'Mission impossible' in the jungle

The Scotsman ^ | 7-6-08 | Frank Bajak

[STARWISE]

AS THE unmarked white helicopter descended into the jungle clearing, Ingrid Betancourt had no reason to believe that her six-year-long ordeal was nearly over. Looking at the crew, some wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, the captive politician reasoned this was just going to be another day as a pawn in the struggle between her tormentors from the Revolutionary Army of Columbia, better known as the Farc guerrilla group, and her country's government.

Along with 13 other hostages, her hands were bound with white plastic cuffs as she was shepherded towards the waiting aircraft. Angry and upset, she refused a coat they offered as they told her she was going to a colder climate.

With the bizarre scene being captured on video an American hostage, Keith Stansell, annoyed at being restrained, leaned toward the camera and shouted an expletive before getting on board.

Behind them was Gerardo Aguila Ramirez, alias Cesar, the Farc local commander who apparently had been ordered by his high command to assemble three groups of hostages at the clearing as part of a prisoner swap. He had been in control of Betancourt's fate for four years.

Jumping on board the helicopter, which he believed was flying to a rendezvous with his guerrilla boss, he modestly refused to grant the video team an interview. What happened next will go down in annals of hostage rescue operations.

Not long after the group was airborne, Betancourt turned around and saw Cesar blindfolded and stripped naked on the floor. Then came the words she had been waiting so long to hear. "We're the national army," said one of the crewmen. "You're free."

The helicopter team, posing as a sympathetic rebel group and a TV crew, were Colombian commandos who had pulled off one of the most audacious rescue operations in history.

In the film, Betancourt, the former presidential candidate kidnapped in 2002, is seen joyfully hugging William Perez, an army corporal and fellow hostage she later credited for nursing her through her jungle illnesses. "We waited 10 years for you!" exclaims Perez, who was captured by Farc in 1998.

This weekend, 46-year-old Betancourt is back "breathing the air" of France, where she was brought up before emigrating to Columbia and entering national politics, and where she earned the nickname 'Colombia's Joan of Arc'.

After her release on Wednesday and being reunited with her family, she was flown to Europe for a hero's welcome from President Nicolas Sarkozy. Her fellow hostages, including three American contractors, were also all back home – while Cesar is taking his turn in captivity, in a Bogota jail.

The stock of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe – who masterminded the operation to free Betancourt with help from the CIA – has risen and, amid the euphoria, the end of Farc is being forecast.

Yesterday, new details emerged of how the secret operation was carried out and of Betancourt's treatment at the hands of her captors. She survived for six years sleeping on mud floors, being infected by jungle parasites, chained by the neck and as yet undisclosed violent treatment.

Asked if she had been raped, she replied: "I have had painful experiences but I don't want to talk about this here, now at this time of happiness."

Wednesday's elaborate ruse intentionally mimicked two hostage handovers brokered by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez earlier this year, when Venezuelan helicopters carrying International Red Cross observers picked up six hostages.

But its success hinged entirely on a near-total breakdown in communications between the isolated guerrilla jailers and their commanders – the result of years of intense US-Colombian military co-operation that has seriously weakened Latin America's last major rebel army.

The rescue had its genesis in the escape last year of a Colombian who had spent time in captivity with the three Americans and Betancourt, but it began to gain steam only in January, when Colombian intelligence determined that the hostages were being moved.

The Colombians installed US remote-controlled, video monitoring devices – which can zoom in and out – along rivers that are the only transport route through dense jungles. American surveillance planes intercepted rebel radio and satellite phone conversations and employed foliage-penetrating imagery.

In mid-February, a Colombian patrol spotted the three Americans – Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes – bathing, under guard, in the Apoporis River, the first sight of them since their surveillance plane crashed in 2003.

For four days, they were kept under watch but a rescue operation was deemed too risky and was called off.

Then a stroke of luck. A disillusioned and disgruntled member of Farc agreed to spearhead the operation. Crucially, he was trusted by both the rebels' high command and the leader of the 1st Front, which had the hostages.

The turncoat managed to persuade Cesar that top commanders wanted 15 hostages – including the three Americans and Betancourt – moved to a rallying point. US spy satellites helped track them on a month-long journey that began on May 31.

On Tuesday, two Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters left a military base in an Andean mountain valley, settling down for a nervous night in a wilderness clearing.

Aboard the chopper that would recover the hostages were four air force crewmen in civilian disguise, seven military intelligence agents and the guerrilla turncoat. Two of the agents were dressed as rebels and the rest wore white, as if on a humanitarian mission. All had taken acting lessons to play their roles.

Shortly after midday on Wednesday, the helicopter touched down at the rendezvous point.

