Pentagon condemns Marines’ behavior in graphic video, as unit identified

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday harshly condemned alleged behavior in a video that appears to show U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. The Pentagon chief said he'd ordered a full investigation into the alleged incident, which comes amid sensitive diplomatic initiatives to try to advance reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

"I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable," Panetta said in a press statement sent to Yahoo News Thursday. "I condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

Pentagon investigators have already identified two of the four U.S. Marines who appear on the video, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

"A Marine official said Thursday that the four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which returned to its home base in North Carolina last fall after a tour in Afghanistan," the AP report said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation, said that "at least some of the four Marines are no longer in that battalion," the AP said.

The video--which went viral after being posted to YouTube on Wednesday--appears to show four American Marines urinating on the corpses of three Taliban fighters. (Due to its graphic content, Yahoo has posted an edited version of the posted video from ABC News, which you can see above.)

"Have a nice day, buddy,' one of the alleged U.S. Marines said on the video.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday "condemned the video, describing the men's actions as 'inhuman' and calling for an investigation," Reuters reported.

Panetta called Karzai Thursday to convey his horror at the alleged incident and promise a full investigation, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Panetta told Karzai "that the conduct depicted in the footage is utterly deplorable, and that it does not reflect the standards or values American troops are sworn to uphold," Little told journalists in a press readout of the call Thursday.  "The Secretary also noted in the conversation that he has ordered that the video be immediately and fully investigated."

Panetta ordered the Marine Corps and the top U.S  commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen to launch an immediate and full investigation of the alleged incident, which will hold the responsible parties accountable for their conduct.

He was joined in his condemnation by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who said the alleged behavior by a few individuals in the video does not represent the honorable conduct and service of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops.

The video has surfaced at a sensitive moment in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. American envoys have stepped up their push to broker negotiations that include the Afghan insurgents. Such efforts are aimed at bringing greater political stability to Afghanistan--and thereby allow for the eventual withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces from the country.

Among the possible provisions in the latest diplomatic push are plans for the Taliban to open a quasi-embassy in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The United States is also reportedly considering the possible extradition to Afghanistan of five Taliban prisoners now held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a possible confidence building measure.

So far at least, Taliban officials indicated the video controversy wouldn't derail plans for further discussions between the Taliban and American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"We know that our country is occupied," a Taliban spokesman said in a Reuters report Thursday. "This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage."

But a new, secret U.S. intelligence assessment raises doubts about the prospects for success of any negotiations with the Taliban.

According to a report Wednesday by McClatchy News' Jonathan Landay and Nancy Youssef, the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assesses that the Afghan insurgents have not abandoned their aspirations for "reclaiming power and reimposing harsh Islamic rule" in  Afghanistan, Landay and Youssef wrote.

This post was updated at 3:00 p.m. EST with the AP report that two of the Marines in the video have been identified.

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Karzai condemns video of urination on corpses

WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday condemned a video depicting what appears to be four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

A presidential statement described the act as "completely inhumane" and called on the U.S. military to punish the Marines.

The Marine Corps said Wednesday it is investigating the YouTube video but has not yet verified its origin or authenticity. The case has being referred to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Navy's worldwide law enforcement organization.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense also condemned the actions in the video, which it described as "shocking."

The NATO-led security force in Afghanistan released a statement Thursday saying, "This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces."

The International Security Assistance Force said the actions "appear to have been conducted by a small group of U.S. individuals, who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan." The statement did not identify the personnel or explain why the ISAF thought they had left the country.

 

Sen. John McCain, a Navy veteran who fought in the Vietnam war, said the incident "makes me so sad."

McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Marine Corps one of America's strongest institutions and said its image has apparently been tarnished by "a handful of obviously undisciplined people."

Appearing Thursday on "CBS This Morning," the Arizona Republican said, "There should be an investigation and these young people should be punished."

 

On Wednesday, the Council on Islamic-American Relations, a prominent Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, protested the video in a letter faxed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

"We condemn this apparent desecration of the dead as a violation of our nation's military regulations and of international laws of war prohibiting such disgusting and immoral actions," the group wrote.

"If verified as authentic, the video shows behavior that is totally unbecoming of American military personnel and that could ultimately endanger other soldiers and civilians," the letter said.

