WASHINGTON: The US Defense Department is investigating allegations that Marines distributed indecent pictures of female service personnel taken without their knowledge, officials said Monday.
The explicit photos, shared on a secret Facebook page, which has since been taken down, reportedly showed female Marines and other women in various states of undress.
Posts on the website, called Marines United, also contained lewd comments about some of the women.
“The Marine Corps is deeply concerned about allegations regarding the derogatory online comments and sharing of salacious photographs in Marines United, a closed website. This behavior destroys morale, erodes trust and degrades the individual. The Marine Corps does not condone this sort of behavior, which undermines its core values,” the United States Marine Corps (USMC) said in a statement on its website.
Any Marine who “shared a photo of another person that was taken without that person’s consent and under circumstances in which that other person had a reasonable expectation of privacy... could be subjected to criminal proceedings or adverse administrative actions,” the statement added.
Fox News reported that those with access to the site included active-duty and retired male Marines, navy personnel and British Royal Marines.
CNN said on Monday that the scandal is being investigated by The Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The head of the US congressional committee that oversees the military called the website “unacceptable.”
“Revelations of this sort of treatment against fellow Marines are troubling,” said Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
“Degrading behavior of this kind is entirely unacceptable. They and the nation deserve better.
“I expect the Marine Corps to investigate this matter fully with appropriate consequences for those who willingly participated.”
Pentagon investigates female Marine’s indecent photos
Pentagon investigates female Marine’s indecent photos
French police raid home of culture minister in graft probe
- Raid comes as Rachida Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year
- Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling
PARIS: French police on Thursday searched the homes of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as the ministry and the Paris town hall she presides over, as part of a corruption probe, prosecutors said.
The police raid comes as Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
Dati, 60, has been accused of accepting nearly 300,000 euros ($343,000) in undeclared payments from major energy group GDF Suez while a member of the European parliament between 2010 and 2011. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The national financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday said the raids came after it had opened an investigation on October 14 into Dati over possible corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling.
Accusations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez first emerged in French media reports in 2013 and the European parliament’s ethics committee questioned her.
French investigative television show “Complement d’Enquete” and the Nouvel Observateur magazine renewed the allegations in June.
Dati wants to become the French capital’s second woman mayor in a row in the March 2026 municipal vote.
She hopes to replace Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, 66, who is to step down after two terms in the post.
