We Can't Say We Didn't Know

by Sophie McNeill

Dispatches from an age of impunity by the ABCTV award-winning investigative reporter and former foreign correspondent Shortlisted for the 2020 Walkley Book Award

For more than 15 years, award-winning journalist Sophie McNeill has reported on some of the most war-ravaged and oppressive places on earth, including Syria, Gaza, Yemen, West Bank and Iraq.

In We Can't Say We Didn't Know, Sophie tells the human stories of devastation and hope behind the headlines - of children, families and refugees, of valiant doctors, steadfast dissidents and Saudi women seeking asylum. These innocent civilians bear the brunt of the lawlessness of the current age of impunity, where war crimes go unpunished and human rights are abused. Many risk everything they know to stand up for what they believe in and to be on the right side of history, and their courage is extraordinary and inspiring,

McNeill also examines what happens when evidence and facts become subjective and debatable, and how and why disinformation, impunity and hypocrisy now reign supreme. We can't say we didn't know - the question now is, what are you going to do about it?

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Middle East, Politics, Australia, History

434 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2023

Reviews

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘What had our world become?’

A friend’s review led me to this book. I read it, horrified by both the stories and the fact that most of them have received so little coverage in much of the media. I am not completely ignorant of the issues covered but I am more aware of issues in Gaza and on the West Bank than the others covered. I filed ‘why?’ in the back of my mind as I read.

Make no mistake, this is a harrowing read. In several places in the Middle East, people have lost their homes and their liberty. Many have lost their lives, others their livelihoods. And many face starvation. Ms McNeill makes this personal. This book includes account of individuals, of families who have fled to Europe seeking refuge, of families divided by war and circumstance, of children who have starved because their homes are besieged, of women seeking to escape from oppression. And the politics of war: how power trumps humanity.

So, what are we doing about it? Very little it seems.

More recently, we have become focussed on the situation in Ukraine. And yet, what is happening there now has been happening in parts of the Middle East for far longer. Why do we care about some situations more than others? Why do some atrocities receive a few seconds of coverage to then be ignored. We have just spent a fortnight of media saturation following the death of a 96-year-old woman. What are our priorities?

An uncomfortable read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Crouton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this was the world we had created, where war crimes were allowed to be carried out live, day after day with no consequence, then we were – at the very least – required to watch and recognise the full cost of our inaction. – Sophie McNeill

I genuinely believe this is one of the most important and impactful books I have ever read. I read this over the course of several months. Partly because it was so dense in information, but also partly due to the intense and distressing nature of it which is at times very hard to read.

I will admit to not being very well educated on the various ongoing crises that are always occurring in the Middle-East. I think over the years I had developed almost a numbness to the entire thing. When a bombing or mass killing occurred in a Western country I’d be glued to the news. But when it happened in the Middle East I found it sad but not shocking as that’s just what happens over there. I understand that my empathetic attitude towards it, as well as millions of others worldwide is contributing to the bigger picture of why these atrocities can keep happening. The world continues to turn a blind eye and not give these situations the global outcry they deserve from fear of upsetting political relationships and alliances between countries.

McNeill’s book is the perfect antidote to this empathetic and uneducated attitude. Rather than just being a story about her, or just an information dense retelling of the major wars in the Middle-East, it’s a story about individual people she met during her time there. Of doctors, lawyers, activists, prisoners, children, refugees etc. She gets into the nitty gritty of these horrible situations by exploring the real people at the core of them. Detailed accounts of starvation, torture, abuse and suffering are scattered amongst stories filled with hope for the future. At times this book was brutal and infuriating and yet I always went back for more. I think McNeill is an inspiration and extremely strong to have seen and endured all she did but continue to fight for justice and expose the truth the world. I think everyone should read this book.

