Jump to content

Failings identified in response to Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel

Add links
Unchecked
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
Flag of Iran Flag of the United Kingdom
2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel
Recent news

The sailors' release, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the background.

Wikipedia

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Two inquiries into the seizure of Royal Navy personnel by Iran in March 2007 have found that the capture was not a result of "a single failure or any particular individual’s human error, but rather of an unfortunate accumulation of factors" and that there was a "collective failure of judgement" in allowing those involved to receive payment for discussing the event with the media.

The first report, by Lieutenant General Sir Rob Fulton, looked at "operational circumstances, consequences, and implications of the detention of the personnel". The second, by Tony Hall, former BBC Director of News and now Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, examined the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) handling of the media attention in relation to the incident and has been published on the MOD website. The report by General Fulton is not available to the public, as it is classified because it deals with operational issues.

General Fulton identified weaknesses in training, communications and the handling of intelligence and suggested improvements in training for boarding operations.

The Hall report found that the poor judgement in allowing members of the armed forces to talk to the media was not the failure of a single individual, but Defence Secretary Des Browne accepted this as his responsibility, and has apologised for this error. He said that personnel would not be allowed to sell their stories in future.

In a statement to Parliament, Des Browne said that the Ministry of Defence were committed to implementing the recommendations made in the reports and that he expects "the great majority to be implemented by the end of this year".

Sources

[edit]
[edit]

Share this:  E-mail this story Share on Facebook Share on reddit.com Share on LinkedIn.com Share on twitter.com


This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License


Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Failings_identified_in_response_to_Iranian_seizure_of_Royal_Navy_personnel"