Marine says song about killing Iraqis a joke

updated 5:56 p.m. ET June 14, 2006

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - A Marine seen in an Internet video singing about killing members of an Iraqi family says the song was a joke.

Cpl. Joshua Belile, 23, apologized and said the song was not tied in any way to allegations that Marines killed 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha last year.

“It’s a song that I made up and it was nothing more than something supposed to be funny, based off a catchy line of a movie,” he said in Wednesday’s Daily News of Jacksonville.

In the four-minute video called “Hadji Girl,” a singer who appears to be a Marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iraqi woman’s family after they confront him with automatic weapons.

Maj. Shawn Haney, a Marine spokeswoman, said Wednesday the Marine Corps was looking into the matter. “The video, which was posted anonymously, is clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines,” she said in a statement.

Belile did not return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Blowing girl’s parents ‘to eternity’
“Hadji Girl” tells a story of a Marine who falls in love with an Iraqi girl and is taken to meet her family. The girl’s family shoots her and then attacks the Marine, who uses her younger sister as a shield and watches blood spray from her head.

He then sings about blowing the father and brother “to eternity.”

“I think it was a joke that is trying to be taken seriously,” said Belile, who learned the video was on the Internet after he returned from Iraq in March.

He said his buddies pushed him on stage with his guitar while he was in Iraq in September and someone posted it on the Internet. It has since been removed.

“I will never perform this song again, and I will remove all video and text in relation to this that I have control of,” he said.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the video should be investigated by the Pentagon and Congress.

“We welcome Cpl. Belile’s apology,” he said. “The inappropriate actions of a few individuals should not be allowed to tarnish the reputation of all American military personnel.”

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