Internet Video by ‘Marine’ Raises Ire

The U.S. Marine Corps is trying to find out who is behind a video posted on the Internet that appears to show a Marine performing a song that makes light of killing an Iraqi family.

The four-minute video, posted anonymously on the website YouTube, shows the singer playing a song he calls “Hadji Girl” in which he tells of falling in love with an Iraqi, only to be fired on with automatic weapons by her father and brother.

As an unseen audience laughs and cheers, the performer -- dressed in a green T-shirt and what appear to be camouflage pants -- sings about using “her little sister” as a shield against his attackers.

“As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally,” the performer sings. “Then I hid behind the TV and I locked and loaded my M-16; I blew those little [expletives] to eternity.”

The singer also mouths Arabic-sounding words, borrowing phrases from the satiric movie “Team America: World Police.”

It ends: “They should have known they were [expletive] with the Marines.”

In Arabic, hajji refers to a Muslim who has made a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but it is frequently used by U.S. soldiers with various spellings to refer to Iraqis, often pejoratively.

Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a Marine spokesman, said the Corps was looking into the video but had yet to open a formal investigation. He said U.S. officials were not certain Tuesday of the singer’s identity, or whether he is in the military.

“The video that was posted anonymously is clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines,” Fazekas said. “The inappropriate actions of a few individuals should not tarnish the reputation of all American military personnel.”

The video was removed early Tuesday from the YouTube website, but by later in the day a YouTube user had reposted it.

It was brought to the Marines’ attention by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Washington-based civil rights group.

The organization said that in light of recent allegations that Marines had killed Iraqi civilians without provocation, including 24 in November in the town of Haditha, the video should be investigated.

“We welcome the Marine Corps statement, but we also expect that those who participated in this incident will be identified and disciplined appropriately,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, who also called on Congress to conduct hearings on the video and other incidents.

The YouTube user who newly posted the video Tuesday attached a note on the site saying, “I reposted this vid as a protest to CAIR.” The note also stated support for the “Marine” in the video and included an anti-CAIR website address.

CAIR said the video was originally posted in March and had been viewed by almost 50,000 people. Comments posted on the site in response to the video had ranged from praise to condemnation, the organization said.