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The video is believed to have been shot in July 2011 in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Five other Marines have already pleaded guilty.
Two more Marines — including the first officer to be implicated — have been charged in connection with a video that became public last year showing Marines urinating on the dead bodies of insurgents in Afghanistan, the Marine Corps said Friday.
The video, which showed four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead men, set off protests across Afghanistan after it was published on YouTube early last year. Five other Marines, two of them sergeants, have already pleaded guilty in plea arrangements that brought light sentences.
The two Marines named in the new charges include the highest-ranked Marine so far implicated in the scandal, Capt. James V. Clement, now stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Va.
He faces an Article 32 hearing — similar to civilian preliminary hearing — on a raft of serious charges, including dereliction of duty, failing to properly supervise junior Marines, failing to stop the misconduct of junior Marines, failing to report misconduct and making false statements to military investigators.
Sgt. Robert W. Richards, who is now stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was charged with dereliction of duty, violation of a lawful general order and conduct prejudicial to the good order and discipline of the armed forces. Richards is alleged to have taken improper photographs that showed the mistreatment of human casualties.
Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, former commanding general of the Marines' Combat Development Command in southwest Afghanistan, will decide on their fates after their Article 32 proceedings, the Marine Corps said.
The incident is believed to have occurred in July 2011 in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, a significant center of Taliban activity and the scene of prolonged fighting between the Taliban and U.S.-led international forces.
The impact of the video rivaled that of the release of photographs showing alleged U.S. torture and human rights abuses against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, U.S. officials said last month when some of the other Marines pleaded guilty.
"Events like Abu Ghraib and the torture that happened there at that prison certainly acted as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida," said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Defense Department. "Certainly, we are concerned about any backlash that might occur."
Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, "That kind of behavior is deplorable, and I condemn it."
No date was set for Clement's and Richards' hearings.
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It's a psycho-territorial issue: you wanted to kill me, I killed you and I'm alive to pee on you, you're mine. It doesn't mean all that much more than the celebration of their being alive. It's a happy tinkle. I'm just glad they are alive to pee on them dead terrorists. Immature, irresponsible? yes sure, but how old are they all?
Plus the three dead Taliban probably had crapped their pants already.
I think it would be better if we were not at war in the first place.
What a bunch of handwringing crybabies, in Vietnam we cut their fing heads off and put them on sticks around our perimeter at night so their comrades would know they were tangling with Marines, and they would meet the same fate if we caught them coming into our perimeter. We never took any more prisoners after we found some of our Dead Marines with their penis and testicles stuffed into their mouths. Some of them were only wounded before suffering that fate, and bled to death like that. It gets very brutal when you've been slugging it out for months and months and months with no R&R and no new manpower to replace your dead and wounded. Get a grip, these people are the enemies of the free world. Without our forces out in front and fighting over there, take a good guess where the battlefield would be?? IN YOUR OWN NIEGHBORHOOD. Freedom is never free and comes with a big pricetag. Grow the f up and think about these realities.
Scary, I could have gone my whole life without knowing these details.
It seems to me perhaps a verbal reprimand would have been in order. Rather than all this righteous publicity that smacks of polictal correctness. just the opinion of a onetime enlisted Marine and vietnam veteran.
Right on Mike. I agree that they don't need the national and international publicity like they're evil people.
Why are the marines being allowed to walk around with cameras? Are they on vacation? Get the cameras and media out of the war and away from the front lines. I don't want to see the attrocities they are committing. No one really wants to know what's happening behind the scenes. Just do the job and get rid of the bad guys.
Text-ever since the camera was invented ,there have been people taking pictures of war. The real question, STOP THE WAR and bring the troops home .
There really is no wonder, that the military are having trouble getting volunteers.
Reading over the comments, I love the thought that the draft will have to be restarted
If you are in the Corps, get out, no use hanging around, the dem lefty pu$$ies don't want men they want homosexausls and women.
The attempts to charge you for your insurance, forbid smoking and forcing you to live cheek to jowl with the homosexual and wanting you to act like little girls in pinafores, tells you all you need to know
Urinating on a radical Muslim is a crime? That doesn't compare to the beheading of Americans. They should give them medals for crapping on them. We have no right to be there anyway-get the HELL OUT OF THERE. Bin Laden is dead-bring the troops home. The same thing will happen as in VietNam. I know, I was there. It will revert to what it was and all those American lives lost will be in vane.
