U.S. Marine snipers posed with flag bearing Nazi SS symbol

A group of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan posed for a photograph with a flag bearing the Nazi "SS runes" symbol in the form of two lightning bolts. The photograph was posted to a website called Knights Armament Blog last May 2011.

The photograph was taken in September 2010 and showed members of the Charlie Company, 1st Marine Battalion, posing with the Nazi symbol. It came to wide public attention only on Thursday, when the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a civil rights advocacy group, circulated the photograph to the media. The Jewish Chronicle reports that in spite of the military authorities being aware of the photograph, the men were not punished. Military.com reports there had been an investigation of the incident in 2010, but while the Corps said on Thursday that none of the personnel in the photo were currently assigned to Charlie Company, there was no indication they were disciplined. According to Los Angeles Times, after the photograph of the Marines was circulated to the media, the U.S. Marine Coprs only confirmed that the group of soldiers were scout-snipers deployed to the Sangin district of Helmand province in 2010. Lt. Colonel Stewart Upton in a statement, said vaguely that the matter was being "addressed." He said: "Those involved acknowledged that the symbol could be misinterpreted and is not in keeping with our Marine Corps ethos and values." The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), however, sent a letter to Gen James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, other military officials and the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, asking that the photos be removed from the Internet and for those involved to be punished. The president of the MRFF Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, said: "We've seen everything, but this literally astonishes us. This is a felony; this is absolutely horrible in the worst degree." According to Weinstein, 45 Marines who were unwilling to report the matter to the military authorities because of fear of reprisals reported the photograph to the advocacy organization. But Marine officials only responded that the men involved were not Nazi sympathizers. The Los Angeles Times reports Colonel John Guthrie of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's office of inspector general, said the office first knew about the existence of the photograph in November 2011. A commanding officer in Afghanistan confirmed that the men in the photograph were of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion from Camp Pendleton. Guthrie, who denounced the use of the Nazi "SS runes" in the photograph, however, seemed to defend the men, saying "Some Scout Snipers have unfortunately used the 'SS runes' in the past as a symbol for their elite organization and not intended for racial connotations or discrimination." Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif. reportedly said, the Marine Corps is not disciplining the soldiers because there was no malicious intent. Chapin said, "the Marines mistakenly believed the 'SS' in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts, not members of Adolf Hitler's special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others." Military.com reports that with pressure on Pentagon from civil and human rights organization, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has asked the Marine Corps to investigate the photo. George Little, spokesman of the Defense Secretary, said in a statement: "Racist and anti-Semitic symbols have absolutely no place alongside the men and women of America's armed forces." According to Military.com,, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of Simon Wiesenthal Center, insisted that the incident was not an "innocent mistake." He demanded an investigation and punishment of those involved. He said: "That 70 years after the United States Armed Forces helped liberate Europe from Nazi Germany, to learn that a unit of the United States Marine Corps serving in Afghanistan adopted the SS insignia alongside the Stars and Stripes." The Jewish Chronicle reports the Rabbi said that the photograph, "desecrates the memory of some 200,000 Americans who gave up their lives to defend freedom against that infamous symbol." Military authorities were forced to investigate Marine commandant Gen. James Amos, following the request by the Defense Secretary that the military authorities investigate the photograph, has ordered commanders to determine whether other reconnaissance battalions and scout-sniper squads in Afghanistan were using the "SS runes." According to the Los Angeles Times, the Marine Commandant ordered that the official prohibition of use of Nazi symbols in Marine Corps units be enforced. The commandant, speaking to the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), apologized for the photograph and stressed that the Marine Corps would not tolerate use of the Nazi symbols. The ADL, in response, issued a statement saying it was satisfied with Amos' promise to "ensure that troops are appropriately sensitized in the future to all the reasons why Nazi imagery and symbols have no place in the U.S. Armed Services."