Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/699198
ByRobertBurns The Associated Press WASHINGTON The 10 U.S. sailors captured and humiliated by Iran after mistakenly steering their boats into Iranian waters in January were beset not just by poor judgment and faulty equipment. They also showed a remarkable lack of curiosity about po- tential dangers in one of the world's more danger- ous waterways, according to an in-depth Navy inves- tigation. In deviating from their planned Persian Gulf route from Kuwait to Bahrain — without asking approval or notifying superiors — they passed an island to their east and wondered whether it might be Saudi territory, rocks or oil plat- forms. The crews of both boats consulted their nav- igation systems, which de- picted the mass as a small purple dot. Despite being unsure of their surroundings, the sailors did not adjust their on-board navigation dis- plays to enlarge the pur- ple dot; if they had, they would have seen that it was labeled Farsi Island, a well-known base for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. "No crewmembers on either (boat) utilized a pa- per navigational chart in order to plot their exact location or to identify the island they had seen, even though the charts were available" on their boats, known as Riverine Com- mand Boats, the investiga- tion report said. No crew- member even bothered to log the fact that they had seen the island. "Crewmembers lacked navigational awareness, proper communication with higher authority, and appreciation of the threat environment throughout the transit," the report said. The trouble for Riverine Command Boats 802 and 805, each with five sailors aboard, began even before they left port in Kuwait Jan. 12 on a short-notice, 300-mile journey to Bah- rain. They were delayed, unprepared, poorly super- vised and ill-suited for the mission, the report said. At least one sailor had been up all night with boat repairs. Their higher head- quarters failed to arrange air or surface monitoring of the boats' transit. Such monitoring "would likely have prevented" the sailors' capture by the Iranians, ac- cording to the report. A short time after com- ing within view of Farsi Is- land, one of the boats suf- fered an engine problem. Both boats cut their en- gines while the crew trou- bleshot the problem, even though standard proce- dure was to maneuver to a safe location using the unaffected engine. Nei- ther boat captain ordered his gunners to stand look- out or to man their weap- ons for purposes of self- defense. An estimated five to 15 minutes later, two armed Iranian boats approached from Farsi Island, about 1.6 miles away. The coxswain, or driver, of one of the Navy boats later told investiga- tors he thought they were seeing "just people on the boats, nothing in my mind said they were Iranian or anyone like that or mili- tary, just normal boats." With the Iranians point- ing their guns at the U.S. crewmembers, the ranking U.S. sailor decided to try to talk his way out of the pre- dicament. He later charac- terized what happened as both a "surrender" and a "capture." Navyprobe:USsailors were ill-prepared for encounter with Iran BOATS SEIZED By Lolita C. Baldor The Associated Press WASHINGTON Transgen- der people will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, the Pentagon an- nounced Thursday, ending one of the last bans on ser- vice in the armed forces. Saying it's the right thing to do, Defense Sec- retary Ash Carter laid out a yearlong implementation plan declaring that "Amer- icans who want to serve and can meet our stan- dards should be afforded the opportunity to com- pete to do so." "Our mission is to de- fend this country, and we don't want barriers unre- lated to a person's qualifica- tion to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who can best accomplish the mission," Carter said at a Pentagon news conference. Under the new policy, by Oct. 1, transgender troops already serving should be able to receive medical care and begin formally chang- ing their gender identifica- tions in the Pentagon's per- sonnel system. A year from now, he said, the military services will begin allowing trans- gender individuals to en- list, as long as they meet required standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. Carter's announcement comes despite concerns from senior military lead- ers that the department is moving too fast and that more time is needed to work through the changes. He said he discussed the plans extensively with his military leaders and that, based on their recommen- dations, he made adjust- ments to the timeline. He said he has been told that the services now support the timeline. Under the new policy, transgender troops would receive any medically nec- essary care including sur- gery, Carter said. The new rules also give military commanders flex- ibility, noting that not all transition cases are the same. Commanders will have the discretion to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, including on job placement, deployments, training delays and other accommodations, based on the needs of the military mission and whether the service members can per- form their duties. For people coming into the military, the plan says that those with gender dys- phoria, a history of medi- cal treatments associated with gender transition and those who have had re- construction surgery may be disqualified as military recruits unless a medical provider certifies that they have been clinically stable in the preferred gender for 18 months, and are free of significant impairment. And transgender troops receiving hormone ther- apy must have been stable