U.S. Divers Search Classified Material

Aug. 25 -- U.S. Navy divers are scouring the waters of the Persian Gulf for classified information carried by an American diplomatic courier on board ill-fated Gulf Air Flight 72.

State Department courier Seth J. Foti, 31, was carrying classified “diplomatic cargo,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, when the Airbus A320 crashed in 18 feet of water near Bahrain International Airport, killing all 143 people on board. Foti was the only American.

Navy divers from the USNS Catawba Thursday tried to recover the cargo, State Department and Pentagon sources said. The Catawba, an ocean-going tugboat often used in salvage operations is helping out with its 10-ton crane.

State Department officials declined to specify what was in the cargo. They would only note that couriers escort everything from classified material, to large crates of equipment that must remain under U.S. government control during shipping.

Navy sources say divers have only a general description of the containers they should look for on their dives. By late this evening in Bahrain the material still had not been found, and operations were suspended, to be resumed at first light Friday.

The team diving

for the material is the same team that early this morning recovered the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders — its “black boxes.”

Foti was one of 97 couriers, all American citizens, employed full-time for the purpose of ensuring the security of classified material or equipment when it is transported across international borders.

He joined the U.S Diplomatic Service in April 1999 and was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, 14 months ago, a State Department official said.

“His dedication to the mission of courier service was unmatched, and he was clearly an asset to the Department of State and the U.S. government. His friends and colleagues in the U.S. government will miss him very dearly,” Boucher said.