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.Uh.
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.
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 the commandant, his counsel and the 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.
Wow.
"The withdrawal of the charges was another act of cowardice by the Commandant..."
Power doesn't corrupt. It reveals a corrupt character. The Marine Corps needs to ask itself how it produced a General Officer (that would eventually rise to become Commandant) that is so lacking in so many areas.
If Amos was simply incompetent, he'd be an embarrassment. But he's more than that. He's morally bankrupt, has engaged in criminal behavior and exhibits traits that are undesirable in a Marine Officer, much less the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Amos MUST GO.
Marines have a well-deserved rep for telling it like it is (and I'm ex-Army).
ReplyDeleteMC Times:
Col. Jesse Gruter and Maj. James Weirick, two Marine staff judge advocates . . . have raised repeated concerns about unlawful command influence by senior officials at Marine Corps headquarters in all of the urination cases.
Weirick filed an explosive inspector general complaint in March that accused Commandant Gen. Jim Amos, or others acting on his behalf, of deliberating and unlawfully seeking to exert influence on the cases of Clement and the seven other Marines who faced disciplinary action following the investigation. Weirick, acting as a whistle-blower, also alleged that senior Marine officials sought to cover up their involvement in the cases.
[There was] a signed declaration from Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who acknowledged that he was removed as the consolidated disposition authority overseeing all the legal cases after he had a disagreement with the commandant over how much punishment was warranted.
The commandant told Waldhauser he wanted all of the Marines involved “crushed,” the three-star general’s declaration states.
http://tinyurl.com/perccdh
The Commandant wants some Marines "crushed"?
That's a novel leadership gambit in a legal matter.
not a gambit. an assumption by Amos that another Marine General is as corrupt as he is. when he realized that General Waldhauser wasn't he started attempting to cover his tracks.
DeleteThis General Amos needs it broke off up in his ass.
ReplyDeleteI have a new one for you in matters like this. Let's handle it via the W.W.C.D.
"WHAT WOULD CHESTY DO?"
ReplyDelete