Marine pleads guilty to Taliban urinations
This still image made from a video posted on YouTube purports to show U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban militants in Afghanistan. The image was obscured to disguise the men pictured before the video's authenticity was confirmed. / CBS
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. A U.S. Marine has pleaded guilty to the bulk of the charges against him for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and then posing for photos with the corpses.
Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola was accused of the desecration of remains and posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties. He was also accused of failing to properly supervise junior Marines and not reporting the misconduct.
Deptola pleaded guilty to multiple charges Wednesday under a plea agreement reached with military prosecutors.
At the hearing, Deptola admitted that he failed to properly supervise his Marines and did nothing to stop them from taking pictures of the dead. He also admitted intentionally urinating on the corpses.
Deptola and another Marine based at Camp LeJeune, N.C., were charged last year after video surfaced showing four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead Afghans in July 2011. In the video, one of the Marines looked down at the bodies and quipped, "Have a good day, buddy."
Political fallout over Marines video
As CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported after the video's disclosure last January, the Marines in the video were members of a 1,000-man battalion that had completed a combat tour in Afghanistan and returned to Camp Lejuene, where they apparently started showing the video around as a war trophy.
Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin pleaded guilty to similar charges last month. Chamblin was sentenced to 30 days confinement, reduced in rank, fined and ordered to forfeit part of his pay for six months. Three other Marines were given administrative punishments for their roles in the matter.
Marine's punishment scaled back in urination case
The urination video surfaced amid a string of embarrassing episodes for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. American troops were caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains and an alleged massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a soldier.
The Marine Corps said the urination took place during a counterinsurgency operation in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, located in the south of the country.
After the video garnered international attention on YouTube, senior military officials sternly condemned the behavior of the Marines involved.
The United States now has 66,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. and its NATO allies agreed in November 2010 that they would withdraw all their combat troops by the end of 2014, but they haven't decided on the scope of future missions in the country and the size of any residual force remaining after that.
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Yes, we pissed on their dead bodies and sometimes **** in their faces. I will bet this happens in all wars especially when the fighting is heavy and the enemy is crude, rude and lude.
Airborne all the way.
Rape also happens in wars, do you consider that to be nothing more than a "perk" of your job?
If so, then you are not worth what you claim to have done on the faces of the Koreans.
Yes, we pissed on their dead bodies and sometimes **** in their faces. I will bet this happens in all wars especially when the fighting is heavy and the enemy is crude, rude and lude.
Airborne all the way.
However, I do wonder if you would have the same disregard had your own loved ones been murdered while defending themselves, and then been subjected to the same desecration.
The last war that was fought for the purpose of defending the US was the Civil War, to date, there are still those who are dissatisfied with the outcome.
Those modern "soldiers" are in other peoples' lands on orders based on lies and racism, they are committing genocide for the sake of war profiteers bank accounts, and nothing more.
The after-the-last thing they are doing is defending the US.
At best, they are a free mercenary service for corrupt multinational corporations who couldn't care less about the lives lost on all sides.
The knee-jerk war worshiping baggers here defending or trying to justify the actions of these miscreants should have some foreign corporation bribe some government to invade and occupy the baggers' own neighborhoods, killing, raping, and torturing the residents, including their own loved ones, then desecrating the bodies of their victims.
Then they should then be expected not to react, or show any anger towards the foreign hostile force in their neighborhoods, and read be forced to postings in the media that their lost loved ones deserved to have had their corpses desecrated in such a manner.
These ASPD-afflicted miscreants should be stripped of any rank, courts-martial-ed, fined, incarcerated, then DD-ed from the service.
While we are at it, the Bush/Cheney klan should be brought to justice for treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
After which, Mr. Obama should answer for all such crimes occurring during his terms, as well as obstruction of justice re the Bush/Cheney conspirators.
"Lighten up."
When the dead victims of the US genocide are resurrected, and restored to their former state before Bush's lies began the genocide, only then will I "lighten up".
But for as long as they are dead, then Bush is guilty of genocide.