Posted on 07/02/2008 7:12:32 PM PDT by RDTF
Colombian security forces rescued the French-Colombian politician, 11 Colombian police and three US intelligence operatives in an operation in the eastern jungle province of Guaviare which saw the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) lose their negotiating trump cards.
The guerrillas were holding almost 60 political hostages, whom they want to exchange for hundreds of rebels in prison.
General Freddy Padilla, Colombia's armed forces commander, said it was high-level military intelligence that assured the safe rescue of the hostages.
"We have infiltrated the Secretariat (Farc's ruling seven-man body) and military intelligence gave us the location of the hostages," said Gen Padilla as he pointed on a map to the remote area of Tomachipan in Guaviare, where the hostages were found.
It emerged that commandoes had managed to trick the rebels into handing over the hostages.
A government agent managed to infiltrate the rebel group, apparently earning their trust, paving the way for the rescue.
Undercover Colombian commandoes flew to the jungle camp in a civilian helicopter, claiming to be from a fictitious non-government organisation.
They claimed they had orders to fly the hostages by helicopter to a camp to meet with rebel leader Alfonso Cano.
"The helicopters, which in reality were from the army, picked up the hostages in Guaviare and flew them to freedom," Juan Manuel Santos, the defence minister, said.
Two guerrillas were captured and the hostages were flown to a military base.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
That’s why they call it dope.
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Nancy & Co are deeply saddened.
Obama and Hugo shocked.
Hugo Chavez is breaking something in his palace right now.
What a great plan! I wonder what “non-governmental organization” they were impersonating. Probably Code Pink. Or maybe the Carter Center.
LMAO!
God, I loved her in Casablanca.
If Obama wins, I may move to Colombia..
That laptop they recovered may be related to this.
That means they left 45 hostages behind. I wonder why after those 15 were in the air, they didn't move in and help the free the other 45? I haven't seen that question asked in the other articles. Just curious
Either a dumb thing to say or an attempt at getting FARC to kill of its entire Secretariat.
Obama fundraisers.
http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/2008/07/three-american-hostages-and-betancourt.html
brilliant!
Maybe they should have this Generat look for Obama and do the same??
Maybe we will get to read about a seven man standoff shootout. The paranoria level must be running high after hearing this statement.
John McCain is in Colombia. Coincidence?
no coincidence. Columbia and NAFTA and all that.
Re: “Hugo Chavez is breaking something in his palace right now.”
Yes, WIND. This operations scared the crap out of him.
Another major blow to the commies in Colombia and their Chavez, Morales, Corraes and American friends.
Re why the other 45 hostages weren’t rescued.
Maybe they were not in the same spot.
Also, depends on the lift-capability of the helicopters used. I was in a Huey in Vietnam with 16 other people - mainly smaller ARVN soldiers. Have you ever heard a chopper “groan” when it lifted off? Strange sound!
There are supposed to be between 300-500 other FARC prisoners, mainly govt soldiers and local civilians who are opposed to them.
No one knows the accurate number of prisoners.
Notice the rejoicing is pretty much exclusively about Betancourt the POLITICIAN (All hail the glorious politicians!!!). The 3 American intel contractors and the 11 Colombian police officers are barely mentioned, despite the fact that they were held captive vastly longer than the hapless Ms. Betancourt.
Neat operation!
That’s beautiful.
Rescue the hostages and plant the seeds of mistrust among the bad guys. They will be busy killing “spies” for months while the Colombian govt. picks off the stragglers.
From what I picked up from the defense minister’s press conference, the hostages were divided into three groups. They told the guards to give them the most prominent group and I guess didn’t want to press their luck trying to get the others. Sucks to be sure, but hopefully this will be the first of many hostage rescues.
My thoughts ‘zactly.
obambi would say that we lied and took unfair advantage of the poor underprivileged and what we should have done is raise taxes
obama ... I mean osama watch your back Hehehehehe
"The 3 American intel contractors and the 11 Colombian police officers are barely mentioned, despite the fact that they were held captive vastly longer than the hapless Ms. Betancourt."
Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002 and the contractors were taken hostage after their crash in 2003, how long were the police officers held?
This reminds me of the sting set up by Ollie North, where they flew a cargo plane into Nicaragua, supposedly from a drug cartel, and picked up a load of cocaine. The plane was equiped with hidden cameras, which caught the Sandinista Minister of the Interior personally supervising the loading of the plane. Ollie showed the film during his testimony, but of course the media buried it anyway.
Ya gotta love it when we can con the bad guys in front of the whole world though. FARC’s credibility must be pretty dismal about now.
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