Shocking evidence of potential war crime exposed in major investigation | 60 Minutes Australia

it's not pleasant busting a long-held myth about a much admired and highly decorated veteran of the afghanistan war australia really needs to know the truth about vc recipient ben robert smith for the last three years he's been under police investigation accused of war crimes the former soldier emphatically denies any wrongdoing repeatedly saying he has nothing to hide about his time in afghanistan but tonight we reveal startling new information that will shock the nation it's about robert smith's efforts to conceal evidence and threaten witnesses who dared to stand up to him and a warning this joint investigation by 60 minutes the sydney morning herald and the age newspaper contains confronting material [Music] is there a more gallant site australian special forces in full flight in afghanistan fearless warriors willing to sacrifice their lives to defeat the enemy and defend the innocent these are the pictures the soldiers want you to see but there's a problem it's not the whole truth tonight another view of the afghanistan mission one that some soldiers don't want to share there's little that's heroic here instead soldiers seemingly hell-bent on breaking the rules and worse and front and center in this group is someone who went to extraordinary lengths to try to ensure this evidence of wrongdoing was never uncovered now i'm going to do everything i can destroy them and that's my cell phone but as clever as he thought he was he failed until five years ago the thought australian soldiers would ever stoop solo as to commit war crimes was unthinkable but the hush stories about what really happened in afghanistan couldn't be ignored and so investigators were assigned to collect evidence and identify suspects as part of an independent military inquiry one former soldier stood out from the pack big man who wasn't afraid to assert his influence his attitude left no one in any doubt what happens on tour should stay on to her no matter how bad a major investigation by 60 minutes the age in the sydney morning herald can reveal the extreme and potentially criminal lengths this ex-soldier went to to silence his enemies and to cover up the truth [Music] there's a bizarre opening scene to this story of national shame a backyard in queensland sunshine coast and a child's pink lunch box filled with computer usbs containing graphic evidence of appalling conduct a former soldier digs a hole and buries his secrets he thought they would never be found but he was wrong [Music] the soldier is ben robert smith australia's most decorated afghan veteran [Music] sometime last year detectives covertly retrieved the contents of the usbs that ben robert smith had buried in the backyard of his queensland home and what they found was jaw-dropping shocking images that form part of a prolonged cover-up that would not only shock the nation but lead to questions about whether ben robert smith has sought to undermine australia's justice system and if he has why he's gotten away with it [Music] the usbs are a treasure trove of disgrace starting with hundreds of lewd photos of robert smith and his comrades some are taken at the australian base in southern afghanistan and show embarrassing drunken knights at a makeshift bar known as the fat lady's arms but other images are from the battlefield including one that stands out for all the wrong reasons we showed it to admiral chris barry the former chief of our defence force this is a man killed in 2012 by australian special forces you'll see two coins have been placed on his eyes yes look closely one is a special forces souvenir coin yeah and the other is a two squadron sasr souvenir coin is there any excuse for desecrating a dead afghan one no uh well the way i understand the geneva conventions marking around with the corpses of dead people on the battlefield is a bulk run that's trophy hunting trophy hunting yes what do you mean by that that means we're doing this in order to create a trophy of somebody we've just killed that's certainly not on pictured alongside the body are boots belonging to soldiers who fought with ben robert smith's sas patrol team you led our military does it offend you of course it does on any occasion where people behave like that i find it offensive and i think i find it offensive on behalf of all those decent men and women that serve in our defence force i think it conveys a sense of increasing brutality a sense too that somehow these aren't human beings like the rest of us ben robert smith has been the subject of multiple official inquiries to allegations he murdered and brutalized unarmed afghans between 2006 and 2012. so you're accusing him of engagement in war crimes i am he's publicly denied accusations he participated in or covered up war crimes in fact he's claimed he's gone out of his way to help the authorities do their job this is a lie [Music] five years ago to find out what really happened in afghanistan the defence force set up a special enquiry headed by major general paul buraton it compelled those suspected of war crimes and those who'd witnessed wrongdoing to reveal everything they knew but ben robert smith took the law into his own hands by concealing evidence and burying it in his backyard this inquiry needed the utmost transparency and accountability in the way it conducted its operations and and that includes receiving all available evidence the idea that some information could be hidden from the inquiry by someone is absolutely horrifying former supreme court judge anthony wheely qc has never in