Marines identify two of four troops in ‘utterly deplorable’ video of U.S. soldiers urinating on dead Afghan bodies… as experts say their behaviour is down to STRESS

• U.S. officials have proclaimed their disgust, including Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta and John McCain
• Afghan government is ‘deeply disturbed’ by video, says President Karzai
• Video emerged after an anonymous online post on Wednesday
  
• Secretary of Defense orders top-level investigation into incident

By DANIEL BATES, LEE MORAN and HUGO GYE

A top military psychologist has suggested that the reason American soldiers urinated on dead Afghan bodies was because they were ‘stressed’.

Eugenia Weiss, an expert from the University of Southern California, told msnbc.com: ‘These could be pranksters with extremely bad taste, or they could have other, deeper issues, like PTSD.’

The advice came as U.S. officials spoke out against the footage yesterday and said they have identified at least two of the four Marines in the video.

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Horrifying: A video posted online claims to show four Marines urinating on dead bodies

Grinning: One of the men can be heard saying: ‘Have a great day, buddy’ as his colleagues laugh and another jokes: ‘Golden like a shower’ and ‘Yeahhhh!’

The four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The official said that some of the four are no longer in that battalion.

The 40-second clip, which has been described a ‘recruitment tool for the Taliban’, shows four men in combat gear standing over the three corpses with their genitals exposed as they relieve themselves.

There were no further details on their identities.

The men can be heard joking ‘Have a great day, buddy’, ‘Golden like a shower’ and ‘Yeahhhh!’ as they groan with relief whilst urinating.

Mr Panetta has ordered a high-level investigation into the incident, which has drawn condemnation from the likes of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai.

‘Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent,’ said the Secretary of Defense, who has told the commander of western troops in Afghanistan to launch an investigation.

Secretary of State Mrs Clinton expressed ‘total dismay’ at the video and said it was ‘absolutely inconsistent with the standards of behaviour that the vast majority of Marines hold themselves to.’

Mr McCain, Senator for Arizona and a Navy veteran, said the perpetrators were ‘obviously undisciplined people’, adding that the video ‘makes me so sad’.

A spokeswoman for the Marines said: ‘While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps’

It is not clear if the corpses in the video belong to civilians or insurgents engaged in combat, although the film does appear to have been shot in Afghanistan.

The anonymous person who posted it included the caption: ‘Scout sniper team 4 with 3rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans.’

Mr Karzai said in a statement: ‘The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating the dead bodies of three Afghans.

‘This act by American soldiers is simply inhumane and condemnable in the strongest possible terms. We expressly ask the U.S. government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime.’

A Taliban spokesman said: ‘First they killed the Afghans with mortars, and they then urinated on their bodies. We strongly condemn this inhumane action by the wild American soldiers.’

The video has sparked anger across Afghanistan, with the top negotiator from Mr Karzai’s High Peace Council, Arsala Rahmani, saying it will have a ‘very, very bad impact on peace efforts’.

He added: ‘Looking at such action, the Taliban can easily recruit young people and tell them that their country has been attacked by Christians and Jews and they must defend it.’

The film is likely to spark a huge diplomatic row between Washington and Kabul and rekindle memories of the abuse meted out by American troops at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

Condemnation: Leaders including Hillary Clinton and Hamid Karzai have been quick to express their disgust at the Marines’ actions as apparently shown in the video

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan described the acts as ‘highly reprehensible and disgusting’.

ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings said: ‘The behaviour depicted in this video is reprehensible and is not in keeping with the values of U.S. Armed Forces.’

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said the video was deeply troubling: ‘Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances, which we know is under investigation, it is egregious behaviour.’

And the Council on Islamic-American Relations, a prominent Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, also quickly condemned the video.

The group wrote in a letter faxed to Defence 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.

‘If verified as authentic, the video shows behaviour that is totally unbecoming of American military personnel and that could ultimately endanger other soldiers and civilians.’

The video adds to a list of embarrassments that includes the abuses from Abu Ghraib, pictured

The three corpses are all male and are wearing civilian clothes. The youngest lies on his front with an overturned wheelbarrow dumped by his side.

The other two are on their backs and one has a large blood stain on his chest.

Marines spokeswoman Kendra Hardesty said: ‘While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, 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 and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions.’

Lieutenant Colonel 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.’

The footage emerged on Liveleak.com where some people left comments in support of what the soldiers had done.

One commenter wrote: ‘We’re all proud of you guys’, while another put: ‘The first bath they have had in years!’ and ‘cut their heads off and bury them with a pig’.

However others were disgusted and wrote: ‘Not cool.. fight with honor and dignity for others, you sign up to get shot at so deal with it , set an example for future Soldiers. dont pee on the dead.’

Camp Lejeune is in North Carolina and is the largest Marine Corps Base on the East Coast of the U.S., home to 40,000 marines.

The 3rd Batallion 2nd Marines consists of 800 Marines and sailors and is nicknamed the ‘Betio Bastards’, a reference to the island of Betio in the Tawara Atoll and the site of one of the most deadly battles with the Japanese in World War II.

More recently they have served in Iraq, the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and in Afghanistan. Their motto is: ‘We quell the storm, and ride the thunder!’ or ‘Strength and Honour’.

Addressed: The Council on Islamic-American Relations has written to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, pictured here with U.S. President Barack Obama

News of the footage had yet to reach the streets of Kabul today, but Afghans who were told about what the tape appears to show were horrified.

Sayed Abdul Samad, an elderly man with a long white beard and a white turban, said: ‘According to Islam and international law it’s against humanity and it’s illegal.’

Feda Mohammad, a middle-aged man in jeans, a jacket and a woollen hat, said: ‘They’ve committed a crime. We don’t want them in our country. We don’t like foreigners in our country and they have to leave.’

Qaisullah, a 44-year-old shop keeper near the capital’s Shah-e-dushamshera mosque, called for the soldiers in the video to be punished.

He said: ‘The government has to discuss with the U.S. government the prosecution of those soldiers so in future nobody will be able to make fun of Afghans.

‘I haven’t seen the video but I’d say it will harm our country and peace talks. It starts just with footage on TV but will end up with demonstrations around the country and maybe the world.’

The image of American troops has been battered by a series of scandals involving troops behaving appallingly whilst in Iraq and Afghanistan. The further revelations are likely to make winning the hearts and minds of locals in the field even harder.

The most shocking instance was the abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad in 2004 where detainees were piled naked into human pyramids for the amusement of their American guards.

Other inmates were put on wooden platforms with a hood over their heads and told they would be electrocuted if they stepped off. There were also reports of rape, sexual abuse and other forms of torture. Eleven soldiers and a number of officials were disciplined over the scandal.

There was also the ‘Thrill Kill’ squad which murdered three Afghan civilians for sport and took their body parts as trophies. Their leader, Sgt Calvin Gibbs, 26, was jailed for life for blasting innocent bystanders to death at random then covering his tracks by leaving grenades next to their bodies.

Nine other members of the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division were also implicated. British troops were also accused of abusing and urinating on an Iraqi detainee.

The photos used to back up the story were later proved to be a hoax but not before they were dubbed ‘a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda’.

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