Former chief of the defence force,Admiral Chris Barrie,in Canberra.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Major-General Paul Brereton found most blame fell on patrol leaders,while mid-level Special Operations Task Group and force element commanders also had to bear some of the moral responsibility and accountability.
But the report absolves higher levels of command,stating Australia’s command headquarters in the Middle East at the time,known as Joint Task Force 633,and the headquarters Joint Operations Command did not have a “sufficient degree of[operational] command and control to attract the principle of command responsibility”.
Admiral Barrie told theHerald,“I’m sorry,I don’t accept that … the purpose of having national command responsibilities in the theatre[of operations] is to make sure that our people are behaving themselves and doing what is right and proper according to the Australian government’s direction.
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“I think the mums and dads of Australia need to know what was going on and what needs to be done about it and I don’t think that the current CDF[chief of the defence force Angus Campbell] has the responsibility or ability to do that.
“His job is running the defence force today,not to sweep up the mess of 12 years ago.”
Admiral Barrie was responding to an analysis of the Brereton report scheduled to be released on Saturday by the Australia Institute.