Society/Culture Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith - Allegations of war crimes

[Pie eyed]

Burning a laptop pfft everyone knows you should use a tractor.

Burning hard drives and buying burner phones is pretty much standard fare around my household, as are man-traps, IED's and skulling bevvy's from souvenirs taken from my kills.
That said
I am still more interested in the murder aspect of the allegations against the complainant.
I am pretty sure that is the gist news stories which BRS is claiming defamed him.
If it is the case that he has been accused of those mentioned in the articles then I can't see how he can possibly win the defamation case.
If he was never accused by anyone other than the media then he might have a case.
There seems to be a large contingent of former colleagues who served with him who are on the list for the Defendants (media).
Many the same people who gave evidence to the inquiry.
In order to win he needs all of them to deny they made the allegations against him and that the media simply made the whole thing up............

Now if he were suing Sky news.......that would be possible.

 

[Malifice]

Burning hard drives

To be fair, we did take secrecy to a whole new level when I was there.

That said, he was clearly burning s**t that could incriminate him.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

To be fair, we did take secrecy to a whole new level when I was there.

That said, he was clearly burning sh*t that could incriminate him.

I had a mate many moons ago who was in the "distribution" business. what records he kept were on an air gapped PC, and he had some rig that would activate an electro magnet to void his drives if he ever got a visit from the constabulary. Never did find out if that set up worked or not, but i was always curious how well that does destroy data.

*despite all his precautions he got nabbed in the most old school way possible, one of his staff turned on him to get a deal on a minor possession charge.

 

[Over The Post]

i was always curious how well that does destroy data.

Probably not well enough, unless it was an absolute kick-arse magnet bigger than the PC.

When I was decommissioning storage systems, we had a low level routine that wrote garbage patterns to the entire disk surface five times before they were resold to refurbishers or sent overseas as e-waste. (End of life disks were usually too small for resellers to bother with, but there was a small demand for high performance enterprise-quality disks.)

Overwriting a disk once or twice still leaves residual magnetic traces of the bit patterns that can be recovered by the right tools if the contents are interesting enough.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Probably not well enough, unless it was an absolute kick-arse magnet bigger than the PC.

When I was decommissioning storage systems, we had a low level routine that wrote garbage patterns to the entire disk surface five times before they were resold to refurbishers or sent overseas as e-waste. (End of life disks were usually too small for resellers to bother with, but there was a small demand for high performance enterprise-quality disks.)

Overwriting a disk once or twice still leaves residual magnetic traces of the bit patterns that can be recovered by the right tools if the contents are interesting enough.

I know from my old days overwriting isnt foolproof

personally I just get a hammer and beat the s**t out of my drives when i send them off for disposal

 

[Over The Post]

Hammer will dent it and maybe bend the outer platters. I use a 6' crowbar and punch holes through before bending in half. Never felt the need to burn them.

 

[mooloman]

Look. This guy is a murderous psycho and a women beater. But if you were in a war zone who would you rather have in your small team, Joel Creasey or Ben Roberts Smith.

 

[Pie eyed]

Look. This guy is a murderous psycho and a women beater. But if you were in a war zone who would you rather have in your small team, Joel Creasey or Ben Roberts Smith.

Odd post?
As an Australian, if I were in a war zone I would rather be with colleagues also there to help liberate the invaded.
All Howard era actions overseas would have us, The Australians, as the invaders.
I would not be there in the first place.

 

[mooloman]

Odd post?
As an Australian, if I were in a war zone I would rather be with colleagues also there to help liberate the invaded.
All Howard era actions overseas would have us, The Australians, as the invaders.
I would not be there in the first place.

No. No you wouldn’t.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

Look. This guy is a murderous psycho and a women beater. But if you were in a war zone who would you rather have in your small team, Joel Creasey or Ben Roberts Smith.

I reckon the fact that there are numerous people who WERE in a war zone with him that are supporting the case defending the media against his defamation claims might suggest your question is a bit dumb.

 

[Messenger]

 

[mooloman]

I reckon the fact that there are numerous people who WERE in a war zone with him that are supporting the case defending the media against his defamation claims might suggest your question is a bit dumb.

I’m just playing devils advocate. Let’s put it another way. The guy is a trained experienced killing machine and clearly totally unhinged. Forget the other soldiers for a second. Would you prefer to have BRS defending you or someone like Joel Creasy defending you? Be honest.

 

[Number37]

I’m just playing devils advocate. Let’s put it another way. The guy is a trained experienced killing machine and clearly totally unhinged. Forget the other soldiers for a second. Would you prefer to have BRS defending you or someone like Joel Creasy defending you? Be honest.

