WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has agreed to pay more than $22 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging female recruits were singled out for dismissal in training and routinely harassed by instructors with sexually charged comments about their breast size, false allegations of infidelity and the need to take contraception "to control their moods.”
The payout to 34 women dismissed from the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Virginia, still subject to approval by a federal judge, would rank among the biggest lawsuit settlements in the history of the bureau.
“These problems are pervasive within the FBI and the attitudes that created them were learned at the academy,” said David J. Shaffer, the lawyer for the women. "This case will make important major changes in these attitudes.”
Filed in 2019, the lawsuit contends that female recruits had been subjected to a hostile working environment in which they were judged more harshly than their male peers and "excessively targeted for correction and dismissal in tactical situations for perceived lack of judgment” and subjective “suitability” criteria.
One of the women said she was admonished to “smile more” and subjected to repeated sexual advances. Another said that an instructor leered at her and stared at her chest, “sometimes while licking his lips."
“Through passive tolerance," the lawsuit said, "the FBI has intentionally allowed the Good Old Boy Network to flourish unrestrained at the FBI Academy.”
The FBI did not immediately comment on the settlement. Many of the allegations in the lawsuit were confirmed in a 2022 internal watchdog report. Men still make up some three-quarters of the bureau's special agents despite efforts to diversify in recent years.
Among the provisions of the settlement was that the FBI would offer the plaintiffs a chance to continue training toward becoming agents and “guaranteed placement,” for those who pass, in one of their top three preferred field offices. The bureau also has agreed to a review by outside experts who will work to ensure that female recruits face a fair evaluation process.
Some of the women have moved on to other careers, Shaffer said, adding "the FBI has deprived itself of some genuinely exceptional talent.”
Paula Bird, a lead plaintiff in the case who is now a lawyer, said that while the experience has been “disillusioning,” she was "pleased that this settlement will bring a measure of justice to the women who were unfairly dismissed.”
The lawsuit came amid a flurry of sexual misconduct claims within the bureau that included several against senior FBI officials identified in an Associated Press investigation who quietly left the bureau with full benefits even after allegations against them were substantiated. Those claims ranged from unwanted touching and advances to coercion. In one case, an FBI assistant director retired after the inspector general’s office concluded he harassed a female subordinate and sought an improper relationship with her.
In response to AP's reporting, the FBI announced a series of reforms, including a 24/7 tip line, intended to take a tougher stand against agents found to have committed misconduct and help accusers.
The latest settlement comes less than six months after the Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against the sports doctor Larry Nassar.
FILE - An FBI seal is seen on a wall on Aug. 10, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment in a multistory building in central Beirut, killing three Palestinian militants, as Hezbollah's acting leader promised the group will fight on following the death of its long-time head Hassan Nasrallah.
The early Monday airstrike — the first to hit central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict — killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small, leftist faction. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building on a busy, shop-lined thoroughfare in a mainly Sunni district.
Separately, an Israeli airstrike early Monday killed six people, including two sisters and a child, in central Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence — including the major strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah — but had not hit locations near the city center.
Hezbollah's acting leader Naim Kassem said in a televised statement that if Israel launches a ground offensive, the group’s fighters are ready. He said the commanders killed have already been replaced.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 105 people were killed around the country in airstrikes on Sunday. Two strikes near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Beirut, killed at least 32 people, the ministry said. Separately, Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and wounded at least 47.
Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes nationwide. Israel says it targets militants, but the strikes have hit buildings where civilians were living and the death toll is expected to rise.
Here is the latest:
DAMASCUS, Syria — More than 5,000 displaced people are finding shelter in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus after fleeing Israeli airstrikes in neighboring Lebanon.
They are among tens of thousands who have crossed the border into Syria in the past two weeks as the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah group intensified, with Israel dramatically expanding its aerial campaign across the country.
The overcrowded suburb called Sayyida Zeinab has welcome the displaced, offering them hotel rooms and other accommodation. The Shiite militant Hezbollah group, which fought alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s civil war, maintains a strong presence in the predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb.
The cross-border flow was a striking reversal in fortunes given that Lebanon is still hosting more than one million Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country that began in 2011.
“The situation in Lebanon is tragic,” said Futoon Abbas, a displaced Lebanese woman from the eastern city of Baalbek that has been at the receiving end of heavy Israeli bombardment the past few days. “It was by the mercy of God that we got here,” she said, adding the road was very dangerous.
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Hezbollah’s leader killed in a recent Israeli airstrike a “brutal terrorist” but says the U.S. will keep working on de-scalating the conflict in the Middle East.
President Joe Biden similarly said over the weekend that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah ’s death was a “measure of justice” for thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese victims of a four-decade “reign of terror.”
Biden said an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided and that he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but didn’t say when.
Blinken, speaking Monday at the opening of a meeting of foreign ministers in a global coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, said the U.S. is working with partners on a diplomatic resolution to ensure security for Israel and Lebanon and allow people driven from their homes along the border by months of rocket strikes to return.
He says the U.S. is still working on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, an effort that has stalled.
“Diplomacy remains the best and only path to achieving greater stability in the Middle East,” Blinken said.
BERLIN – The government in Berlin says a German military plane flew to Beirut on Monday to help get diplomats’ relatives and others out of Lebanon.
Germany has been calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon since October 2023. Over the weekend, the Foreign Ministry raised the alert level for its diplomatic missions in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ramallah, calling for relatives of German employees and nonessential staff to leave.
The foreign and defense ministries said a German air force jet flew to Beirut to support the effort to get them and others out of Lebanon. They said the plane also will fly out German citizens who are “particularly endangered,” particularly by medical issues.