I am a new VEt. retired last year. I have been over twice and I feel the same way you do. He is die and it is time to come home. To many people from here are getting rich over there. Look the wasted million on buildings they build and we pay for it and no one is using the buildings.
It's better to be pi$$ed off than pi$$ed on...
This is very dumb to charge them for this. They piss on the bad guys and they have no rights there. If we charge our service members for dumb things like this, leave this country and others and come back home. I served over there and we did worst thing than this and no on got hurt. People have no say so and need to shut the hell up. If you every got shot at or shot by this type of people, you do not know anything. Bring all service member home and we will not have to put up will this, and service members can enjoy there life in the USA. I think all RAG HEADS need to Die because they protect each other and spit in our face all the time. obama is one of the rag head and he loves them more then our US citizens.
Let these guys go! They did not do anything that was not done many times before and will be in the future.
Slap on the hands for the video idiot that took it, otherwise, watch your back guys and thank you for serving. Ah yes, and your service and protection is also for the whinie asses in this blog but, they forgot that.
By the way, anybody who thinks or believes we are over there in that @!$%#-hole to win their hearts and minds - Wake up IDIOT.
I am a new VET. retired last year. I have been over twice and I feel the same way you do. Bin is die and it is time to come home. To many people from here are getting rich over there. Look the wasted million on buildings they build and we pay for it and no one is using the buildings.
They need to SUE if they are getting a Article 32 hearing for being at a place that we have no more right there. We completed the job and Bin is gone and die. Obama and his Mulism brothers get there way, than sue Obama for sending you there and say it is because of "PTSD" made you do it and that you did not know what you were doing at that time. The Media says that is why everyone is killing others here. Oh yes, SUE the Media too. they lie about your story too.
PTSD, Tell them this is why.
Its ok to kill the Muslims but it's not ok to piss on them...what's the US afraid of...that maybe pissing on dead Muslims will piss off the live Muslims...I'm for giving the Marines Medals and more ammunition...the pansy ass civilians need to turn the Marines loose on the Muslims...if the Marines could fight without their hands tied, you wouldn't have to try to decide when the war was over...
It is expensive American perfume so all those virgins they are promised will get a better smelling corpse.
The only real mistake these Marines made was to make the video in the first place.
2/10/13 I can understand the Need to Piss All Over the Enemy that's trying to Kill You everyday !
But why in the Hell did You make a Video then post that video for the whole world to see.
Now That was Very Dumb. SPW Drafted July 1969 "Airborne"
They behead and we piss. We LOSE!
The U.S.M.C. has "one job", to kill the enemies of the U.S.A., and their friends. If they get a little stress relief from urinating on those who've been killing, and maiming their comrades in arms, so what?
From a "human morality" standpoint, what these soldiers did was wrong but frankly, I don't blame them one bit. These insurgents have no sense of morality themselves. They desecrate their women and children, they behead victims and drag their bodies through the streets, yet there is never any outcry over that. They are all about "an eye for an eye" over there - taking a leak on POS doesn't compare to what these barbarians have done.
The only way for a bonehead to deal with desecration is with more desecration. That is what differentiates boneheads from normal people.
There is an outcry about their disregard for human life. Why do you think most countries in the world have troops on the ground in the coalition of the willing? I'd say that's a pretty good indication of outcry.
www.defendsgtrichards.com or search for Support Rob Richards on facebook. Read the real story here. Not the one the military dishes out. ASK the news why they keep failing to print about OUR boy's legs - their buddy - being paraded around for a week and then hung in the trees. Ask why the news fails to report just how wounded this particular Marine from this link is that we are prosecuting now (hint - 100% disabled - go to fb site to see the bloody pictures of this hero).
I was DISGUSTED with the command when I got a link to this young Marine's support site and found the real story behind this guy. He should be retired out and in treatment, yet politics says we must toss him in jail? Hasn't he paid enough? What do we want - MORE blood? These guys did not post this video online - why isn't command searching for that dude?