Marine Corps backs off on urination case
AW1Ed and Andy sent us a Washington Times link to an article about the Marine Corps backtracking on charges against Capt. James V. Clement for his part in the case related to Marines who urinated on Taliban corpses;
Defense attorneys for Capt. James V. Clement had won a judge’s order, over objections from Marine prosecutors, for two staff attorneys to testify in open court about how senior commanders had interfered in the case to get a guilty verdict.
The lawyers also were seeking to question Gen. James Amos, the commandant, and wanted access to his private emails.
But the criminal case ended Friday when Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck, who heads Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., and was overseeing the prosecution, filed a brief court paper withdrawing the charges.
You might remember that Clement’s defense hinged on General Amos’ command influence preceding the charges being brought and so they wanted to see Amos’ email traffic between him and his staff in regards to the case.
“That email traffic would have revealed that [the commandant] and his lawyers had engaged in a secret, corrupt effort to rig and control the investigations and dispositions of the so-called desecration cases until Capt. Clement refused to submit to a corrupt process [of being] charged with crimes he did not commit,” he said.
Yeah, well, now we’ll never know, will we? Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck also ordered that Captain Clements undergo an administrative board of inquiry to determine if he is at all responsible for the incident. So it ain’t over yet.
Category: Marine Corps
so what effect does this have on the enlisted soldiers that had their lives ruined by malicious prosecution and the same general interfering in their prosecution? oh, thats right, this guy is an officer. silly me, officers look out for officers, no one will look out for the enlisted.
Can the enlisted guys verdicts be overturned on appeal then? This is the highest case of Blue Falconing in the Corps. The corps “leadership” should be held accountable for this bullshit. I want heads rolling for treating warfighters like such trash.
@1 & 2, I would hope that their lawyers are looking into the issue of Unlawful Command Influence in their cases. Seems that they could make a powerful argument that Gen. Amos wanted a certain outcome in their courts-martial.
Any way it shakes out ANY Marine, officer or enlisted that was railroaded will be screwed over at any pretext if they decide to stay in.
After the bullshit that got pulled on them they have a good reason to get out and find a better way to make a living.
As far as the administrative board for the Cpt, I don’t think they will kick him out, that would be too obvious. But you can bet he wont be seeing that gold oak leaf ever.
the pussification of the Military begins again,,,after Tailhook,,it was all over. glad i’m out
“But you can bet he wont be seeing that gold oak leaf ever.”
Ditto. His USMC career is finished.
Well, this officer would’ve issued a verbal reprimand for filming the whole situation. Very poor judgment to record such behavior.
Pissing on a Moslem corpse? Waste of good urine.
They’ll probably reassign him to latrine duties somewhere in BFE…to ride out until his retirement. This should get interesting now for the enlisted that got their butts smoked.
From first hand experience, General Amos did indeed elude he wanted all cases which “bring discredit to the Corps” handled in a certain way during his “Heritage Brief” in Quantico 2 years ago. I mentioned elsewhere, describing quite a few senior officers and SNCO’s leaving the auditorium after he spoke, and SgtMaj Barrett started to speak. It was all SNCO’s and officers in that room, and we were ALL put on notice we were being “watched”, and if we stepped out of line, the commandant basically said he would personally take an interest in seeing any names that crossed his desk suffer. I listened to what I could tolerate, went to the head, threw some water on my face, and went back to the shop. I missed the other 50 minutes of the presentation, but it was evident what was being said.
We’re seeing it unravel now. I’m glad I’m out of uniform, tool – but I sorely miss being around Marines. They need protecting, and they’re not getting it. That I regret.