[Tundra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a relentless and devastating reconstruction of numerous events across the Middle East that have resulted in loss of liberty and home, devastation, starvation, imprisonment and death for the civilian populations of numerous countries. Using her first hand experience and investigative journalistic skills McNeill carefully explains how despotic leaders, ambivalence and greed continue to see millions of people displaced or living under tyranny. This book made me feel despair, horror and rage (which I could also sense directly from McNeill during her reading of this audio book).
While I was aware of many of the individual events that she recounted I wasn’t aware of many of the connections between events. I am also aware of how much misinformation is circulated by governments with vested interests. How we choose to vote for our politicians is often the only direct way we can sway our own government response to these issues and it will definitely be something I will continue to do.
There are some truely horrific crimes being perpetrated and I feel so sad.

[Elsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Gripping. Shattering. Vivid.. McNeill has seen a lot. A lot we should all know, or do know, and feel hopeless to prevent. This book is a call to shake up our international system. What is its use if the impunity of regimes can continue to devastate civilians and the world/world leaders can choose to turn away?

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very, very hard to read this book...

Sophie McNeill is well-known to viewers of the ABC.  This is her profile at Human Rights Watch:

Sophie McNeill is the Australia researcher for Human Rights Watch, based in Western Australia. She was formerly an investigative reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners program where she produced programs on the Hong Kong protest movement and the mass arbitrary detention of Xinjiang’s Muslims by the Chinese government. Sophie was also a foreign correspondent for the ABC and SBS in the Middle East, working across the region in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and Turkey, as well as Israel/Palestine. Sophie has twice been awarded Australian Young TV Journalist of the Year and in 2010 won a Walkley Award for her investigation into the killing of five children in Afghanistan by Australian Special Forces soldiers. She was also nominated for a Walkley in 2015 for her coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis. In 2016 she won two more Walkleys for her coverage of Yemen and besieged towns in Syria. Previously, she worked as a reporter for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent and SBS’s Dateline programs and she is a former host of triple j’s news and current affairs program Hack.

We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know: Dispatches from an Age of Impunity provides more comprehensive details, background and insights than TV reportage allows.  There are profiles of individuals and families caught up in Middle Eastern conflicts, and there are harrowing stories of refugees stranded on a Greek island two days walk from help without food, water or warm clothing.  There are stories of families separated in the chaos, or left behind in peril because there isn't enough money to pay people smugglers for all of them.  Children literally starving to death in Syria and Yemen, the failures of the UN, and sickening information about Australian complicity in arms sales and defence force training for Saudi Arabia's bombardment of Yemen.

The titular chapter, 'We Can't Say We Didn't Know' is about the siege of Aleppo.  Aleppo is the site of the family burial plot in the novel  Death is Hard Work (2016) by Khaled Khalifa, (translated by Leri Price) which I reviewed here.  In that novel Bolbol's makes an epic quest to fulfil his father's dying wish, but even in death Bolbol's father is a trouble-maker because he has been providing medical help to the opponents of Assad's regime. As McNeill testifies, Assad targeted medical facilities, in direct contravention of international humanitarian law.

By mid 2016, Aleppo was a shell of its former self.  Before the war, the northern city had been the most populous in Syria, home to more than 2.3 million people, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  Thousands of tourists had flocked to Aleppo each year, to explore the famous covered markets and visit the World-Heritage-listed ruins of the ancient citadel overlooking the city.  But Aleppo had since hosted some of the fiercest fighting in the Syrian civil war.  In early 2014, after the regime began targeting Aleppo with a barrage of barrel bombs and airstrikes on the rebel-held east and opposition forces shelled the west, hundreds of thousands of residents had fled north to live as refugees in Turkey.  The UN estimated 200,000-300,000 civilians remained in the east, while over one million lived in government held west Aleppo.

As Sam [a volunteer surgeon from the US] entered the opposition-held neighbourhoods, he saw an apocalyptic wasteland. Row after row of apartment blocks had been obliterated by the Syrian air force.  Deeper inside the city, civilians scurried between the ruins, trying to retain some semblance of normal life, refusing to submit to the death that came in waves from the sky.  (pp.159-160).

