QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — A U.S. Marine Corps panel is recommending that an officer be forcibly discharged for failing to supervise a group of snipers who posed for a video while urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The panel of three colonels issued its ruling Thursday against Capt. James V. Clement after a three-day hearing at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The panel found Clement’s performance of duty was substandard. Two lieutenant generals will now review the recommendation and determine whether Clement should be given an honorable discharge.
A YouTube video showing the Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., urinating on corpses during a July 2011 patrol received international condemnation. Three enlisted Marines previously pleaded guilty at courts martial.
Defense lawyer John M. Dowd maintains Clement is a victim of political correctness at the Pentagon.
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