{"id":115231,"date":"2021-07-05T13:26:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T17:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=115231"},"modified":"2021-07-05T13:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T17:26:46","slug":"marine-veteran-cleared-of-urination-on-taliban-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=115231","title":{"rendered":"Marine veteran cleared of urination on Taliban involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LiveLeak video showing Marines and dead Taliban fighters.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James Clement, then a captain in the Marine Corps, found out that Marines under his command pissed on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters. During the investigation that followed, Clement discovered that the nature of the investigation was aimed at charging him. He was not aware that the incident or the video occurred.<\/p>\n

He received an honorable discharge; however, it was for “substandard performance”. His luck turned around when the Board of Corrections of Naval Records sided with him. The reason for his discharge is going to be changed. Additionally, he is going to get a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.<\/p>\n

From the Marine Corps Times:<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially, then-Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser was assigned, as the top-ranking Marine in Afghanistan, to investigate the incident and dole out punishment.<\/p>\n

In that investigation, Clement said, he was interviewed by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents and didn’t fear for any consequences on his part.<\/p>\n

“My initial thought was … how could I be blamed for something I had no knowledge of,” Clement said.<\/p>\n

But then-Commandant Gen. James Amos ordered another investigation when Waldhauser’s decisions resulted in nonjudicial punishment for some of the six scout snipers and Uniform Code of Military Justice violations for others.<\/p>\n

It was when he re-interviewed with NCIS on that investigation that Clement’s feelings about his fate shifted.<\/p>\n

“Whoa, they’re going to accuse me of crimes here,” Clement said he remembered thinking.<\/p>\n

Even during his Board of Inquiry hearing, then-Gen. John F. Kelly testified to the Corps that Clement should receive an official apology for what he had been through.<\/p>\n

The Board of Corrections of Naval Records’ 12-page report calls out Amos’ involvement with the case, citing a 2017 Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals decision to dismiss charges against Staff Sgt. Joseph Chamblin, one of the Marines involved in posing with the Taliban corpses.<\/p>\n

The board notes that Amos “directly interfered” with the cases, saying Chamblin and others charged “should be ‘crushed.'”<\/p>\n

The board also noted that authorities pursuing charges against the Marines withheld evidence.<\/p>\n

Clement, speaking with Marine Corps Times on Friday, credits the Chamblin decision with his record being cleared by the board.<\/p>\n

Despite those findings, the Board of Corrections of Naval Records Executive Director Elizabeth Hill countered the board’s decision, saying that Amos’ comments did not have any effect on Clement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Marine Corps Times has more on this news at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Clement, then a captain in the Marine Corps, found out that Marines under his command … Marine veteran cleared of urination on Taliban involvement<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115232,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115231\/revisions\/115232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}