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/09/07/w...

[Alycia K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my best book of 2020. I’ve just finished and I’m left with goosebumps and blinking back tears. I cannot recommend this book enough - I will be screaming about it from the rooftops for a long time. It is impeccably written, accessible and welcoming to those who have little global political knowledge, whilst also challenging and continuously informative enough for those who do. Sophie’s writing is incredible, and her storytelling is otherworldly; it makes the people she writes about insanely tangible. She largely withholds her own opinion until the last few chapters, letting evidence and others’ stories speak for themselves. This book is literally *perfect*. Please read this. Please please please

[Melinda Nankivell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very difficult book to read due to its subject matter, but an absolute must read. Powerful!

[Alan Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not for the faint hearted but at the same time is a must read. I learned of many heroic people living and working in intolerable situations. I learned about the cruel, merciless acts of people in power against civilians, especially children. I learned what an incredibly difficult job foreign correspondents have, bearing witness to what happens and telling us all about it. I learned about the hypocrisy and complicity of Governments like ours in the suffering, sacrificing integrity for economic gain. It's not the first time I have felt ashamed to be Australian.
Sophie McNeil's account of the brave escape of the young Saudi Arabian to asylum in Canada is a page turner.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book felt like I was reading a Wikipedia page
....with a heavy dosis of pathos.
You feel the emotions of sadness or pity
which has come from telling the harrowing experiences people
who were caught up in the Middle East conflicts.
Pathos is used as a way to emotionally appeal to the listener or reader.
You may like this book.....but it did not resonate with me.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things stand out for me after reading Sophie McNeil’s excellent recounting of the many humanitarian crises she witnessed during her time as the ABC Middle East Correspondent.

War mongers, be they entire countries or despotic rulers have little or no regard for the lives of the innocent who find themselves at the centre of either national or international conflict. For the citizens of Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Yemen, life’s basic necessities of food, drink and shelter are swept away, medical and hospital care is at best rudimentary and at worst non-existent and the use of bombs and deadly chemicals to control ‘the masses’ and to root out dissenters is common practice. It is little wonder that many people so abused are prepared to risk their lives on the open seas to seek asylum in what they hope will be countries sympathetic to their plight.

The checks and balances instituted by the international community via organisations such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court are too often ‘not worth the paper they are written on’. All too easily, resolutions made to prevent humanitarian disasters are overturned by the votes of rogue nations and the resources meant for the disadvantaged in trouble zones are either withheld or squandered.

McNeil’s work is a sobering, worthwhile read featuring the stories of innocent, devastated civilians, courageous doctors, medical workers and frontline humanitarian workers and ordinary citizens acting in extraordinary ways for the good of their families and countries.

[Christine Bowker Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a way I feel uncomfortable criticising this book but it is from a publishing angle, and not against its author. Sophie McNeill is a courageous broadcaster and it required someone of special calibre to cover the dangerous and heart-breaking events she has witnessed in the troubled Middle East. The end notes also reveal a vast amount of meticulous research to back her comments. But We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know is poorly edited. McNeill needed a strong hand to demand some changes. Perhaps against her will? It would have been a better book less some hundred pages. And why no index? Such a topic covering explicit different countries cries out for one. In fact the first thing I looked for was an index. While in no way denying McNeill’s determination to expose the horrors of war in the region, I feel she got carried away with too many personal aspects of some of the good folk she encountered. At times it reads like an exorcism, a valiant effort to expunge the horrors and discomforts she has experienced. I was interested to read in particular her chapter on Yemen but it went on and on in an attempt to explain the political situation in this lovely country which does not sit well with her accounts on Syria etc. The best chapters were the final ones — a riveting account of helping 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed escape her family in Saudi Arabia. I hope We Cant Say We Didn’t Know (catchy title) sells well in recognition of her courageous efforts. She just deserved stricter editing and possibly proof reading.

