Amos vows to investigate desecration of dead - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Amos vows to investigate desecration of dead

The Marine Corps’ top general has condemned a web video appearing to show Marines in Afghanistan urinating on dead Taliban fighters, and called for criminal and internal probes into what has quickly mushroomed into an international incident that threatens to undermine the U.S war effort.

“The behavior depicted in the video is wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history,” Gen. Jim Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, said in a statement issued Thursday morning. “Accordingly, late yesterday I requested that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service pull together a team of their very best agents and immediately assign them responsibility to thoroughly investigate every aspect of the filmed event.”

At least two of the four men have been identified as members of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., said a Marine official, speaking on condition of anonymity, according to the Associated Press. Some of the four are no longer in that battalion, which returned from Afghanistan last fall, said the official, who gave no other information about them.

While NCIS starts its investigation, Amos also has assigned a Marine general officer and a senior attorney to head an “internal preliminary inquiry.” It’s not immediately clear who those officials are, although both have “extensive combat experience,” Amos said in his statement. Once the investigation and inquiry are complete, the service will take “the appropriate next steps.”

“Rest assured that the institution of the Marine Corps will not rest until the allegations and the events surrounding them have been resolved,” Amos said.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai described the activity depicted in the video as “completely inhumane.” He called on the U.S. military to punish those responsible.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus vowed to do just that, offering this blunt statement Thursday afternoon: “We hold the U.S. Marine Corps to the highest possible standards, and the behavior shown in the video failed to uphold those standards in every possible way. Anyone who is found responsible for these actions will be held appropriately and fully accountable.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta took a hard line, too, branding the video “utterly despicable” and promising accountability. He stressed, however, that its origins and authenticity have not yet been confirmed.

The Taliban issued a statement Thursday indicating the video would not derail emerging efforts to broker a peace agreement with the U.S.

Marine officials at the Pentagon learned of the video Wednesday after receiving a media query from The Sun, a British tabloid, said Capt. Kendra Hardesty, a Marine spokeswoman at the Pentagon. The 40-second clip, titled “Marines peeing on taliban,” has spread to numerous websites, attracting thousands of views and comments — some of them criticizing the men in the video and condemning the Marine Corps at large.

A caption beneath the video identifies the men as members of a scout sniper team assigned to 3/2. While the identity of their unit has not been confirmed, one does hold an M40 bolt-action sniper rifle used by Marine snipers.

That infantry battalion returned to Camp Lejenue in September and October from a standard seven-month deployment to Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Its Marines saw intense action in and around Musa Qala, a violent district located in northern Helmand.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.