IRAN:The freed British sailors are likely to face a thorough debriefing. Their release is a prime chance for Britain's intelligence services to get an insight into how the Iranians operate and what they wanted to know.
The debriefing at Royal Marine Barracks Chivenor at Barnstaple in north Devon will last "hours, not days", according to Eric Grove, director of the Centre for Security Studies at Hull University. "They probably were not shown that much. Obviously the Revolutionary Guard were trying to limit what they could see to the minimum," he said.
"The Iranians are not stupid but clearly what they [those debriefing] will want to know is what kind of pressures were they put under in order to make the kind of statements they did."
Any details about where they were held, if they can identify their captors, what questions were asked and how they were captured are obvious questions they will be asked. This will help the intelligence services to build a picture of how the Revolutionary Guard works.
The officers would certainly have attracted the most attention from Iranian interrogators as they would have access to intelligence the other ranks would not.
In turn, this could be useful to the British and be fed into the way the Iranians are treated diplomatically.
According to Dr Grove: "It will be expected that the officers keep their eyes and ears open more than the ratings did because that is part of being an officer. Officers are expected to be better informed."
If they were coerced, this would be useful in briefing people in future about what would happen if they were captured by Revolutionary Guards. It is unclear if the debriefing will be carried out by a central intelligence group but counselling could be offered.
Dr Grove said: "I am sure in the modern navy that it may be available. It was obviously a traumatic experience and the people who meet them will make an assessment. The navy has a certain mentality. It is a ship's company. They are shipmates. I do not think there will be any recriminations but we will try to milk it for as much intelligence as possible and the Iranians will milk it for all its political worth."
A spokesman for Devonport naval base in Plymouth, the home base of the captured service personnel's ship, HMS Cornwall, could not say what would happen to them after the debriefing.
He said: "The timescale might be based on what their needs are. It's about their individual needs, really - the priority is how they feel." - (PA)