pressure by writing an open letter to the ABC to say:
This is an appalling and preposterous lie. The ABC carries the responsibility of this gross failing of basic journalistic practice.
- Letter to the ABC, Veteran Support Force, 17 October, 2021
Russell’s repeated his claims several times on Sky News.
And also championing his cause has been 2GB’s Ben Fordham, who has covered the story 15 times in the last five week and hammered the ABC in interviews and editorials demanding that Willacy and the ABC take action:
BEN FORDHAM: What a shameful and embarrassing situation this is …
The ABC needs to wake up and accept that they’ve got this wrong ...
Mark, this one is garbage.
- Ben Fordham Live, 2GB, 26 November, 2021
Meanwhile, there has been abuse and worse on social media, with one person posting this video of Willacy’s book being doused with petrol and set on fire.
And another video of this former ADF member at a shooting range in Thailand loading his automatic weapon and asking:
MAN: Do you want me to drop this cunt?
- Supplied
Before letting off a burst of gunfire at what turns out to be Willacy’s book. And when Willacy posted that clip on Twitter, Heston Russell responded:
Nothing short of what you deserve @markwillacy …
- Twitter, @HestonRussell, 28 November, 2021
And it gets worse. Recently, the reporter received a message on his mobile phone as he sat in bed reading the papers at 5.40 in the morning:
Hey Mark you paedophile cunt, I hope your kids get COVID, and I’m going to find your old lady and slit her throat, you fucking dog.
- Phone message sent to Mark Willacy
A man has now been arrested by Victoria Police.
And if anyone thinks such threats aren’t serious, then consider this recent story, by Mark Willacy:
Defence Force relocates key war crimes witness after blast at her NSW home
"I was terrified and I still am. I still wake up at 3:30 in the morning," Captain Louise said.
- ABC News, 26 August, 2021
That witness, Captain Louise, whose windows were blown out by a mystery blast, is the ex-wife of Soldier C in Willacy’s Four Corners.
But, awful as all that is, there are still issues to consider about the ABC’s November platoon story, where a petition demanding an independent review of its allegations has now gathered almost 25,000 signatures
Two weeks ago, the ABC announced that Audience and Consumer Affairs is now investigating Russell’s official complaint about the program.
So what are they likely to find?
Well, the key problem is that the ABC had only one witness to the alleged killing and he did not actually see the prisoner being shot.
The US marine heard a pop over the radio and was told that seven prisoners were now six.
And while other members of that US helicopter crew supposedly heard what he heard and reached the same conclusion, the ABC had none of them to back him up.
So, why does the ABC believe that is enough? It told us in a statement:
The story was based on credible information from interviews with multiple confidential sources in Australia and the US.
- Email, ABC Spokesperson, 3 December, 2021
But the fact remains that only one of them witnessed the alleged killing.
The ABC also says there is now:
… an active criminal investigation into the conduct of an Australian commando platoon in Afghanistan in 2012.
- ABC News, 19 November, 2021
And to back up that claim, the ABC has cited the fact that Defence rejected its FOI application on the grounds that supplying information could compromise a current investigation.
However, in publishing the FOI documents, the ABC has not helped its case because in seeking, quote:
Audio copies of recorded mission communications … for November Platoon … during missions in Afghanistan … and;
… Enemy Killed in Action data …
- Department of Defence, Statement of reasons under the FOI Act, 10 November, 2021
The ABC declared it was looking at the period “between 1 June 2012 and 31 July 2012” when they say the alleged killing took place.
And Heston Russell maintains his men were not in the area at that time:
HESTON RUSSELL: … there were no deployments into Helmand, Afghanistan during the months of June, July or even August by November Platoon …
So, as has been revealed, the story is not only infactual, it’s impossible …
- Chris Smith Tonight, Sky News Australia, 28 November, 2021
In response to that, the ABC has now changed its online story from saying it sought the FOI material “covering June and July 2012” to “across 2012”.
And added an editor’s note to say:
The story has been amended to better reflect the ABC's FOI application.
- ABC News, 19 November, 2021
Which is a strange way of acknowledging that they screwed up on the dates.
So, what is the verdict?
Well, we’re certainly not saying the story’s wrong or that it didn’t happen. That’ll be up to a criminal investigation to decide.
And we’re also not going to tell you that November Platoon was squeaky clean.
In 2019, Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie revealed in The Age that a former commando from November Platoon had confessed to killing an unarmed Afghan prisoner in 2012:
One summary execution being investigated by the Brereton inquiry was carried out by a member of the Commandos November platoon during an operation in southern Afghanistan on October 3, 2012.
- The Age, 20 September, 2019
But despite all that, we do have an issue with Willacy’s story. And for us it is this: should the ABC have asked more questions and found more support for the allegation before publishing?
And from what we’ve seen, the answer is yes.
Mark Willacy and ABC Investigations have a great track record. We certainly don’t believe their story was “garbage” or “fabricated”, as Ben Fordham and Heston Russell have called it.
But we believe the ABC pressed publish too soon and should either have waited or told viewers the allegation of unlawful killing was uncorroborated and might not be true.
It should also have given Heston Russell a right to answer the allegations once he’d made it clear back in October 2020 that he was the November platoon’s commander.
We’ll see what happens to that complaint.
But in the meantime, the ABC Investigations Unit has hit back at Russell by publishing this story on the weekend:
Former soldier and Values Party founder Heston Russell lied about selling porn online while fundraising for veterans charity
… ABC Investigations has obtained evidence that Mr Russell sold explicit images via OnlyFans … charging $US60 ($94 at the time) on Anzac Day last year for a picture of himself holding his erect penis.
- ABC News, 5 December, 2021
Russell says the story is “a deliberate attack on his character”.
And on this occasion the ABC did go to him for comment. He did not deny selling the images but declined a recorded interview.