Staff NCOs among Marines in urination video - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Staff NCOs among Marines in urination video

Two staff noncommissioned officers, including a platoon sergeant, were among the Marines filmed last year in Afghanistan appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses, a Defense Department official confirmed to Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.

Both men are staff sergeants with a scout sniper platoon assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, an infantry unit based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the source said on condition of anonymity as investigations into the incident are ongoing. One was the platoon’s senior enlisted Marine.

The other two men seen in the video are lower ranking enlisted personnel, the source said. All four are still on active duty.

Investigators have identified the individual who operated the video camera, but that Marine has since left active duty, the source said. No names have been released, and no one has been charged with a crime.

The story was first reported Wednesday by McClatchy Newspapers, which cited two military officials as saying poor discipline was an issue within the unit before it deployed to Afghanistan’s Helmand province in early 2011. Command climate will be studied as part of the investigation, officials told McClatchy.

The initial McClatchy report suggested the sniper platoon commander was among the Marines appearing in the video. The Defense Department official said that is incorrect. No officers appear on the video, the official said.

The battalion, then commanded by Lt. Col. Christopher G. Dixon, returned to Camp Lejeune in September and October, having spent seven months in the contested Musa Qala and Now Zad districts. Six Marines and a sailor died due to the fighting there.

Dixon has declined to discuss the video, telling Marine Corps Times in January that the battalion held a change-of-command ceremony, as planned, on Dec. 1 and that, as such, he is not involved with the unit or the investigations.

The 39-second video surfaced Jan. 10 and drew immediate condemnation from U.S. military and political leaders. Commandant Gen. Jim Amos vowed to investigate the matter thoroughly and “take any necessary resulting administrative or disciplinary action.”

Amos has directed criminal and internal probes, with the Naval Criminal Investigative Unit leading the former. The latter is overseen by Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, head of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, who appointed a fellow three-star, Lt. Gen. Steven Hummer, head of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North, to lead a command investigation.

The four Marines seen in the video were identified within 48 hours, but were initially reluctant to speak with investigators and refused to let them search their belongings.

Officials in Afghanistan continue to investigate claims that an Afghan solider accused of killing four French troops Jan. 20 was motivated to do so because of the Marine video.