Can two imminent reports get to the bottom of the HMS Cornwall fiasco, asks robert fox |
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Last week was a good one for the Navy, as it commemorated its daring deeds in the Falklands 25 years ago. But this week could prove one of the senior service's most difficult, with the publication of two reports on the capture by Iran of 15 sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall in March.
The report by Lt General Sir Rob Fulton, a former Royal Marine, has been stamped 'Top Secret' and only edited highlights will be given to the public, on security and intelligence grounds.
But if the Navy is to restore its name with the country and with its sister services, the RAF and the Army, the report will have to address some awkward questions. As a recently retired senior general put it to me, "The UK was turned into a laughing stock by the behaviour of these people" - which was probably the intention of their Iranian captors all along.
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| The inquiry needs to explain how the Iranians seized the HMS Cornwall 15 so easily in the first place |
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The Fulton inquiry needs to explain why the Iranian revolutionary guards managed to seize the HMS Cornwall 15 so easily in the first place, why Cornwall's commander seemed unaware of the risk, why there was no adequate back-up to foil the Iranians, and why the sailors and marines behaved the way they did in captivity.
Finally, Fulton will have to address why the returning 15, after apologising on Iranian television for the errors and misdemeanours of their service and country, were greeted as heroes on their return - and then allowed to sell their stories to the media.
The Navy's handling of the media is the subject of a second inquiry headed by Tony Hall, a former BBC news executive - and this one is to be published in full.
Both the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, and the head of the armed services, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, went to welcome the 15 personally. As fate would have it, they did so just as a party of four soldiers were blown up in a Warrior carrier in Basra – by a bomb designed and directed 
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