Marines Investigate Pornography Allegations

The Marine Corps is investigating whether Marines at Twentynine Palms and other bases have posed naked for gay pornography being sold on the Internet, officials said Wednesday.

The investigation began after pornographic pictures allegedly involving Marines were sent anonymously to a weekly newspaper and to Commandant Gen. James Jones. Along with pictures was a note asserting that Marines at Twentynine Palms are being recruited by other Marines and offered money to pose naked.

In 1994, ten enlisted Marines at Camp Pendleton--nine men and one woman--were discharged after admitting that they had posed naked for a pornographer in Oceanside who was trying to establish a nationwide mail-order business.

Although it is not unprecedented for pornographers to assert that individuals pictured are in the military, the Web site goes a step further, by using the Marine Corps name, logo, insignia, initials and colors. The site also says that some of the men in the pictures are from a specific Marine Corps unit.

Pornography involving adults is considered constitutionally protected free speech, but posing naked is a criminal offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which gives the military wide authority over military personnel, on duty or off.

Capt. Rob Crum, spokesman for the Twentynine Palms base, the Marine Corps’ top live-fire combat training center, said that participation in pornographic activities is “incompatible with the ideals upheld by the United States Marine Corps.”

The Web site, registered to a San Francisco company, alleges that the men pictured are all active-duty Marines and specifically mentions the Twentynine Palms base. About 12,000 Marines are stationed at Twentynine Palms, in San Bernardino County.

Investigators from the base provost marshal’s Criminal Investigative Division, Crum said, are talking with investigators at other bases to determine “the possible scope of the situation.”

On the Web site, some of the men have the close haircuts that are required of Marines, one has a Marine Corps tattoo, and at least two have remnants of a Marine uniform, but none of that proves that the men are Marines, officials said. Videos are being sold with titles such as “Three Lance Corporals.”

The Web site carries a disclaimer that the site is neither approved nor endorsed by the Marine Corps and attempts to discourage law enforcement by stating that permission to view the site is denied to any military investigator.

The site adds that “records relating to the images” in the pornography are available at a street address in San Francisco. The address, however, is that of a mailbox.

The Marine Corps may be upset that its name is being used by a pornography Web site, but there appears to be little that the corps can do to prevent such use.

Robert Post, 1st Amendment expert at the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, noted that the Olympic Games won a court order blocking a gay group from using its name because it could prove copyright infringement and possible economic loss. But a governmental agency probably would not win such a suit, he said.

“If their only concern is that the pornographic Web site besmirches the good name of the U.S. Marine Corps, they would lose under the 1st Amendment,” Post said.