Campbell mentioned “one particular person” had his “posted place adjusted” following the letter.
The letter warned that the Brereton report, which detailed “credible data” that Australian troopers had unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians, might set off a US legislation that forestalls the nation’s navy working with models linked to “gross violations of human rights”.
“I obtained a letter from the defence attache of america Armed Forces based mostly in Canberra, to me, indicating that the discharge of the Brereton report and its findings might provoke Leahy Regulation issues,” Campbell mentioned.
Campbell mentioned he didn’t imagine he knowledgeable the defence minister on the time and had not knowledgeable the present defence minister, Richard Marles.
Campbell was quizzed by senators on why he had not suggested successive governments about such a letter from Australia’s most vital safety treaty associate.
Impartial Senator Jacqui Lambie requested whether or not the federal government ought to have been suggested of such a “fairly large matter”.
Campbell replied: “I believe there is a distinction between ‘might’ and ‘does’. So the defence attache was indicating that it ‘might’, somewhat than it ‘does’.”
“I do not suppose this was a problem suggested past,” Campbell mentioned.
Marles’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Police in March charged the primary Australian veteran for an alleged killing in Afghanistan, three years after the Brereton investigation discovered that 19 Australian particular forces troopers might face fees for unlawful conduct in the course of the battle.
Former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz, 41, was charged with the battle crime of homicide within the demise of an Afghan who was shot in 2012 in a wheat subject in Uruzgan province.
Police are working with the Workplace of the Particular Investigator, an Australian investigation company established in 2021, to construct instances towards elite SAS and Commando Regiment troops who served in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.
Greater than 39,000 Australian navy personnel served in Afghanistan in the course of the 20 years till the 2021 withdrawal, and 41 had been killed there.