He isn't defending anyone by killing innocent people.
That's just murder.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

I’m just playing devils advocate. Let’s put it another way. The guy is a trained experienced killing machine and clearly totally unhinged. Forget the other soldiers for a second. Would you prefer to have BRS defending you or someone like Joel Creasy defending you? Be honest.

Murdering innocents is not defending me

 

[Messenger]

This defamation case is going swimmingly.

BRS has clearly had plenty of people cupping his balls over the years.

 

[LFTWNG11]

I’m just playing devils advocate. Let’s put it another way. The guy is a trained experienced killing machine and clearly totally unhinged. Forget the other soldiers for a second. Would you prefer to have BRS defending you or someone like Joel Creasy defending you? Be honest.

Doesn't matter which way you put it, you're still licking boots.

 

[Number37]

Ben Roberts War Crimes, not having a relationship with his lawyer.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

So Ben when did you leave your wife?

Umm in the September

So why didn't you tell your marriage guidance counselor the following January (in at least 3 sessions)?

Umm...I wanted it kept private

But you were at a private counseling session

Umm....err...yes

 

[Demons09]

I’m just playing devils advocate. Let’s put it another way. The guy is a trained experienced killing machine and clearly totally unhinged. Forget the other soldiers for a second. Would you prefer to have BRS defending you or someone like Joel Creasy defending you? Be honest.

It would be nice if they answered your question mate but they wont because none of these key board warriors would ever be in that situation, but its an easy decision to make when you’re sitting behind a desk thousands of miles away behind a desk according to these guys lol.

 

[Over The Post]

Hey I raised exactly the same point some time back and got soundly flamed for doing so. Once bitten and all that. Anyway:

Ben Roberts-Smith denies punching woman and taking photo of her lying naked in bed

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith tells a court an accusation he took a nude photo of a woman he was having an affair with after punching her in the temple is a "complete fabrication".

www.abc.net.au

 

[mooloman]

Doesn't matter which way you put it, you're still licking boots.

I don’t think so. He’s a murderous piece of s**t. For example he bought an argyle diamond ring for his lover but ended up giving to his wife...

But, in a war zone in the fog of war, you’d like that guy on your side wouldn’t you?

 

[mooloman]

I guess some people have argued that BRS was at the pointy end of one of the toughest regiments in the world on deployment. To be very clear they were not there for haircuts. They were there to kill. That’s what happens in war zones.

And to be fair, if we’re honest the Taliban et al are not exactly well regarded for their on going use of ethics. Child suicide bombers, using villagers as touts, IEDs etc So that innocent looking goat herder may well be directly assisting others planning to murder you. So you might appreciate how nervous troops are on these raids. It’s also well known that before troops go into these villages and compounds it is generally after exhaustive negotiations with the elders have broken down, these elders often refuse to give up the bad guys. So they’re warned up to a week of a raid. The upshot of that is, the SAS have given ample warning they’re going in, and also warn that any fighting age male who impedes them will probably have a long day. Long story short, they get ample warning to just leave the area. So if you’re an innocent goat herder or family man, you’re probably in the wrong place.

In saying that, BRS is an utter peace of garbage and a prick to women. Basically a sh1t bloke. But I’m pretty sure in the fog of war you’d want him around? Or would you prefer someone to perhaps counsel the Taliban about how naughty they are instead?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I don’t think so. He’s a murderous piece of sh*t. For example he bought an argyle diamond ring for his lover but ended up giving to his wife...

But, in a war zone in the fog of war, you’d like that guy on your side wouldn’t you?

No. Because even in wars war crimes are wrong

This attitude is why the Nuremberg Defence isn't acceptable

 

[CD Xbow]

I had a mate many moons ago who was in the "distribution" business. what records he kept were on an air gapped PC, and he had some rig that would activate an electro magnet to void his drives if he ever got a visit from the constabulary. Never did find out if that set up worked or not, but i was always curious how well that does destroy data.

*despite all his precautions he got nabbed in the most old school way possible, one of his staff turned on him to get a deal on a minor possession charge.

The human link is always the weakest.
As I started reading your post, I thought the end of the story and perhaps your friend, may have been like Breaking Bad.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

It would be nice if they answered your question mate but they wont because none of these key board warriors would ever be in that situation, but its an easy decision to make when you’re sitting behind a desk thousands of miles away behind a desk according to these guys lol.

Keyboard warriors. Haven't heard that one in a while.

But here goes: if I was facing impending death, I would rather have BRS standing in front of me than Joel Creasey. As would anyone else in this thread, but the point being that the answer to mooloman's question is irrelevant to what is being discussed. The indisputable fact that BRS is better equipped to save your life than Joel Creasey doesn't negate that executing prisoners of war is:

- a war crime
- against the Army's Rules Of Engagement
- morally repugnant
- not excusable by the "fog of war"
- murder