Marine Corps headquarters at the Pentagon said: "The actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps. This matter will be fully investigated."

A Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton, added, "Allegations of Marines not doing the right thing in regard to dead Taliban insurgents are very serious and, if proven, represent a failure to adhere to the high standards expected of American military personnel."

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, said the video is deeply troubling.

"Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances — which we know is under investigation — it is egregious behavior," Kirby said.

It is unclear who shot the video and who posted it online.

___

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

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U.S. condemns reported Iran death sentence for former U.S. Marine

The State Department said Monday that it was working to confirm Iranian state media reports that an Iran revolutionary court had sentenced an American citizen and former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati to death on charges of spying for the CIA.

"If true, we strongly condemn this verdict," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement Monday. "Allegations that Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA, are simply untrue."

Hekmati "has 20 days to appeal the court's decision," the Washington Post's Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran.

Hekmati, 28, a former U.S. Marine Arabic language translator in Iraq, was born in Flagstaff, Arizona of Iranian descent and raised in Michigan. His family in Michigan, former colleagues and American officials say Hekmati never served in the CIA and was in Iran to visit his grandmother.

Hekmati's parents said they "are shocked and terrified" by the news, his mother Behnaz Hekmati wrote at the website the family set up to advocate for Amir's release, FreeAmir. "We believe that this verdict is the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."

Amir Hekmati on vacation in Colombia in 2010. (Courtesy of Hekmati family/Yahoo News)

"Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or 'fighting against God,' as the convicting Judge has claimed in his sentence," his mother's press statement continues. "A grave error has been committed, and we have authorized our legal representatives to make direct contact with the Iranian authorities to find a solution to this misunderstanding."

Hekmati had the permission of the Iranian interests section--the U.S.-based diplomatic outpost for the Islamic republic--in Washington D.C. to travel to Iran in August to visit his elderly grandmother, his family has told Yahoo News. After his arrest on August 29, Iranian officials initially urged the family to keep quiet in order to facilitate his release.

But in December, Iranian state media aired video of Hekmati allegedly confessing to having worked as a CIA agent--charges his family and friends vehemently deny and which they said appear to have been given under duress.

Hekmati joined the Marines in 2001 after graduating from high school. He was posted to Iraq after attending language school in Monterey, Calif. He left the Marines in 2005, and later worked for various companies, including based in Kansas for the government contractor BAE Systems from March until September 2010, Yahoo News previously reported.

Former U.S. Marine Jared Bystrom told Yahoo News Tuesday that Hekmati called him last year to propose launching a business together. Bystrom and Hekmati had been posted by the Marines to the defense language school in Monterey, California in 2001, where Hekmati studied Arabic.

Another friend and former colleague of Hekmati's, Chase Winter, told Yahoo News last month that Hekmati had told him he was thinking of going back to school to get a business degree.  Hekmati visited Winter in South America last September 2010 for a week's vacation, Winter said.

Hekmati's Facebook page until shortly after his Iran TV video "confession" last month featured photos of himself in various locales he had traveled and worked--hardly demonstrating the behavior of someone trying to conceal his activities, his associates note.

American officials again called Monday for the Iran government to give Swiss diplomats consular access to Hekmati, to allow him to meet with a lawyer, and to release him "without delay."

"Securing the freedom and safety of this young man is the top concern of the U.S. government in this case," a U.S. official who requested anonymity said Monday. "Unfortunately, the Iranian government is not doing the right thing here.  They have a track record of falsely accusing individuals of espionage for leverage."

International human rights groups also called on Iran to reverse the sentence, and raised concerns about the apparent lack of due process Hekmati was granted. Hekmati is the first American to be sentenced to death in Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, Amnesty International said.

"Like many other detainees in Iran, Amir Hekmati did not receive a fair trial and we question the timing and political circumstances of this decision," said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's interim director for the Middle East and North Africa. "We know from past experience that the Iranian authorities sometimes rush forward with executions of political prisoners — including dual nationals — at politically sensitive times and we fear that this execution could happen within days or weeks."

"We are seriously concerned regarding the death sentence, secrecy, and continued lack of transparency surrounding the prosecution of Iranian-American citizen Amir Hekmati," the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's Hadi Ghaemi said in a press release Monday. "We ask the Iranian judiciary to adhere to international standards of due process and allow independent observers in the courtroom at his appeals trial."

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