The Marine Corps has suddenly dropped criminal charges
against an officer in the infamous Taliban urination video case, heading off
what promised to be an embarrassing pre-trial hearing for the commandant on
Wednesday.
Captain James V. Clement had been charged with
dereliction of duty for "not properly supervising" Marines who
urinated on Taliban corpses. A video of the act went viral on YouTube, drawing
harsh criticism from the White House. (Captain Clement denies any misconduct.)
Defense attorneys for Capt. 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.
* AND WILL THESE SENIOR COMMANDERS THEMSELVES NOW FACE
COURT MARTIAL?
The lawyers also were seeking to question Gen. James
Amos, the commandant, and wanted access to his private emails.
* THE COMMANDANT...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
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.
* SOUNDS LIKE A COVER-UP TO ME! SOUNDS LIKE CYA FOR THE
TOP BRASS AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PEOPLE ABOVE THEM!
John Dowd, Capt. Clement’s principal defense counsel, had
accused the commandant of engineering the largest case of unlawful command
influence in the Corps‘ history. “The withdrawal of the charges was another act
of cowardice by the commandant, his counsel and the Judge Advocate Division of
[Marine Corps headquarters] to cover up the worst case of unlawful command
influence in the history of the Marine Corps, which was beginning next
Wednesday to be uncovered in a hearing before the Chief Judge … on several
motions to compel discovery,” Mr. Dowd said Saturday.
* GEEZUS...
The defense attorney said he wanted to see email traffic
between the commandant, his counsel and his legal division.
* SOUNDS LIKE THE APPROPRIATE HOUSE AND SENATE COMMITTEES
SHOULD BE LOOKING INTO THIS AS WELL!
“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.
* MY DAD WAS A MARINE. HE FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR TWO. I FEAR
HIS AMERICA IS DEAD.
Captain Clement’s defense counsel obtained a sworn
statement from Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, who had been overseeing all
urination cases as the convening authority. He told of a one-on-one meeting in
2012 with Gen. Amos in which the commandant said he wanted Marine defendants
“crushed” via courts-martial.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Citing that conversation, Capt. Clement’s attorneys
accused the commandant of blatant unlawful command influence that denied their
client a fair court-martial. They filed a motion to dismiss the charges, thus
setting up a series of public pre-trial hearings on Gen. Amos' conduct to begin
with Wednesday’s scheduled session.
Major James Weirick, a staff attorney at Quantico who was
to testify on Wednesday, filed a complaint with the Pentagon inspector general
over Gen. Amos' actions. An investigation is underway.
* YOU MEAN LIKE THE BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION? THE FAST AND
FURIOUS INVESTIGATION? THE INVESTIGATION INTO IRS TARGETING OF CONSERVATIVE
GROUPS?
* FOLKS... THE FOX IS GUARDING THE HEN HOUSE!
General Amos, through an aide, later told Gen. Waldhauser
he regretted his orders and decided to replace him. (General Waldhauser went on
to become Defense Secretary’s Chuck Hagel’s senior military adviser.)
* REGRETTED...??? WHAT ABOUT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY -
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...?
A Marine spokesman said earlier this summer: “The
commandant immediately realized that he had compromised the situation and took
immediate action to ensure that the investigation and cases were given to an
appropriate new convening authority who could exercise independent and
unfettered discretion to take action in those cases.”
General Glueck’s order did not explain why he was
dropping the charges.
He ordered that Capt. Clement undergo an administrative
board of inquiry, which will determine if he committed misconduct. The board
can decide if he should be retained or separated under less than honorable
conditions.
* IN ANY CASE HIS CAREER IS OVER... WHILE AMOS IS...
STILL COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS.
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