Marine Video Fallout

Marine Corps Appoints General to Investigate Video

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2012 - Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos has appointed a three-star general to investigate and take any required administrative or disciplinary action stemming from a video circulated on the Internet that appears to show four Marines urinating on the corpses of enemy fighters in Afghanistan.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, is officially designated as the "consolidated disposition authority" for the allegations surrounding the video. That designation places authority in one commander to initiate any necessary investigations and take any administration or disciplinary action that results from those investigations, Marine Corps officials said.

Waldhauser's investigation will be conducted in coordination with the ongoing Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the incident, officials added.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said yesterday the behavior depicted in the video is "utterly deplorable," and he ordered the Marine Corps and the International Security Assistance Force to investigate. "Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent," Panetta said in a statement.

ISAF officials said the command has begun a thorough investigation.
 

Biographies:
Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser





http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/allen-west-marines-incident-shut-your-mouth-war-hell_616699.html

Allen West on the Marines Incident: 'Shut Your Mouth, War Is Hell'

Daniel Halper

January 13, 2012 1:37 PM

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.

"I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

"All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

"The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

"As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell."

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Sean P Eagan

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