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"Pure spite": Ben Roberts-Smith denies shocking witness testimony

<p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith <a style="background-image: initial;background-position: initial;background-size: initial;background-attachment: initial;margin: 0px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline" href="https://7news.com.au/news/court-justice/witness-alleges-ben-roberts-smith-ordered-execution-of-unarmed-man-c-5530148" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has denied</a> the claim that he was involved in the execution of an Afghan man, suggesting the “outrageous” story came out of “pure spite” that he received the prestigious medal.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Person 41, a former special forces soldier, testified on Wednesday that Mr Roberts-Smith grabbed an unarmed man by the scruff of the neck, forced him to kneel, and told a colleague to “shoot him” during a raid on a Taliban compound.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">The soldier said he witnessed the incident in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province in 2009, and was involved in the mission nicknamed Whiskey 108, located in the area.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">His testimony comes as Mr Roberts-Smith’s Federal Court case against <em style="margin: 0px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">The Age</em>, <em style="margin: 0px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">The Sydney Morning Herald</em>, and <em style="margin: 0px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">The Canberra Times</em> resumes. The 43-year-old is suing the publications over allegations he was unlawfully defamed by claims he committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The newspapers have pleaded a truth defence.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Person 41 is the first Australian-based witness to testify for the media outlets.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">He described stepping over the rubble of a bomb-destroyed wall to enter a courtyard where Mr Roberts-Smith and other soldiers were standing.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">After finding opium and what he believed was bomb-making equipment in an adjoining room, he returned to the courtyard to find Mr Roberts-Smith, another soldier, and a squatting Afghan man.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Mr Roberts-Smith and the other soldier, referred to as Person Four, asked to borrow his suppressor.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">“I thought it was a strange request but I complied … thinking he must need it because he’s going to go into the tunnel,” Person 41 told the court.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">But he said that thought changed when Person Four attached the suppressor to his gun before walking back to the Afghan man with Mr Roberts-Smith.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Mr Roberts-Smith then grabbed the man “by the scruff” of his shirt, marched him to Person Four, and kicked his legs out, forcing him to kneel, and facing away.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">“RS pointed to the Afghan and said ‘shoot him’ and stepped to the side,” Person 41 said.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">“I didn’t wish to witness what was about to happen,” he said, recalling that he stepped back into the opium room before hearing a single, suppressed shot from a M4 carbine rifle.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">He waited for another “15 or so seconds” before walking back into the courtyard, where only Person Four stood.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">“There was a dead Afghan at his feet.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">As far as he could remember, nothing was said as Person Four returned the warm suppressor to him.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Mr Roberts-Smith previously testified that the suggestion he ordered the man’s death “shocked” and upset him, saying his “professionalism was being targeted by these individuals and such an outrageous claim was being made”.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">An alternate claim that Person Four shot the Afghan man on the orders of another SAS operator, codenamed Person Five, was also dubbed as “completely false” by Mr Roberts-Smith.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">His trial against the newspapers has resumed after a six-month hiatus due to the NSW lockdown and strict border closure in WA.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Though some journalists can attend a live web stream, the public are unable to view it due to concerns of any “inadvertent disclosure” of national security information by witnesses, the judge has ruled.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Instead, redacted recordings of each day of the trial will be uploaded to the court’s YouTube channel within 24 hours.</p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;margin: 0px 0px 5px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline"><em style="margin: 0px;padding: 0px;border: 0px;vertical-align: baseline">Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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Our story of joy in spite of cancer

<p><em><strong>Brigitte and George Prince share their inspirational story of finding joy and happiness in the face of cancer.</strong></em></p> <p>A year ago, my husband was diagnosed with a lymphoma, found accidentally during an endoscopy. George had been having regular endoscopies since Barrett's Oesophagus had been diagnosed a couple of years earlier. Doctors worry that the change in cells is pre-cancerous. Now a definite cancer had been identified. Fortunately, it was not an aggressive type of cancer, being labelled 'indolent' or lazy and the specialist's advice was for regular monitoring, to check when it might 'fire' up.</p> <p>At the next endoscopy six months later, things hadn't changed. It was still there, but hadn't progressed; whew! We thought ourselves lucky to have studied “Laughter Wellness Therapy” which kept us stress free, especially as I, Brigitte had also been diagnosed with cancer of the breast, three months after George. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="320" height="240" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45902/image-1.jpg" alt="Image 1 (2)"/></p> <p>We knew that two things were very important: keeping stress at bay to help healing, and also providing our bodies with peak nutrition to give ourselves the best chance possible. </p> <p>The benefits of laughter are numerous but in the current situation, the most important benefits were the potential to annihilate stress as well as being able to still feel happy and relaxed. It's not possible to feel stressed at the same time as having fun, and stress must be eradicated so the body can use its resources for healing rather than coping with stress. Laughter can activate your 'feel good' inner chemicals within about 45 seconds, so you can feel better almost instantly, if you so choose.</p> <p>It is entirely within your power to choose to be happy (even if you don't feel like it) and one of the easiest ways to do this is to laugh deliberately or intentionally. Although your mind can tell the difference from spontaneous laughter, the body reacts to the deliberate laughter as if were 'real' and you can feel better in no time. Repeat at regular intervals and include singing, humming, dancing and playfulness. Find ways to have fun, including with food. It worked wonders for us.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="240" height="320" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45901/image_.jpg" alt="Image_ (24)"/></p> <p>We had developed extra healthy food habits a few years earlier, but now determined to really concentrate on providing our bodies with as many nutrients from wholefoods as possible. This became easy when I found a wholefood website with easy and very yummy recipes. Eating became great fun, even when we decided to 'go the extra mile' and cut out animal protein.</p> <p>We'd read 'The China Study' which demonstrated how cancerous tumours in rats, shrank when animal protein was withdrawn from their diets (and re-emerged if it was introduced) and we considered it worth a try. Fortunately it hasn't 'hurt' a bit and we've been thrilled with the results.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="320" height="240" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45898/image-3.jpg" alt="Image 3"/></p> <p>At the last check-up with George's specialist, he astounded us by saying that if George continued with his very healthy lifestyle, then there was a chance (as the lymphoma hadn't yet progressed), that his own immune system had a chance of beating the cancer on its own, without any radical treatment. That was enormously encouraging and our diligence paid off as, at the next endoscopy, (last week), it was no  longer visible except for 'a minor distortion of the villi.' The report went on to say that 'This is the site of the previous lymphoma'. The biopsy from the site did show signs 'consistent with follicular lymphoma' so we were not entirely out of the woods yet but to quote the report again, 'Certainly this has improved'. Yipee!</p> <p>Could this be coincidence? </p> <p>Perhaps not as the other aspect of this good news was that there was no longer any sign of changed cells at the end of the oesophagus; no sign of Barrett's Oesophagus! Yay! We had worked out what foods caused reflux for George and had cut these out so that the oesophagus was no longer irritated.</p> <p>Everyone's case and body are different so we wouldn't dream of recommending anything specific but we would encourage everyone to do their own research and then give themselves the best chance possible of a long, healthy, joy-filled life, full of love and laughter and good food.</p> <p>To assist with this mission, we have set up Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/laughter4wellbeing/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Laughter4wellbein</strong></span></a>g and Facebook group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/614397368770561/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Laughing4wellbeing</strong></span></a> (anyone can join). You'll find lots of tips for fun with food and laughter to help you rise above any circumstances.</p> <p>Let’s drink a toast to a life of joy! (with a green smoothie perhaps!)</p>

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