[Darcy French · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really powerful book that privileges the voices of those whose who we don't normally here. Their stories are heartbreaking, they are inspiring, and they make me angry. We live in a world of such gross injustice, and such gross inequality, and I can't see a way forward. Hopefully, maybe, reading books such as this can help us to increase our shared awareness and understanding of the cruel suffering humans enforce on other humans across the world.

Human rights much be upheld and fought for everywhere.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent. Sophie McNeill’s capacity to describe people and events with such careful consideration makes you feel as if you are right there with her as she meets the people she discusses in this book. The stories that she tells are poignant and so very well told. I can not recommend this book enough. I will be buying copies of this book for so many friends this year as I want them to read it and educate themselves.

[Elysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I thought I knew a lot about what went on in the world, but this really opened my eyes to how limited my knowledge was. It is sad, eye-opening, beautifully written and hopeful. This is an extremely important book that you should definitely read!

[Jacob Langham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very well researched and factual account of the sociopolitical and economic issues ravaging through the Middle East. The personal accounts were a strength and provided a humanist aspect to the reporting. The section pertaining to the escape of Rahaf Mohammed was excellent journalism, this was the main strength of the book. It proved the care that Sophie has for the issues she reports on - risking her own safety, security and freedom for someone else's quest for a better life. Despite these strengths, it provided too many facts, statistics and international legal rulings. It became a recount of these harrowing facts rather than presenting alternatives / solutions to the issues. There is only so many times you can refer to international laws being broken before it becomes trivialized and irrelevant. Overall, insightful and passionate journalism which was unfortunately a tad too lengthy.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking, egregious, cruel and evil actions documented meticulously by Sophie McNeill as nonfiction, yet with narrative style and pace, testament to the crimes of governments around the world that should not be forgotten. Highly readable, and if I could rate this higher I would.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this is like letting yourself be stabbed into the heart a hundred times. I needed to take multiple breaks and come back to it. Five stars.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world is a desperately unfair place for so many people.

Sophie McNeill was ABC's Middle East correspondent (2015-2018); this was during the time of the war in Syria, the subsequent refugee crisis, and war in Yemen, as well as the usual recurring political issues in the Middle East (oppressive dictatorships, terrorism, etc.). In this book, McNeill chronicles stories of the people she came across in her work.

Each of these stories is deeply tragic. Every page delivers more events that must have had permanent and long-lasting impacts on the victims; a school bombed during exams, people searching landmined fields in desperate search of food, people drowning at sea, people's loved ones dying or being taken away and tortured, hospitals being targeted by bombings.

When reading there is no time to feel the true weight of all of these tragedies before moving onto the next sentence. But the scale of the tragedy this book documents is truly devastating. In the words of one of the women in this book, these stories are the "small details amid the wreckage".

McNeill's overall point is that these tragedies were widely reported and well known, and nothing was done from authorities or foreign bodies to stop them. Assad was and is able to continue his war crimes without punishment, refugees are left to die, Saudi Arabia continues to be able to destroy and impose famine on Yemen.

McNeill touchingly dedicates the book to "all the brave, beautiful people I have met along the way who deserved so much better in this life".

[Lee McKerracher · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book! Journalist Sophie McNeill's experience on the front line in many countries across the Middle East is evident in her compassionate accounts of the horror and atrocities that thousands face each day. Sadly it also highlights the ignorance globally of the plight of people and how their cases are not given the attention and action they should receive. The lack of political will and public outcry leave many to face a hopeless future.

McNeill also includes a chapter on her involvement with asylum seeker Rajaf Mohammad and how social media and the media worked together to force action so this young woman would not be returned to Saudi Arabia - but this is only one example of when things work, there are many many more where the support is simply not there.

A book everyone should read, take in and as McNeill says - work out what we are all going to do about it.

