Marines to be court-martialed in urination case

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. / CBS

(AP) WASHINGTON - Two Marine non-commissioned officers will be court-martialed for allegedly urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters last year in Afghanistan and posing for unofficial photos with casualties, the Marine Corps said Monday.

The charges against Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin and Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola are in addition to administrative punishments announced last month for three other, more junior Marines for their role in the urination episode.

The disclosure in January of a video showing four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead men led to a criminal investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as well as a Marine investigation of the unit involved, the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which fought in the southern Afghan province of Helmand for seven months before returning to its home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., last September.

In the video, one of the Marines looked down at the bodies and quipped, "Have a good day, buddy."

In a statement Monday, the Marine Corps said disciplinary actions against additional Marines will be announced later. It also said there are "other pending cases related to this incident," but said no specifics would be made public now.

The urination video was one in a string of embarrassing episodes for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in recent months. American troops have been 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 now in U.S. confinement.

The Marine Corps said the urination took place during a counterinsurgency operation in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province on July 27, 2011. The decision to court martial Chamblin and Deptola was made by Lt. Gen. Richard P. Mills, the commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

When the video came to light on YouTube, U.S. military officials sternly condemned the misconduct. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he feared that it could set back efforts to begin reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

Chamblin and Deptola also were charged with other misconduct alleged to have happened on the same day as the urination incident. That includes dereliction of duty by failing to properly supervise junior Marines, failing to report their misconduct and failing to require them to wear their personal protective equipment.

When it announced in August that three enlisted Marines had been given administrative punishment but would not be court martialed in the urination case, the Marine Corps said one had pleaded guilty to urinating on the Taliban soldiers and posing for a photograph. It said another Marine pleaded guilty to wrongfully videotaping the incident and also posing for a photograph, and a third pleaded guilty to failing to report the mistreatment of human casualties and lying about it. The names of those three Marines were not released.

[BethNewdigate]

Only demonstrating acts which were likely encouraged, solicited, or induced by common orders of superior officers.

Dismiss this case.

[BWB2020]

ottoharkaman September 25, 2012 1:55 AM EDT
*** BWB2020 Like I can go visit Persepolis and not get my throat cut but they can visit here..."

Common sense says "Don't go to Persepolis", problem solved.

No guarantees of your supposed "right" to go to lands where you are not welcome, and expect safety. With your attitude, that would probably include quite the larger part of the world.

"...Come on who are you defending?..."

Those who are defending themselves, property and people from foreign military occupation

[ottoharkaman]

I think the thing that aggravates me the most locally is the many Iranian people who even here in Lexington Ky have lucrative posts at the detriment of local people. I know an Iranian girl who makes 50k+ here at the University of Ky where the local income is only 12k+. ***!! she does nothing to deserve such an amount of money when anybody locally is only making $10hr at the University.

[ottoharkaman]

I wish I would have told off some guy tonight at the arboretum who was speaking Aramaic in a phone to speak English, he looked like an imam. Screw these people let the all go back to Iran!

[BWB2020]

If you ever voted GOP, this is what you asked for, the market pays her what it does, and your politicians made it that way.

She has done nothing wrong, she qualifies for the job, so she gets the job. No "quotas", isn't that the GOP argument against affirmative action?

Do you know precisely what she does, and why it is not worth that which her paymaster has agreed to pay, or are you simply bugged that her pay is higher then yours?

And what does being Iranian have to do with anything?

With a name like Otto, should we automatically assume negativity towards you for possessing such a Slavic name?

Works both ways, ya see.

So if you are aggravated, look in the mirror to assign blame. You voted to create the system that you now complain about.

[BWB2020]

So indicative of American stupidity that soldiers can be told to hate with such disrespect, people whose only "wrong" was resisting and defending themselves against a hostile force in their land committing genocide against them, on the basis of lies and orders given by Bush.

It must be an empty, twisted soul indeed that can show such unnecessary disrespect towards someone they never knew.

The soldiers should not only face court-martial, but if found guilty as charged, also turned over to the local authorities for their crimes.

"Supporting the troops" does not automatically include supporting war crimes committed by troops, anyone defending such behavior is so far below human, that even bacteria are more evolved than they.

[ottoharkaman]

dweeb iranian!

[imnho]

The bigest reason for refraining is now the taliban will take it out on members of the armed forces who had nothing to do with the incident.

[angst1111]

This is what we can expect of our slum lord president. Obama the treasonist. People kill our young men, green on blue, understaffed US embassies and the collateral of politically run armies. But wait we pissed on a couple of knuckle dragging cavemen? Oh hang-em high you cowards.

[ottoharkaman]

Nothing is ever so simple. Whether you like him personally or not he is our president. He didn't start a multi-national war that has turned into a religious one. We never can trust the Afghan, Pakistan, Iran populace. Their cultures are all about passive aggressive resistance against occupying forces much like the Sicilians against the French and Spaniards through the centuries. We all knew we should get out, I don't understand why we are there. A highly mobile elite strike force is much more effective against revealed targets than then a large occupying force.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

by ottoharkaman September 24, 2012 8:51 PM EDT
Do we have a choice Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals?

----------------

Do you usually set your morality based on what the other guy does?

That kind of moral relativism is weak, and really doesn't count as "personal morals".

[ottoharkaman]

No I was just putting the ball back in your court. I am a civilian not any chain of command. I can ask you in a democratic way, what do you think? What should we do? You act like you are part of a democracy but then you say this is relativism and weak. Whats up? Don't you know your Plato?

[ottoharkaman]

The more I think about it the more I champion these guys. This is not a pretty European war that the Geneva convention was setup to regulate, between France, Prussia, Austria and Russia etc. This is truly a race war as primitive as **** Sapiens vs the Neanderthals. We are in a struggle of millennial against these people who will not stop at anything to kill or maim us.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

Then you advocate us stooping to the level of our enemies.

Be very ashamed. Our nation is much better than that.

[ottoharkaman]

how lame is that that the algorithms will not let me type in h o m o sapiens.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

Anyone who supports what these Marines did

1) has a low sense of morality

2) doesn't realize that the US should not stoop to the level of a 12th-century culture, and

3) doesn't care about putting our troops in even more harm's way than they already are in.

[matt6052]

No Taliban fighters were harmed in the making of the video.

[AOCGUY]

Smartass words for someone who most likely has never seen combat.