on their medications for 18 months. The policy provides broad guidelines for trans- gender service members currently in the military. They will be able to use the bathrooms, housing, uni- forms and fitness standards of their preferred gender only after they have legally transitioned to that iden- tity, according to officials. Over the next year, the military services will de- velop and distribute train- ing guidelines, medical pro- tocols and other guidance to help commanders deal with any issues or questions about transgender troops. Last July, Carter said he intended to rescind the ban, calling it outdated. He has long argued that the mili- tary must be more inclu- sive to bring in the best and brightest. At the time, he ordered a six-month study to include extensive medical and sci- entific research and dis- cussions with other na- tions and companies with experience in the process. He extended the study be- cause the military wanted more time. Officials said he wanted to insure there was no impact on military read- iness, but over time, he be- came frustrated with the slow progress. LGBTQ RIGHTS Pe nt ag on e nd s ba n on transgender troops ALEXBRANDON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon Thursday, where he announced new rules allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the U.S. military. By Dominique Soguel and Suzan Fraser The Associated Press ISTANBUL As the death toll from the Istanbul air- port attack rose Thursday to 44, a senior Turkish of- ficial said the three suicide bombers who carried it out were from Russia, Uzbeki- stan and Kyrgyzstan, and police raided neighbor- hoods for suspects linked to the Islamic State group. Turkish authorities have said all information sug- gested the Tuesday night attack on Ataturk Airport, one of the world's busiest, was the work of IS, which boasted this week of having cells in Turkey, among other countries. The police raided 16 lo- cations in three neighbor- hoods on both the Asian and European sides of Is- tanbul, rounding up 13 people suspected of having links to the Islamic State group. There was no immedi- ate claim of responsibil- ity by the militant group, which has used Turkey as a crossing point to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq. IS has repeatedly threatened Turkey in its propaganda publications, and the NATO member has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in both Ankara and Istan- bul. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appearing at the opening of a suspension bridge in northwestern Turkey with Prime Minis- ter Binali Yildirim, made a vague reference to "forces" that don't want the coun- try to succeed and are us- ing terrorism. He referred to the sepa- ratist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG and the Islamic State group. "They have been let loose against us by the forces who hold their leashes," Erdo- gan said. "The bombs that explode in our country to- day will tomorrow explode in the hands of those who sent them." A senior official, who spoke on condition of an- onymity because govern- ment regulations did not authorize him to talk to the media, said the attackers were from Russia and the Central Asian nations of Uz- bekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He could not confirm me- dia reports that the Russian was from the restive Dages- tan region in the Caucasus mountains. A medical team was working around the clock to identify the attackers, the official said, noting their bodies had suffered exten- sive damage. Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry denied that an attacker came from that country, saying its repre- sentatives had talked to Turkish officials who said the identities were still to be determined. Asked about the possi- ble involvement of a Rus- sian in the attacks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on the issue. There was no comment from Uzbekistan. Russian President Vladi- mir Putin has said that be- tween 5,000 and 7,000 peo- ple from Russia and other nations of the former So- viet Union have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Many Muslims from Russia's southern region of Chechnya have settled in Turkey since the time of the Chechen separatist wars, and Moscow has repeatedly accused Turkey of failing to cooperate in tracking down suspected terrorists. People from Chechnya and other provinces in Rus- sia's volatile North Cauca- sus region have had a visi- ble presence among Islamic State fighters. Tarkhan Bat- irashvili, who took the nom de guerre Omar al Shishani, or Omar the Chechen, an ethnic Chechen from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, rose to the rank of a senior IS commander be- fore he died of wounds suf- fered in a U.S. airstrike in Syria earlier this year. Al- Shishani served as a mag- net for jihadi fighters from the former Soviet Union. Turkish state media said the death toll in the attack rose to 44 after a 25-year- old airport worker suc- cumbed to his wounds. Interior Minister Efkan Ala said the dead included 19 foreigners. Dozens from the 230 people initially re- ported wounded are still hospitalized. ISTANBUL BLASTS Turkish official: Airport attackers were from Russia, Central Asia LEFTERIS PITARAKIS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Relatives mourn as they gather around the Turkish flag- draped coffin of Habibullah Sefer, one of the victims killed Tuesday at the blasts in Istanbul's Ataturk airport, during the funeral in Istanbul on Thursday. Select"Subscribe"tabin lower right corner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! 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