all his time on the bench heard of someone bearing evidence in a child's lunchbox the ultimate offense is attempting to pervert the course of justice that's a very serious offence i think it carries a from memory a a 10 year sentence under the crimes act commonwealth what does it suggest about the conscience of a man who buries evidence in his backyard i don't know the man but why would he do it well uh if it's to do with concealing information from the uh from the burton inquiry then i could only assume that it's a deliberate effort to mislead uh or distort the outcome of the inquiry looking at this grisly photo it's obvious why ben robert smith would want to conceal it two days after the afghan was killed and the australian soldiers had desecrated his remains the same men held a dress-up party back at their base in southern afghanistan it's here you can see how undisciplined they'd become one soldier known to be a close friend of ben robert smith thought dressing up in a koo klux klan costume in a muslim country was okay in another photo the same soldier is seen holding a noose [Music] it's not representative of our country it's not even representative of our great glorious ally even though they are the ones that have the klu klux klan if you look at this image here you see our clue clark's clan special forces soldier holding a burning cross even worse look it's entirely inappropriate behaviour it i think it's a failure of leadership it's a failure on behalf of the people involved and the witnesses that were there as well if this isn't already known about it's concealed evidence [Music] at the back of the group ben robert smith is pictured smiling and cheering as his mate burns a wooden cross in front of him drinking and messing around on base was a common way to unwind after a brutal day of combat but the images buried by ben robert smith point to something much more toxic soldiers appear to be blind drunk some are naked others are vomiting and urinating disturbingly even commanding officers and senior soldiers are getting in on the filth in this photo one of the highest ranked soldiers on base is seen simulating a sex act with a subordinate and he is a commanding officer doing the same what sort of standard does that sit when i was cdf and i was made aware of that kind of behaviour those people lost their jobs very quickly if that's the kind of behaviour that's been going on in our defence force then i think it's highly regrettable it's not representative of what the community in australia would demand they expect a lot of an institution like the adf and that's not the behaviour that we could condone in any way nor would this be condoned here's an afghan with a prosthetic leg who has been shot dead by the sas and here are soldiers and officers using the same leg to drink booze ben robert smith is smiling and embracing one man who drank from the leg but he is the worst part it's alleged ben robert smith was the soldier who unlawfully executed the man with the prosthetic leg it's an accusation he denies but police are continuing to investigate it these are the photos that have been concealed from the breton inquiry yeah all that material needs to come forward it's making light of things that have taken place on the battlefield um it's inappropriate behaviour it has to be properly investigated and dealt with it's not appropriate and it's not us but it wasn't just the secrets inside the lunch box that ben robert smith was intent on hiding ben robert smith served multiple tours of duty in afghanistan between 2006 and 2012. when he returned home for the final time he was already australia's most decorated afghan veteran a national icon who'd later be the country's father of the year and head of the australia day council your excellency i present to you corporal benjamin robert smith awarded the victoria cross but soon he would face questions about whether he was really a hero in 2016 the bereton war crimes inquiry was set up and soon began focusing on allegations robert smith had engaged in serious wrongdoing by june 2018 the accusations had been made public robert smith was furious and set out for revenge all kinds of people secret audio recordings obtained by 60 minutes in the age newspaper show for the first time what he was really thinking behind the scenes despite going to great lengths to evade detection so yeah this thing like signal what's that telling us what the best one all encrypted intelligence agencies cannot recover it's clear he wanted to destroy anyone he thought was damaging his reputation naming politicians sas soldiers and reporters [Music] in the recordings robert smith exudes confidence and why not he has the backing of a very powerful benefactor media mogul kerry stokes the billionaire owner of channel 7 had employed him as a senior executive in 2014 and robert smith reckoned with stokes's financial support to fight war crimes allegations his opponents would back off kerry stokes is clearly a generous boss he arranged to finance ben robert smith's defense at the war crimes [Music] inquiry but was robert smith really telling kerry stokes everything we can now reveal the lengths the ex-soldier went to to protect his reputation including attempts to silence witnesses who gave a different version of events in afghanistan it's a tale almost too far-fetched to believe but one that reveals how devious ben robert smith can be back in 2018 as one sas sergeant prepared to give evidence at the bureton inquiry he received an anonymous letter warning him to shut up you have one chance to save yourself don't forget this because it will not go