[Melbourne Reader]

This is an excellent, compelling and deeply moving. disturbing and infuriating book. McNeill is a first-class journalist, and her reporting, sources and analysis is highly professional. But what makes this book and her journalism particularly distinctive is the approach she uses of focusing on people and how their circumstances and lives are affected [which is far too mild a word sadly...] by the politics around them. This is reminiscent of the writing of the great Robert Fisk. Whilst this focus on people is not unique in reporting, McNeill is distinctive for the degree, depth and detail she uses to build from the personal to the political. The result is a strong picture of, and feeling for, these people, accompanied by a comprehensive and damning explanation of the reasons for their dreadful and sad circumstances. But what makes it even more powerful is the deep well of compassion that McNeill, to her eternal credit, possesses and writes with. She is well aware of how this might compromise her journalistic objectivity and does her best to manage it and name when it might be an issue - and accompanying that are brief but effective side swipe at those such as some of her editors who seem more concerned to not upset the readership when, for example, she tweets blunt pics of children dead from chemical warfare.
I found it impossible to read this book without taking constant breaks. The chapters were each so tragic and deeply moving; and it needs to be said [screamed...?] that her coverage of politicians, politics and the attendant constant cruelty, indifference and glib dismissal of the suffering and horror she describes is infuriating.
We should be very grateful to McNeill for writing this book, and for her work over the decades. Journalists like her are critical for informing the world and holding the powerful to account. It can be assumed that her work has come at immense personal impact and thus it is important that, even though it might seem small, she is thanked and acknowledged.
It is easy to feel overwhelming despair as one works through this book - and I write this a week after Trump has been re-elected - but the title of the book is "We can't say we didn't know' and she uses that as her penultimate line followed by the concluding line "The question now is, what are you going to do about it?" What indeed...?

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The harrowing, often bystander account - or at least directly in contact with the person experiencing the most unimaginable human rights violations - of our current times. This is Sophie McNeil's, Australian award-winning ABC Middle East correspondent and advocate, bearing witness to the atrocities people are living through, and dying from, as she monitored, reported on, and received real time messages from everyday people on the ground.

Told through vivid, personal accounts, these are the stories of refugees fleeing Syria by boat to Europe to seek asylum. Of a radiology technician becoming the lead medical personnel in a heavily bombed east Aleppo. The cities and their people locked under siege, with no food or medical help for months. The young Saudi women trying to escape the oppression of the male guardian rules.

War, countries bombing and starving their own citizens, the targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers, the current double tap method of dropping bombs, then returning with a second hit to target those helping the injured. The very worst of humanity, happening right now or very, very recently. The political machines preventing bodies such as the UN from being the powerful help it was designed to be.

In the age of social media, live tweeting and video sharing, the accounts of these events are available via the device in our hands most of the time. People in grave peril, reaching out for help, for rescue, for the world to know what's happening. And most of the time, the inaction is stunning. Some images go viral for a time, most media organisations fail to report on continued situations, as a cruel kind of compassion fatigue.

But we can't say we didn't know about Syria. About Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia. The world knows about the genocide and apartheid of Palestinians. This book ensures we know so much more about it all.

A must read.

[Maz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you'd expect it to be.
A well researched book into humanitarian crises, those that cause them, and the unwillingness and inability of international players and the international community at large to do anything about it. This book begins to highlight the power plays within the middle east, and powers outside of the region with vested interests who allow and assist in the committing of atrocities for their own greed and gain.
None of this is new information, but it is a humanised presentation of how this plays out for individuals caught in the crossfire.
This book also highlights how deeply ingrained racism, prejudice, islamophobia, apathy, and greed are in the Australian system and the Australian response to human rights abuses. Australia is complicit in the imperialism and suffering inflicted throughout the world on people who have little to no control over their circumstances, only to then refuse those same people refuge and asylum, or worse place the in offshore concentration camps for fleeing violence and persecution.
We've boundless plains to share indeed.

