Military

The US Is Investigating an Unauthorized Release of Classified Documents on Israel's Attack Plans

President Joe Biden talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents ^[1] that assess Israel's plans to attack Iran ^[2], three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran's blistering ballistic missile attack ^[3] on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack — and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.

The U.S. has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar ^[4] and press for a cease-fire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon ^[5] and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel's leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran's missile attack go unanswered.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the leak of the two documents.

The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the U.S. intelligence community, then later the U.S. Defense Department. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.

One of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira ^[6], an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March ^[7] to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.

The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran's capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle East militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem contributed.

Jeff Bridges, 'The Dude' in the Film 'The Big Lebowski,' Was in the Coast Guard > U.S. Department of Defense > Story

A woman and man are seated in front of a movie poster.

Actor Jeff Bridges, aka "The Dude" in director Joel Coen's film "The Big Lebowski," served in the Coast Guard Reserve from 1967 to 1975 as a boatswain's mate, attaining the rank of petty officer 2nd class when he separated from the service.

Botswain's

DoD Launches Program to Help Employees Who Have Had Trouble Getting Health Care in Japan

View from U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa on Camp Foster

The Defense Department is rolling out a new pilot program to help civilian employees in Japan access medical care, and while it may remove some of the process's roadblocks, advocates say additional improvements are needed.

The Pilot Health Insurance Enhancement program, announced earlier this month, will be available at no cost to employees enrolled in a participating Federal Employees Health Benefits programs and non-appropriated fund employees who have an Aetna International plan.

The $4.2 million, nine-month contract with International SOS Government Services Inc., Tricare's overseas contract manager, will provide a 24-hour-a-day call center manned by bilingual staff to help callers find providers, make appointments and receive upfront payment guarantees starting Jan. 1, according to a DoD release Oct. 7 ^[1].

"In keeping with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's commitment to taking care of all our people, we owe it to our civilians to facilitate access to health care no matter where they are," Ashish Vazirani, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.

Civilian DoD employees and their dependents have faced troubles getting health care in Japan since at least 2022, when the Defense Health Agency announced it would only provide treatment in military hospitals and clinics on a space-available basis.

After receiving pushback, the DHA later changed its policy, saying civilians could continue getting treatment at military hospitals for chronic conditions but would have to go to Japanese providers for acute care.

Last November, DHA Director Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland promised reforms by the end of 2024 that would address the problems. The pilot is the result of this yearlong effort, according to the Defense Department.

"The support from this pilot program will help enhance the patient experience for the approximately 11,000 civilians stationed in Japan through the new pilot," Vazirani said.

Advocates say they have concerns that the program covers employees only and not dependents, a "serious shortcoming," according to Japan Civilian Medical Advocacy, a grassroots group made up of affected employees and dependents.

It also does not appear to include contractors or those assigned to Japan on temporary duty, according to the group.

Randi Wilson, a civilian Defense Department employee and JCMA member, said she has additional concerns about the program's effectiveness, given that agreements already exist between DoD and International SOS that provide similar services.

On the upside, she said, the program would help those who don't speak Japanese to navigate the country’s health-care system and make appointments.

However, it won't help facilitate emergency care, does not prevent denial of care (Japanese facilities aren't required to accept patients, even in life-threatening emergencies) and does not address the need for improvement of military health facilities in Japan, Wilson told Military.com in an email.

"This program missed the mark. It doesn't solve the big problems that continue to unnecessarily endanger the total force in Japan; I'm talking preventable deaths, preventable disabilities, preventable child development issues and more happening to military and civilian personnel alike," Wilson said.

From 2022 through January 2024, at least 24 service members, civilian DoD employees or military dependents were turned away for emergency medical care ^[3]from Japanese hospitals and four died, including the 7-year-old daughter of a U.S. Marine and a civilian employee who suffered a heart attack and was denied care at 10 facilities before he died.

In March, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote Crosland and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Lester Martinez Lopez, pressing for improvements to medical care ^[4]for military personnel, civilians and families in Japan.

"We appreciate the steps that DHA and INDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific Command] are taking to address these issues. But we continue to be concerned by reports of problems accessing care, and its impact on morale and retention," wrote Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

Wilson said she hoped DoD, after a year of deliberation, would commit to improving the military treatment facilities in Japan. She also would like the Pentagon to inform civilian employees and military personnel of the country's limitations to emergency and mental health services, remove state licensing restrictions to enable access to telehealth and enact hiring reform to hire spouses ^[5] who are health-care professionals.

“After more than a year of deliberation, dozens of denied emergency cases and deaths, and hundreds of denials of care, why is this program the only result? Why haven’t we seen less costly and more impactful steps?” Wilson asked.

