UK Chief Regrets Sale of Detainee Tales

In this picture issued by Britain's Ministry of Defence, Leading Seaman Faye Turney stands with with daughter Molly and husband Adam after being reunited at the Royal Marines Barracks in Chivenor, Devon, England on Monday, April 5, 2007. Turney one of the British sailors detained by Iran for nearly two weeks believed she was being measured for a coffin, while she was in captivity a newspaper reported Monday, April 9, 2007. The Sun newspaper also reported that Faye Turney, 25, was told by her captors that her 14 male colleagues had been released and she alone was being held. The interviews were the first results of the Ministry of Defense's controversial decision to allow the former captives to sell their stories to the media. The financial arrangements for Turney were not disclosed, but Turney said the offer she accepted was not the largest she had been offered. (AP Photo/MOD) (AP)

"So the issue of payment for the stories was well in the minds of their families and indeed early in the minds of the young people once they were reunited with their families."

Browne said Navy officials believed it was in the interest of the returning sailors to have the opportunity to tell their story to "counteract the propaganda that the Iranians were putting out."

Having decided to allow them to talk, the officials believed regulations did not bar the payments, which were reportedly as high as six figures.

"I wasn't content with it, and I don't think anyone was really content with it, and I include the navy in that," Browne said.

In a newspaper interview published Wednesday, Batchelor said he was embarrassed to be one of only two former detainees to have told his story for money.

"My understanding was that everyone would be giving interviews. I can see why they have done the U-turn but I would have rather been told beforehand," the Plymouth Herald quoted him as saying.

"If they had told me beforehand I wouldn't have done it. I felt like I had disappointed the whole Royal Navy because only two of us did them interviews."

Browne declined to criticize the operations of the HMS Cornwall, the frigate which sent out the 15 sailors to inspect ships in the Gulf. He said thousands of such boardings had taken place in the past without any incident.

"I'm not in a position, and I hasten to add that that most of the commentators are not in a position, to second-guess the decisions of the commanders about how to carry out those operations," Browne said.

"As I said in earlier interviews, as a common part of military operations there is a constant learning process."