Left I on the News

When British soldiers appear before cameras, be it in Tehran or London, they could be lying or reading what they're told to read in either situation. But consider just this one fact from their London appearance:

Held in isolation by guards who spoke no English, barred from talking to one another, and so bereft of information that they thought perhaps no one knew they were missing, "Some of us feared the worst," said Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air, 25.

Now, I realize that that "perhaps no one knew they were missing" isn't a direct quote, but it seems unlikely the reporter made that up. Assuming it does represent what the Capt. Air (or someone else) said, it is even remotely credible? How stupid are these Marines that they could in their wildest imagination believe that "no one knew they were missing"?

There's one other curious fact, something I've commented on before. The British insist, with great precision, that they were "1.7 nautical miles" inside Iraqi waters. If that's true, that's a pretty long way for armed Iranian ships to be penetrating inside Iraqi territory, isn't it? We're told "Although a British helicopter initially had provided air cover for the boarding operation, for some unknown reason it had left, Air said." But if the helicopter were anywhere in the vicinity, shouldn't it have been able to spot the Iranians heading toward the boarding party, and radio a warning back to the Cornwall? What exactly was the purpose of this "air cover" anyway? This may just be a matter of simple incompetence, or complacency, but it certainly is curious.