Urinating on Taliban corpses not 'desecration'
Source: Agencies |
March 21, 2013, Thursday
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URINATING on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan was in "poor taste" but it wasn't desecration, according to the lawyer for a US Marine.
Sergeant Robert W. Richards and three other Marines were videotaped relieving themselves on the corpses during a July 2011 mission in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. The video shows four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three Afghans. One Marine looks down at the bodies and says, "Have a good day, buddy."
The video surfaced on YouTube in January 2012, around the same time that US troops were involved in other incidents that infuriated many Afghans. Troops faced controversies over burning Muslim holy books and posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains, and one soldier was accused of the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers.
Richards is charged with multiple counts of dereliction of duty, violating orders and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. The charges outlined at the hearing will determine if there's evidence to proceed to a court-martial.
Prosecutors allege that besides taking improper photos and video images, Richards failed to properly supervise fellow Marines who indiscriminately fired their weapons.
Their operation into a Taliban safe haven was designed to pursue bomb-making experts believed responsible for killing a corporal whose leg was later found hanging from a tree, said Sergeant Joseph W. Chamblin, one of the Marines caught urinating on camera and one of the mission's planners.
Another Marine in the video who pleaded guilty, Sergeant Edward W. Deptola, said he, Richards and others urinated on the enemy fighters out of anger. "Killing them wasn't enough," Deptola said, "because of what they had done to us, done to us in the past 10 years and what all terrorists have done to us in the past 30 years."
Sergeant Robert W. Richards and three other Marines were videotaped relieving themselves on the corpses during a July 2011 mission in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. The video shows four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three Afghans. One Marine looks down at the bodies and says, "Have a good day, buddy."
The video surfaced on YouTube in January 2012, around the same time that US troops were involved in other incidents that infuriated many Afghans. Troops faced controversies over burning Muslim holy books and posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains, and one soldier was accused of the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers.
Richards is charged with multiple counts of dereliction of duty, violating orders and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. The charges outlined at the hearing will determine if there's evidence to proceed to a court-martial.
Prosecutors allege that besides taking improper photos and video images, Richards failed to properly supervise fellow Marines who indiscriminately fired their weapons.
Their operation into a Taliban safe haven was designed to pursue bomb-making experts believed responsible for killing a corporal whose leg was later found hanging from a tree, said Sergeant Joseph W. Chamblin, one of the Marines caught urinating on camera and one of the mission's planners.
Another Marine in the video who pleaded guilty, Sergeant Edward W. Deptola, said he, Richards and others urinated on the enemy fighters out of anger. "Killing them wasn't enough," Deptola said, "because of what they had done to us, done to us in the past 10 years and what all terrorists have done to us in the past 30 years."
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