© THE DAILY BEAST
Explicit videos and photos of female servicemembers were posted last week in a Dropbox drive called "Girls of MU" and were shared in a closed Facebook group called Mike Uniform. ("Mike Uniform" is the U.S. military's phonetic alphabet for M.U., the abbreviation for "Marines United.")
Previous caches contained few videos, unlike the Mike Uniform cache, which indicates there are new victims. The shared drive contains 3,863 photos and videos, ranging from professional pornography to homemade videos and selfies. Some are screenshots of temporary Snapchat stories, and others are photos of a woman in a U.S. Marine Corps uniform engaging in oral sex and posing afterward.
The photo of the unconscious woman, like most of the videos in the new drive, was not posted in the original shared drives on the nude-photo-sharing Facebook page Marines United, nor on its descendant groups.The woman was photographed by a man whose reflection is visible in a mirror, though his face is unclear.
Also posted in the drive are sex videos involving former Marine Kally Wayne, a frequent target of harassment by members of the Marines United and Just The Tip Of The Spear (JTTOTS) groups. Wayne told ABC News in March that her Marine ex-boyfriend uploaded their private sex tape without her consent.
A Marine Corps spokesman told The Daily Beast that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was made aware of the new shared drive on Friday and that the "Marine Corps, with the support of NCIS, continues to identify, investigate, and hold accountable those who violate our policies and standards. We take all allegations of misconduct seriously. Disrespect, in any form, will not be tolerated."
On June 29, an enlisted Marine became the first service member to be convicted at court-martial and sentenced for his involvement in the scandal. The Marine, whose name was withheld by the military, pleaded guilty at a summary court-martial and was sentenced to 10 days in the brig for actions related to the Marines United investigation, the Marine Corps announced Monday. He was also demoted three ranks and fined two-thirds of his monthly salary.
"Since February, NCIS has scanned nearly 131,000 images across 168 social media sites and has reviewed information related to 89 persons of interest as a result of incidents related to the non-consensual sharing of explicit photos and other online misconduct," Marine Maj. Clark Carpenter told The Daily Beast. "To date, command dispositions have resulted in one summary court-martial, two administrative separations, seven non-judicial punishments, and 22 adverse administrative actions."
The Marines United scandal broke March 4 when journalist Thomas Brennan published a story about non-consensual sharing of service members' nude and explicit photos. In the more than five months since, the larger issues of preventing and prosecuting revenge porn have preoccupied all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, Congress, and related advocacy groups.
Despite all the attention from the media and military investigators, the sharing of explicit images has continued. Photos were migrated repeatedly onto new shared drives in new private Facebook groups. The Daily Beast has uncovered a total of 11 shared drives containing many of the same explicit images as the original Marines United. Photos and videos were also advertised for sale in April on AlphaBay, a dark web marketplace.
A former Marine who asked not to be identified to avoid possible retaliation revealed the newest shared drive to The Daily Beast. The drive remained accessible Sunday, but on Monday the link was no longer active. It is unknown if the shared drive has been disabled by law enforcement officials or if members once again moved the content into a new storage account.
The new Dropbox account was posted under the username Chad Baumes in the private "Mike Uniform" Facebook chat room. Baumes' account posted the Dropbox link on Friday, along with an additional message, "Ywfms," which is an abbreviation of "You're welcome for my service."
Baumes is a former Marine corporal who served from 1997 to 2001 and was previously assigned to 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He told The Daily Beast, "Yes, I am a member of that [Mike Uniform chatroom], but I don't remember posting [the shared drive]."
Baumes claims his Facebook account was hacked last week and that he regained access over the weekend after changing his password. Baumes sent The Daily Beast screenshots of messages he said were from his friends, who wrote to him, "I know you're not dumb enough to be posting that fuckin' dropbox in the feed," and "Bro, some crazy shit going on with your profile. I think you have been hacked because you're postin up all sorts of shit that doesn't make sense."
The senders and timestamps were cropped out of the images Baumes sent.
Facebook said they are still "digging into the issue and don't have an answer yet" on Baumes' claim he was hacked.
Facebook told The Daily Beast that they're looking into the issue of Baumes' account being allegedly hacked and the activities of Mike Uniform.
Other Mike Uniform members chimed in with appreciative comments below Baumes' posting of the new link to the Dropbox drive.
"Some familiar faces on there hahahaha," a Mike Uniform member with the username Garrett Malone wrote in a chat. "Who's got the Erica pics?" ("Erica" may be a reference to Marine veteran Erika Butner, an outspoken critic of Marines United who contacted NCIS in January after photos of her were posted online without her consent.)
Garrett Malone, a former Marine infantryman with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment out of Twentynine Palms, California, is currently listed as a reservist by the U.S. Marine Corps, but he said in a text message that he is no longer with the Individual Ready Reserves. When asked about the comments the user with his name posted in Mike Uniform, he blocked The Daily Beast from contacting him further.
Change has come slowly to the military's treatment of revenge porn and related offenses, but the scandal is bringing changes to the the Uniform Code of Military Justice. On Capitol Hill, Rep. Jackie Speier of California and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have called for a federal law making the non-consensual disclosure of private images a felony.
"I think it's important to recognize that our understanding of the issue has evolved over time," said Marine Gen. Glenn Walters, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps and head of the Marine Corps Task Force that is addressing cultural issues with the Corps. "How we handle cases today is much different and more effective as a result of what occurred with Marines United."
Though not all the nude photos posted on Marines United and other groups were shared for reasons of revenge, "revenge porn" is an umbrella term for all types of non-consensual disclosure of explicit and intimate images—and it is not exclusive to U.S. service members and veterans.
Rob Kardashian posted nude photos of Angela Renee White, aka "Blac Chyna," the mother of his child, and a video of her allegedly cheating. Kardashian shared the photos and video on Instagram and then tweeted to his 10 million followers on Twitter. He is a resident of California, where it's illegal to publish "nonconsensual pornography" of an "identifiable person," and where violation carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and $1000.
Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, who was a victim of revenge porn during her 2016 primary campaign, told The Daily Beast that a better term for it would be "cyber sexual assault."
"It isn't always about revenge," Plaskett said. "It may be a case of blackmail, it may be a case of someone who's just a creep, it may be hacking, it may be someone who's never had a relationship with you at all, so I think we need to broaden the scope of this and bring awareness that it needs to change."
Just learn to deal with the consequences of YOUR actions, stop doing it or SHUT THE HE77 UP already!