One person’s whistleblower can be another person’s thief,or even traitor. And so it is with the McBride case.
Justice David Mossop said David McBride was not a nefarious character but became “obsessed with the correctness of his own feelings” about stealing and disclosing classified military information.
McBride shared confidential documents with journalists out of arrogance and the pursuit of personal vindication rather than a sense of duty,the prosecution argues.
Whistleblowers are often complicated people – take David McBride,who will soon discover his punishment for leaking classified military documents.
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Former military lawyer David McBride’s legal team hoped he would avoid jail because he exposed problems in the national interest. Now they are thinking the worst.
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Former military lawyer David McBride pleaded guilty to three offences on Friday,after losing two separate legal bids to bolster his defence ahead of a trial that was due to start on Monday.
David McBride has lost his appeal to overturn a judge’s ruling he couldn’t argue he was duty-bound to disobey military orders,which could lead to a guilty plea.