America's Marine Corp steamy selfies scandal, a Senate probe – and El Reg to the rescue

Next Tuesday, US Senators will hold a special hearing into America's ongoing military sex scandal. Archives of compromising snaps of female US Marine Corps fighters are being shared online, and the Senate Armed Services Committee wants answers. This week it emerged that Marines United, a private Facebook group with thousands …

[Anonymous Coward]

Sexually exploiting women who can dismember you with little more than a glance.

Not really something I'd expect to be on many people's to-do list...

[kain preacher]

It's worse. One of the female marines had a tattoo shop. These idiots dropped by and harassed her over the phone and at her shop.

[Anonymous Coward]

These idiots dropped by and harassed her over the phone and at her shop.

Can they still walk upright?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Can they still walk upright?

Alternatively, do they have any rude messages tattooed on their foreheads?

[kain preacher]

Re: Can they still walk upright?

I was so hoping she had tattooed their testicles and penis .

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Can they still walk upright?

Better to give them a Girl With The Dragon Tattoo style tattoo on the chest to insure they never again reach the point where a woman sees their testicles and penis.

[kain preacher]

I was thinking, there lots of things that could be used as weapons in a tattoo shop. Also this is the US. She could just shot them and called it a day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: things that could be used as weapons in a tattoo shop

She's a US Marine. There's 17 things in her lunch she can kill you with. More if she cooked it herself.

[jake]

No doubt ...

... the idiot-in-chief is promising to "look into it".

[herman]

Re: No doubt ...

Well, obviously... Pics or it didn't happen!

[chivo243]

correction - Selfie?

hundreds upon hundreds of naked selfies, photos taken seemingly without the subjects' knowledge, and marines posing in uniform at work, or mid-sex act.

A selfie is a photo you've taken yourself of yourself... not photo's others have covertly taken, that would be a spyie?

How about we just drop this stupid term any way...

[Little Mouse]

Re: correction - Selfie?

Umm - it was actually a list of different types of photo, separated by commas.

That said - "selfie" is still a silly word.

[chivo243]

Re: correction - Selfie?

Funny, I read it as a continuation of the description of selfies... using a comma instead of making a run on sentence.

[JLV]

>"selfie" is still a silly word.

Perhaps, but quite necessary to have a word for it given the amount of time and energy devoted to it.

My personal exhibit A for stupidity:

- location: Hawaii, near a waterfall

- activity : couple taking selfies of themselves

- accessory: selfie-stick

- more precise location: in their car, camera held roughly @ rear-view mirror

And it's not even a convertible 8-\

[Kane]

Re: correction - Selfie?

"A selfie is a photo you've taken yourself of yourself... not photo's others have covertly taken, that would be a spyie?"

Technically it's known as a "CreepShot".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: correction - Selfie?

"hundreds upon hundreds of naked selfies"

Thing is, it's not new. Men and women in the armed forces have been taking and posting/sharing nude pictures of themselves for years. Yes, it seems to be mostly women, and a lot of them are topless or 'flasher' pictures, some being taken while on deployment. It's as if they use this as a way to let off steam, or they were flaunting the rules as well as their bodies, trying to prove something such as they can be soldiers and still be women.

It's just interesting that it's taken until now for the Senate to take notice...

... or had they been taking notice but not saying anything...

[Robert Helpmann??]

Re: correction - Selfie?

A selfie without the subject's knowledge? How did that happen? Were they drugged at the time or did they make an comedic mistake involving a selfie stick? OK, I'll stop with that image.

[Tom Paine]

Given these women are willing to risk their lives in the service of their country, it's a pretty poor state of affairs that a few rogue soldiers can cause them such grief and besmirch the reputation of the Corps.

Can't disagree with that, but "a few rogue soldiers"? Firstly it appears to be soldiers, marines, airforce, er, personnel and also the Navy. Secondly there are clearly a lot more than "a few" -- the US reporting on this by Thomas Brennan and others suggests there are hundreds of active participants, at least.

[DropBear]

Well, this is the first time I see El Reg treat an undoubtedly wrong and serious but lewd issue with such a gratingly sanctimonious attitude. Are we being trolled or something...?

[Pen-y-gors]

Backup?

Did El Reg take a 'secure backup' of the Dropbox folder for 'evidential' purposes before turning them in?

[bombastic bob]

Re: Backup?

maybe it's on archive.org ... well the intarwebs nevar forgets, really. it's out there, somewhere.

"boys will be boys"

[Korev]

Re: Backup?

You make it sound like some of the ladies wouldn't be interested in seeing the pictures!!

[Destroy All Monsters]

"The Senate Armed Services Committee wants answers"

What answers do they expect exactly?