[Norrie Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophie McNeill has assembled diverse stories from the Middle East, linked by her involvement as an ABC journalist and humanitarian. Refugees, war and authoritarian regimes are prominent. These are delivered to us in a way that brief television reports could not. They follow individuals or families and their ability to survive and sometimes thrive, in the face of overwhelming odds.
This book helps us understand recent conflicts and tragic events that are poorly documented from a civilian perspective. The reader cannot help but think about the issues raised and feel for the people who populate the pages. But the final chapter urges us to do something about it.
Read the full review at:
https://queenslandreviewerscollective...

[Glen Cowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most informative, confronting, infuriating yet inspiring reads I’ve had this year. My respect for Sophie McNeill, now a researcher with Human Rights Watch Australia, is immense with how willing she was to assist those in need in the book such as Rahaf Mohammed (the young Saudi girl who holed herself up in a hotel in Thailand to get asylum in Australia) to Nazieh Hussein (a Syrian man separated from his family in Greece and ultimately reunited with them in Germany). The book’s title is right in its premise. The world does know what’s going on but we seem to be obsessed with trivia and narcissism. I won’t go into a blow by blow account of all the stories in it but her challenge at the end of the book is apt ‘What are you going to do about it?’

[Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that will stay with you and haunt you for a long long time. Sophie has done a brilliant job in humanizing the stories of all those affected by the various situations in the entire middle east - and put a firm spotlight on the fact that we have become complicit bystanders. And thats because we buy the fearmongering, the selective messaging and the 'us-vs-them' narrative from our 'elected officials'.

This book will make you question the whole concept of freedom, human rights and international law - and the selective application of these concepts by the powerful countries that control the UN.

In Sophie's words: '..... we are now paying an unimaginable price - a world with seemingly no rules and no truth, where disinformation thrives'

[Hermine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an unflinching, devastating account of events in the Middle East, as reported by Sophie McNeill. I sighed and shook my head so many times in disbelief, disappointment and despair while learning about the human stories behind international politics and war. How embarrassing would it be, to be an Australian politician or government official, complicit in their inaction, or even sometimes, actively supporting and contributing to the violation of human rights. But I’m pretty sure they don’t actually care, and so will continue to act with impunity until the Australian public pays attention, and creates enough pressure to force political change.

[Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am enjoying reading this account so much. Some other war books feel like I'm reading a text book, where they are just reporting numbers on a page, that usually leaves me feeling slightly apathetic.
.
This one has no political jargon and is easy to read.
She mentions how understanding the ABC proroducers early on. Instead of just reporting and moving on when their contract ended they stayed and helped when they could even if all they could do is hand out bottles of water, band aids and muesli bars to refugees walking across countries.

[Scott Vawser · Rating 5 out of 5]

#wecantsaywedidntknow a new (2020) book written by #perth journalist @sophie_mcneill1 This is a powerful read. Distressing, eye opening, alarming and probably should have been placed in the horror section of the bookshop!! 😐 This is ‘human stories of devastation behind the headlines-of children, families and refugees, of valiant doctors, steadfast dissidents and Saudi women seeking asylum’. (The last chapter is of these women and shows our Border-force (as well as other countries) horrifically assisting the evil policies of Saudi Arabia.)
A must read...wear a safety vest and helmet!

[Zahraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book. I love that Sophie McNeill went straight to the place of action and documented from there, it makes her experiences and recounts all the more authentic. You can tell how much each and every story means to her, and much she wants to do good and see good in the world.

The last chapters about Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship laws and the experiences of Saudi women stuck with me the most, though. I will be looking into that more deeply and hopefully bringing light to that issue.

Thank you for this, Sophie.

[Arun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put on my running shoes for my evening walk and was listening to bassel's chapter. He writes to his friends through his wife from prison. After being moved to a less security prison he can see the sky for 6 hours a day. Instinctively I looked up at the clear blue brisbane evening sky. When I looked down I had tears in my eyes. By the time I finished my walk I was almost in tears desperately trying to avoid crying in public as the chapter almost came to a close with bassel's execution being confirmed