The ministries said the German Embassy in Beirut will continue to support German citizens in leaving Lebanon on commercial flights and by other means.
BEIRUT — A Lebanese soldier was killed Monday when a motorcycle was targeted by an Israeli airstrike as it crossed an army checkpoint in the southern area of Wazzani, the Lebanese army said.
At least 12 Lebanese army soldiers have been killed and 20 injured — most of them off duty and in their homes — since the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began nearly a year ago, said a Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.
The Lebanese army, which has a limited arsenal and has been struggling to maintain its forces and equipment due to a protracted economic crisis, has so far stood on the sidelines in the fighting. It is not clear how the army would react if Israel launched a threatened ground invasion into Lebanon.
— By Abby Sewell
TEL AVIV — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday hinted at Israeli preparations for a ground offensive in Lebanon.
Speaking to troops of the 188 Armored brigade and the Golani Infantry brigade on the northern border, Gallant said, “The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything. We will use all the capabilities we have.”
He added, “If someone on the other side did not understand what the capabilities mean, it is all capabilities, and you are part of this effort.”
DEIR -AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike killed six people, including two sisters and a child, in central Gaza.
The strike early Monday hit a family home in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda hospital, where the casualties were taken.
The dead include a man, his two daughters and a grandchild, according to the hospital records.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli strike hit a house in the central town of Deir al-Balah, killing two children and their parents.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the militant group operates in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 41,615 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. It does not distinguish between militants and civilians but says women and children make up a little more than half of the fatalities.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over the country, with videos purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile striking it. The U.S. military did not immediately acknowledge losing any aircraft.
The claimed attack comes as the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip approaches. The Houthis have targeted ships traveling through the Red Sea over the war as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen. That’s imperiled a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion of trade pass through it, as well as crucial shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and Yemen.
The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes from the Israelis this weekend on the port city of Hodeida.
The Houthi-run broadcaster Al-Masirah claimed shooting down the MQ-9, hours after video footage circulated online showing the purported missile striking the aircraft over Yemen’s Saada province. A single image online also appeared to show wreckage of the drone, with pieces resembling that of an MQ-9.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s deputy leader vowed to continue fighting Israel and said the militant group was prepared for a long war after much of its top command was wiped out, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
In his first speech since Nasrallah was killed, Naim Kassem said in a televised statement Monday that if Israel decides to launch a ground offensive, Hezbollah fighters are ready to fight and defend Lebanon.
As deputy secretary-general, Naim Kassem now is the acting leader of Hezbollah until a replacement for Nasrallah is chosen.
Kassem added that despite the killing of Hezbollah’s top military commanders over the past months, Hezbollah is relying on new commanders.
“Israel was not able to affect our (military) capabilities,” Kassem said. “There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”
PARIS — France has delivered 12 tons of medical aid to Lebanon, including two mobile clinics that will be able to treat 1,000 seriously injured people currently in hospitals’ emergency wards across the country, according to a statement from the French Foreign Ministry on Monday.
French military aircraft also delivered critical supplies of medicine to Lebanese emergency, pediatric and general hospitals and clinics, which have been overwhelmed with thousands of injured people since Israel’s bombardment of the country began over a week ago.
During his visit to Beirut on Monday, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that Paris is also releasing 10 million euros ($11.1 million) in emergency humanitarian aid to support the work of local humanitarian organizations, particularly the Lebanese Red Cross.
“In the face of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, France stands by Lebanon and remains committed to protecting civilians,” the statement said.
Barrot is scheduled to meet with Lebanese leaders on Monday, including with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Army chief Joseph Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
BEIRUT — Lebanese officials have asked people who lost relatives in recent Israeli airstrikes to provide DNA samples to match with unidentified remains.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces on Monday called on residents across the country to visit police stations with an identity card to give their samples. It said more than one person from each family should provide a sample, if possible.
A wave of Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon have killed more than 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — in less than two weeks, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show the site of the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The images, taken Sunday by Planet Labs PBC, show the site just some 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) northeast of Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.
The images show multi-story buildings at the site now cratered in the densely populated predominantly Shiite southern Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh.
Israel said the Friday night strike targeted a meeting at an underground Hezbollah compound located beneath the towers and at least one empty lot at the site.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike early Monday killed a family of four in central Gaza.
The strike hit a house in the central town of Deir al-Balah, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
The dead included two children and their parents, according to hospital records. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies at the hospital morgue.
Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas fighters of hiding among civilians, putting them in danger. It rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
BEIRUT — The Palestinian militant group Hamas says one of its commanders has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
Fatah Sharif was killed early Monday in an airstrike on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre, the group said in a statement. His wife, son and daughter were also killed in the strike, it said.
Sharif was a commander in Lebanon and a member of Hamas’ command outside the Palestinian territories, Hamas said.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, Israeli airstrikes have killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon.
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
A man passes by a damaged car where an Israeli airstrike hit a nearby building in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Damaged apartments, right, are seen in a building that was hit by Israeli strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Damaged cars are parked in front of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Yemenis stand in front of a portrait of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
A large fire and plume of smoke is visible in the port city of Hodeida, Yemen, on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, after Israeli strikes on the Houthi-controlled city. (AP Photo)
A Lebanese policeman looks at damaged apartments that were hit by Israeli strike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People look up at a damaged building that was hit by Israeli strike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past damaged cars near a building hit by an Israeli airstrike early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Policemen and civil defense workers stand next to damaged cars near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Policemen and civil defense workers inspect a damaged car near a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Women pass the damaged cars where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Beirut early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A damaged apartment is seen on a building that was hit by Israeli strike, in Beirut early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Damages are seen on a building that was hit by Israeli strike, early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Lebanese soldier passes next to damaged cars where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Beirut early Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