Marines: Not a sharing, caring outfit full of multicutural/multigendered good-natured humans past their age of interest in all things sexual.

Compromising videos of female marines have been uploaded to porn websites, and URLs leading perverts to more material posted in comments under the vids.

Will this statement be upheld in a bar full of Marines?

Given these women are willing to risk their lives in the service of their country, it's a pretty poor state of affairs that a few rogue soldiers can cause them such grief and besmirch the reputation of the Corps.

Seriously, El Reg? You have become public spokesperson for the Marine Corps now?

We need the "tired Mario" icon.

Very related and probably illuminating:

NYT: Neuter the Marine Corps

The Love Boat: Deployed US Navy Has A Pregnancy Problem, And It’s Getting Worse

[Stoneshop]

Re: "The Senate Armed Services Committee wants answers"

What answers do they expect exactly?

"What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

[Kane]

Re: "The Senate Armed Services Committee wants answers"

"What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

African, or European?

Actually, google has a fixed response to this question.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahem...

Maybe they could ask the CIA for help - they have the tools.

[Paul Smith]

Ho, ho, silly girl, took a naughty picture of herself, what did she expect to happen?

Sorry but I don't accept that and I am disappointed that El Reg even suggests it. Very poor choice of headline.

None of the images being shared were done so with the consent of the subject.

Most of the images being shared were done so without the knowledge of the subject.

Many of the images being shared were taken without the knowledge or consent of the subject.

"Selfies" are pictures that you take of yourself, so clearly most of the images involved do not fall into that category, and those that do, once used without consent, can no longer be considered selfies.

[Antron Argaiv]

Ugh.

...US Senators will hold a special hearing into America's ongoing military sex scandal....

We've got a blithering idiot as President, a party in power which wants to nuke the healthcare system but can't come up with anything better, and...HOLD IT, DROP EVERYTHING!

Senators and scandals go together like peanut butter and jelly.

(or, more appropriately, senators and lapdancers?)

I'll admit that the nude selfie thing is bad, but I don't think the Senate needs to get involved.

(and, ladies: don't take nude selfies, because once it's digital, it's gonna spread fast and wide.)

[Voland's right hand]

Re: Ugh.

Ever heard of smokescreen? This is as far as the scandal is concerned. When you have issues like your (now ex) national security advisor being investigated for being a foreign agent you need something to distract the population.

As far as the pictures themselves...

In Anglo Saxon countries anything to do with naked t*ts or god forbid full frontal nudity results in an outrage on the part of the population conditioned on Daily Fail, Faux News, etc. The same thing in let's say in France, Germany or let's say Czech Republic would result in "Meah... So what?" The "outrageousness" of the pictures and the culture of "naked body shame" makes them valuable to a certain part of the USA population. They collect them and for them they have trophy value. UK is not far off by the way.

So the only long term to deal with this is to make it a cultural "Meah, so what?". What's the point to collect naked pictures of your colleagues when they do not give a damn and go to the naturist beach? The answer is none. As there is no trophy value they will stop being collected and shared. By themselves.

By the way, by making it such an issue, the value of the collectables actually increases - this is not actively searched by all kind of idiots that just have to have a bit of that "socially unacceptable forbidden fruit".

[Anonymous Coward]

So now the offended frat boys have doubled down on their immaturity?

Sad, very sad. I don't expect every marine to be a gentleman, but at least have enough going on in the empathy department to dwell momentarily on whether you would want your wife/sister/daughter/girlfriend treated like that.

[Mark 85]

and whether the military justice system is equipped to hold perpetrators accountable," she said.

The good Senator is an idiot. Obviously she's never heard of the Uniform Code of Military Justice* then.

Sadly, I guess rampaging hormones take precedent over such things as honor these days.

*aka The Uniform Code of Marsupial Justice by those in the military.

[rtb61]

WTF?!?

These are hormoned up teenagers, doing the dumb things you would expect when you jam and whole bunch of hormored up teenagers together, just for fun spice it up with lots of booze (pretty much compulsory in the military).

Now for some pleasant relief, you are training this people to mangle, main and kill other human beings by, setting the on fire, blowing them to bits, running them down with tanks, stabbing them with sharp implements and just for occasional fun shooting them. You are training them to do so with no compassion or empathy (else they will not do it), basically training them to be professional sadistic psychopaths.

Oh my GOD, they are looking at naked pictures of each other, Oh my god, Oh my God, Oh my God.

Wake the fuck up.

Where in the ten commands is the one about nudey pictures of each other but I am damn sure I can remember the one about not killing each other.

FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.

Now if the think the fucks are bad, consider they are cheering

KILL, KILL, KILL.

As if it had real value.