Aussie commandos accused of war crimes by US Marine
Jeff LPH 3 forwarded this story from down under. For some reason, the accuser only goes by his first name in the article, but agreed to have several pictures of himself included in the article. ABC (the Aussie one) report;
A United States Marine Corps (USMC) helicopter crew chief says Australian special forces shot and killed a bound Afghan prisoner after being told he would not fit on the US aircraft coming to pick them up.
Josh* flew 159 combat missions for the USMC’s Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469 (HMLA-469).
He has allowed the ABC to publish pictures of him but has asked that we don’t use his real name because he fears retribution.
He has told ABC Investigations he was a door gunner providing aerial covering fire for the Australian soldiers of the 2nd Commando Regiment during a night raid in mid-2012.
The operation took place north of the HMLA-469 base at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
It was part of a wider joint Australian special forces-US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) campaign targeting illicit drug operations that were financing the Taliban insurgency.
“We had done the drug raid, the Aussies actually did a pretty impressive job, wrangling all the prisoners up,” Josh said.
“We just watched them tackle and hogtie these guys and we knew their hands were tied behind their backs.”
He says the commandos then called up the US aircraft to pick them and about seven prisoners up.
He says the Americans only had room on the aircraft for six.
“And the pilot said, ‘That’s too many people, we can’t carry that many passengers.’ And you just heard this silence and then we heard a pop. And then they said, ‘OK, we have six prisoners’.
“So it was pretty apparent to everybody involved in that mission that they had just killed a prisoner that we had just watched them catch and hogtie,” he said.
Josh says neither he nor any of his crew spoke about what had just happened.
“We were all being recorded on our comms,” he said.
“All of us were pretty aware of what we just witnessed, and kind of didn’t want to be involved in whatever came next.”
Josh says he later discussed the incident with his crewmates after returning to Camp Bastion.
“This was the first time we saw something we couldn’t morally justify, because we knew somebody was already cuffed up, ready to go, taken prisoner and we just witnessed them kill a prisoner,” he said.
Much more at the source, linked above.
Category: Afghanistan, Aussies, Guest Link
Breaker Morant redux?
There is much more to that story than the movie… even the original author, Kit Denton, believed Morant guilty after learning more. Great movie, but not very factual.
Yes, the true incident encompasses much more than the movie. Even 120 years later, the incident engenders much hot opposing opinions in SA and Australia…
Denton wrote a very interesting followup book.
Nah. I am not going to comment on this one. Self censorship is a bitch, isn’t it?
All new (2008) UH-1Y Huey, twin turbine engines, four rotor blades, cargo capacity 6,660 lbs.
I call Bullshit on the bird not being able to lift off while carrying one extra 120-130 pound body.
A drug dealing Taliban Terrorist? Sorry, but behold my barren field, I have none to give. Bitch knew the job could become dangerous when he took it. It’s not like they took him up in a chopper then threw his drug dealing terrorist ass out. Oh…wait.
I’m having trouble generating a great deal of angst regarding the actions of the Aussie Spec Ops guys. I maybe should, but there you have it. I’d like to know more about the story. Was it at night? What kind of illumination was there? The pop was heard over rotors spinning and hearing protection on? I’m left wanting a great deal more information.
Yeah, aloe bathbar dude didn’t suffer though. Need to get points for that /s. Can’t accuse these SAS guys of being indecisive & hand wringing when presented w/ a dilemma.
Let’s recap: It happened 8 years ago.
Are you sure there were 7 prisoners?
Did you physically count 7 prisoners?
Did you see the Australians shoot the prisoner?
Did you see the dead prisoner’s body?
What did the other 3 crewmen say?
What was the place, date, and time of the mission?
Did you report this to your chain of command?
Did you talk to the chaplain?
Why did you wait so long?
Sees like lots of circumstantial evidence. If you’re going to accuse allied servicemen, you better have your shit wired airtight…air-fucking-tight! This story just doesn’t pass the smell test. Not naming the guy but showing pictures of him is curious. I’m sure it will take the jarheads about 5 seconds to identify him. Is the site some on-line fish wrap that just shits on their military? Again, why is he going outside the chain of command?
Now me personally, I could care less if they shot this guy. One less drug dealing Taliban makes the world a better place.
I second the BS flag. I read a whole lot of nothing.
We need the ability to post gifs/memes in the comments.
I just want to add the one of a dude blinking. “What’s the problem”?
Sounds like somebody had a can of bitch and wants to moan about it now.
Drug dealing terrorist killed because puts too much weight for the transport, shot by Aussie, reported by US marine brings up lots of thoughts here. 1, Drug dealer shot, what else do you do, let him loose so he can go on about his old business and also report back to his superiors, I think not, bullet was cheaper. 2, Take him on board and start doing the classic Korean air walk out the door, reports I heard over there years ago and another land was that do 2 and the third was willing to tell you anything that you wanted to know, problem here is that even with seven prisoners if it would work as this fellow Allah has supposedly promising those that die for their cause a bunch of virgins in the after life and having only a lot of sheep and camels as companions there maybe a virgin was more appealing to them, I’ve seen some of them women and from what I’ve seen they need masks on their faces, They be buttttt ugly (wait, did I just say that, um damn right). 3. A marine reporting the incident, the crew discusses what happened and decided it was best to report it, not any that I remember any ever doing this before, must have been a bunch of baby pukes or were extremely jealous of the fact they didn’t do it so were just trying to preserve their reputation of being supposedly bad asses. War is war and when one is in one and any time there is any sort of threat to ones life be it a threat to your fellow troops from drugs, sabotage or heavy fire fight you do what you have to to keep all alive. These marines need to be booted aside as they would never amount to much in real combat conditions.
Video ….or it never happened, this puke heard a single 9mm `pop` over the rotor wash lolololololol, im guessing he didn’t have his hearing protection in UCMJ his ass…The guilt is eating me up, but ill wait 8 years before I tell my story, lolololol, what a cunt.
Let me check my sympathy bag to see if I’ve got any to spare.
Nope. Not there.
“He has told ABC Investigations he was a door gunner providing aerial covering fire for the Australian soldiers of the 2nd Commando Regiment during a night raid in mid-2012″, says “Josh”.
Then, “We just watched them tackle and hogtie these guys and we knew their hands were tied behind their backs.”
So, was this in the local Foosball stadium, and they turned all the lights on? I have yet to see a pic from the Stan that shows those illuminated poppy fields. “Night raid” hints at a dark environment, which would make watching the tackling and hogtieing pretty much impossible to watch. Unless, of course, the Taliban were right next to the birds.
I agree. My BS meter is twitching.
A thought here. Australia does not have the Land of Land Lawfare. If these were illegal combatants, it is legal to execute them upon capture without trial according to the Geneva Conventions. That was written in to the conventions to stem the flood of mercenaries flooding into Africa and screwing it up.
Aussies.
“One too many? Ok sport.”
(Points weapon out the door) BANG!
“Six.” (Tosses #7 aboard, alive and well)
Did the accuser actually -see- the execution? Did he actually count noses of the prisoners aboard?
Aussies have… interesting senses of humor.
This one time, at helicopter camp…
Call bullshit.
Radios aren’t telephones where they just constantly transmit and receive.
So this door gunner would have us believe that the Aussie RTO, held the mic down after talking just for a dramatic pause and so the helo crew could hear a single gunshot.
Bullshit.
He never said he heard the shot over the radio. He said “there was a pause and then we heard a pop”.
so the USMC flies aircraft so piss poor that the addition of 1 (one!) additional person will cause a class A event.
One!
This story smells so bad it might become a superfund site.