Navy officials investigating the
capture and detention of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf in January accuse Iran of using "intimidation tactics" in questioning the Americans during their overnight detention.
The interrogation itself violated international law, a report on the investigation concludes, according to an executive summary posted by
the Washington Free Beacon.
The Free Beacon reports members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Navy
interrogated the Americans individually to pry out information about U.S. forces.
"Interrogators employed intimidation tactics such as slapping the table, spinning the captive's chair, or threatening to move them to the Iranian mainland; no crewmember was harmed," the findings state.
Iranian personnel demanded to know what the U.S. boats were doing wading into Iranian territorial waters, where they came from, and "where their 'mothership' was."
The Free Beacon reports the Iranians interrogated the crewmembers as a group and later individually interrogated seven of the 10 Americans in a separate room; the sole female crew member's interrogation was also recorded.
The Iranians also collected passwords to the sailors' personal phones and laptops during their overnight detention, the Free Beacon reports.
"Crewmembers response strategies and actual answers varied; some were honest while others lied or played dumb," the findings state.
While investigators found the American personnel to have been "derelict" in their duties and faulted multiple commanders for lack of leadership, they also concluded Iran violated the sailors' right of innocent passage under international law.
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