The pilot will run through Sept. 29, 2025. The DHA plans to announce more details about the program before the start of open season for federal benefits enrollment. Open season is scheduled this year from Nov. 11 to Dec. 9.

© Copyright 2024 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here ^[7].

Pentagon Discloses 21 Allegations of Sexual Misconduct in JROTC As It Outlines Reforms to Congress

High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps cadets

Twenty-one instructors in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program were accused of sexual misconduct against high school cadets in the 2022-23 school year, but the Pentagon enacted several congressionally mandated reforms this year to curb the issue, the department said in a recent letter to Congress.

The number of allegations of sexual misconduct was disclosed in a new annual report to Congress that is now required after language was included in last year's defense policy bill amid concerns about a high rate of sexual assault and harassment in the high school program. The report was first sent to the House and Senate Armed Services committees in May, but was also included in a letter obtained by Military.com that was sent to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., last month outlining the steps the department has taken to comply with the defense bill's required JROTC reforms.

"It's unthinkable that students who have joined JROTC to develop leadership skills and learn about military service have been abused by their instructors -- adults they're supposed to be able to trust," Warren, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee, said in a statement to Military.com. "I fought hard to get these provisions into the [defense bill], because it's critical that we protect JROTC students from harm. I'm glad to see the Department of Defense taking important steps to implement these reforms, and I'll keep working to make sure they're put into action as effectively as possible."

A Pentagon spokesperson did not respond to Military.com's request for comment for this story. But in its report to Congress, the department said that "any incidence of sexual discrimination, harassment or misconduct by JROTC instructors is unacceptable."

"The department has implemented enhanced policies to facilitate increased oversight of JROTC programs and foster communication with the schools and school districts that host the programs," the report said.

Congress added language to the annual defense bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, to build more safeguards in the JROTC program after news reports and congressional investigations uncovered widespread sexual misconduct in the program meant to instill leadership skills and citizenship values in teenagers.

The JROTC program is a partnership between the Defense Department, the military branches and high schools around the country, with more than 3,500 units nationally and nearly 500,000 students participating. Instructors are often retired or reserve military officers employed by the school district, but can be active-duty service members.

Unlike the college-level ROTC ^[2] program, there is no requirement to serve in the military after JROTC, but defense officials see it as a key pipeline ^[3] to military service at a time when the armed forces ^[4] are struggling to recruit young people.

Allegations of sexual assault in the JROTC program first came to light in a 2022 New York Times investigation ^[5] that found at least 33 JROTC instructors had been criminally charged with sexual crimes in the preceding five years.

That report spurred congressional inquiries, including a House Oversight Committee investigation ^[6] that uncovered 60 allegations of sexual misconduct over five years and a query from Warren that revealed 114 allegations ^[7] over a decade.

In the latest numbers given to Congress, 13 of the 21 allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment or discrimination from June 2022 through July 2023 were substantiated, four were not substantiated and four were still being investigated at the time of the report.

Just six of the allegations were investigated criminally, while the other 15 were investigated administratively, according to the report.

As a result of the investigations, 17 instructors were decertified permanently and removed, the report added.

"Beyond decertifying them as JROTC instructors, the military services and Department of Defense (DoD) have no further authority over the eligibility of a person to work as a JROTC instructor," the report to Congress said. "When allegations of misconduct are made against JROTC instructors they are investigated and adjudicated in the same manner as any allegations against other faculty or staff members of that school district and jurisdiction."

In an effort to provide more oversight of the JROTC program and prevent sexual misconduct, last year's NDAA required the Pentagon and military services to sign standardized agreements with every school with a JROTC program that set rules, including how quickly schools must notify the military about misconduct allegations.

The Pentagon finished writing the standardized agreement in February, the department said in its letter to Warren ^[8]. The agreement requires that schools notify the military branches within one business day if an instructor is being investigated or disciplined for misconduct, among other stringent requirements, according to a copy attached to the letter.

Each military service is also working on its own addendum to the standardized agreement to address any service-specific policies, the letter to Warren said.

The department also crafted a form for parents and students to sign that provides points of contact to report instructor misconduct, as well as an instructor code of conduct that has to be signed annually, the letter said. The instructor form specifies several prohibited activities, including developing "a personal, intimate, or sexual relationship with a cadet or student," attempting to "gain sexual favors from a cadet or student" and making "sexual advances toward" students and cadets, according to a copy attached to the letter.

In the report to Congress on the 2022-23 statistics, the Pentagon also pledged to "evaluate the effectiveness of these enhanced policies and make necessary adjustments to reduce and address allegations of sexual discrimination, harassment and misconduct."

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