away you will go down well it's the sort of thing we see in the godfather or mafia type movies isn't it and so we don't think it happens in australia but if it does happen then it's demonstrative of the worst kind of a front to the judicial system and if it did happen then it reflects the very worst on those who are involved former supreme court judge anthony wheeley says the intimidation of witnesses if proven is a serious criminal offence why does the law and the criminal justice system look so dimly upon those who seek to intimidate or silence witnesses the search for truth will be totally distorted if witnesses can be set aside because it means you won't get a just outcome in 2018 the federal police began investigating who was behind the threatening letter but had little luck now i've tracked down multiple sources who say they know the real story behind the letter and what they've told me is extraordinary the threatening letter was organized by none other than ben robert smith he bought the paper and stamps to send it and printed his at a channel seven office in regional queensland he then arranged for someone else to mail it and it was sent from a post box in tweed heads new south wales an anonymous letter in the mail very carefully posted no traces of the sender what does that suggest well it shows a deliberate attempt to prevent evidence being given that surely ought to have been given to the inquiry or to the police but it's also thuggery of the worst kind but the thuggery didn't end there as the bereton inquiry heated up a mysterious person circulated an anonymous complaint to police the media and a federal politician it suggested an sas whistleblower may be about to commit a public massacre the day after the las vegas massacre we raised the attached with the commissioner of the afp as a matter of urgent public safety the afp have not acted this matter is time sensitive and a critical public safety issue we can't identify the sas witness but barrister greg barnes sc is prepared to speak out on his behalf the reference to the las vegas massacre why was that placed in there well one would assume that uh the reference was there to to indicate that this person would go out and shoot up a huge number of people as tragically happened in las vegas you can't think in our society of a more chilling and serious allegation to be made and thereby putting a person in a position where they're inevitably going to be subjected to a raid from police possibly detained for a lengthy period i mean it's extraordinary the police response to the anonymous complaint was swift and invasive they raided the sas soldiers family home no weapons were found in fact not a single piece of evidence was collected at the raid to substantiate the complaint and today the witness continues to serve in the sas what was the impact of the police raid on the family home of this whistleblower this is a one in a lifetime event for a family like this suddenly you've got a police coming and knocking on your door this is a very very traumatic event and that was the point wasn't it well the point is to make sure that that whistleblower is of no further impact has no further impact who do you think had the motive to pull this off well uh those people who did not want the whistleblower to give evidence ben robert smith well that's a matter of the federal police 60 minutes can confirm the malicious complaints were sent to the police and others by an associate of ben robert smith who according to sources was acting on his orders that's even worse than um intimidating witness because the idea of putting someone in harm's way uh in relation to an investigation prosecution that's totally unjustified is a completely horrendous thing to do to a person completely and it's it means engaging the police to make inquiries and investigations when they don't have to concealing evidence bearing evidence in a backyard sending a threatening letter to a witness conspiring to have another witness raided by the police what does all this activity amount to in your mind well uh it suggests to me that uh if it could be demonstrated to be true that um the person or persons involved are desperate to keep information away from the police and from the inquiry that was held and that suggests a criminality of the worst kind and the sort of behaviour which would outrage the community and require urgent police action to uncover it and investigate it correctly the shameful revelations of buried evidence and the bullying intimidation of witnesses is a whole new headache for ben robert smith for years now he's been confident a billionaire's backing would protect him no matter what [Music] the key question is what will police do now and how much longer will ben robert smith enjoy impinity and kerry stokes support now his lies and cover-ups have been laid bare i probably won't leave [Music] we can confirm the afp has now launched fresh investigations into ben robert smith's conduct this story raises issues for adf members or their families they can contact the defense all our support line on 1-800-628-036 hello i'm tara brown thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on nine now dot com dot a u and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 306,387

Rating: 4.185987 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, war, crimes, adf, defence, force, illegal, law, afghan, ben, robert-smith, military, victoria cross, crime, secrets, cover up, threats, exposed, investigation, major, sydney morning herald, the age, nick mckenzie

Id: u76c7Eqxz28

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021