Hamill could identify his captors. If the men were just innocently working in the fields and had nothing to do with his abduction, the soldiers wouldn't have bothered to arrest them.
I think it odd in the extreme that either of you would think that his kidnappers would be hoeing weeds while he had escaped and would presumably bring US Marines back to where he had been held.
Unless they weren't aware that he had escaped. There was AK-47 assault rifle abandoned outside the front door, do you think Hamill's kidnappers just walked off and left it there?
His kidnappers may have been dumb, but no one is that dumb.
See above.
"Hamill could identify his captors. If the men were just innocently working in the fields and had nothing to do with his abduction, the soldiers wouldn't have bothered to arrest them."
Why not? Just because the men say they "don't know anything about the abduction" I wouldn't necessarily believe them. Arresting them allows them to be questioned at leisure. I don't think the soldiers believe they were directly involved, but, they might know something.
If Hamill had identified them as his captors don't you think the article would have identified them as "his captors" instead of as "men working in nearby fields"?