One of the agents, posing as a cameraman, recorded video as the guerrillas on the ground bound the hostages' hands on the crew's instructions. Tying up the hostages was part of the plan. Once aloft, it was Cesar and his aide who were overpowered instead.

There was a plan B. If Cesar had rumbled the ruse, 39 more helicopters and 2,000 troops were in position to encircle the hostage-holders and try to persuade them to give up peacefully. In the event, it was not necessary.

The turncoat is now free and will receive a sizeable amount from a $100m government reward fund.

For Farc, the rescue could not have come at a worse time. The rebels were already in disarray after losing three senior commanders in March – one killed by government bombs, a second by a turncoat bodyguard and the third, co-founder Manuel Marulanda, succumbing to a heart attack at age 78.

"Even before the rescue operation – but especially afterwards – there is every indication that the war is, for all intents and purposes, over," said Michael Shifter, of The Inter-American Dialogue, a non-partisan Washington think tank.

The Colombian military says Farc has maintained complete radio silence since Wednesday's rescue. Its two most senior leaders, Monoy Jojoy and Alfonso Cano, are hunkered down in jungle hideouts and not communicating.

Betancourt now plans to spend time with her son Lorenzo, 19, and daughter Melanie, 22, before deciding on her future.

Abducted while campaigning for the presidency in a remote rural area, she has not ruled out returning to Colombian politics.

But first she has to get over her long and brutal ordeal, during which she often thought of suicide while chained to a tree. "Death is a hostage's most faithful companion," she said

[STARWISE]

Utterly fantastic .. sure to be a movie. I knew there had to be important US support.

~~~~

Medic Hailed As Hero

Haverhill man aided Colombian rescue

A modest Haverhill Air Force medic insisted yesterday he was is no hero, despite being one of the first to greet and treat three U.S. hostages after their daring rescue Wednesday from rebels deep in the Colombian jungle.

“I just played a very small part in the Colombian government’s rescue operation. We were just there for support,” said 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Daryl Bradley, even as his hometown declared him a “Hero of Haverhill.”

Bradley was part of the medical evacuation team that treated Chatham native Thomas Howes and two other Americans as they were flown to Texas after being freed from FARC rebels in a dramatic rescue mission Wednesday.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Daryl Bradley, second from left, was part of the medical evacuation team that treated the Colombian hostages freed in a daring rescue Wednesday, including Chatham native Thomas Howes, far left.

~~~~

Sourcing stated as possibly spotty, but another article:

US Military Special-Ops Team, and Not the Colombian Army, Carried Out Hostage Rescue in Colombia

~~~~

Our guy are finally home .. God bless all the former and current hostages. May the terrorists implode.

[STARWISE]

And God bless the Colombian and US militaries, fighting for freedom and an end to tyranny and terrorism.

[calex59]

Is this woman still an ardent communist, or has she seen the light? Guess we can’t answer that right now. Time will tell.

[Travis McGee]

Beyond Hollywood! Utterly amazing. Mark Gonsalves’ speech today was also stunning. Bravo to the heros!

Now might be a good time to rent “Proof of Life,” for a gripping fictional view into the life of a captive in the Andes.

[STARWISE]

Seeing as how she thanked everyone BUT the US,
I guess time will tell.

[libsrscum]

Notice we didn’t “talk” to them and try to persuade them to be nice. Obama, take notice...

[ken21]

that’s what i wondered.

[Little Ray]

I still want to know the “Aid Group” that was so friendly to FARC that they would allow their helicopters to transport hostages for them...
Something BAD needs to happen to them and their “volunteers.”

[Squantos]

Indeed .........BTTT !!!

Awesome rescue !

[AndrewB]

Betancourt to be played by Shakira.

[denydenydeny]

On Tuesday, two Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters

Interesting detail. Does the Colombian army normally use these or were they trying to look like the Venezuelans?

[Dawnsblood]

The speech for any who have not seen it, is here.

[STARWISE]

Video from today: freed former American military contractor hostage, Mark Gonsalves:

http://tinyurl.com/5tusas

[STARWISE]

A FARC Fan’s Notes
March 25, 2008; Page A22

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120640555842961083.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

“A hard drive recovered from the computer of a killed Colombian guerrilla has offered more insights into the opposition of House Democrats to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

A military strike three weeks ago killed Raúl Reyes, No. 2 in command of the FARC, Colombia’s most notorious terrorist group.

***

The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal.

***

Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia’s elected and popular government.

Mr. McGovern’s press office says the Congressman is merely working at the behest of families whose relatives are held as FARC kidnap hostages.

However, his go-between’s letters reveal more than routine intervention.

The intervenor with the FARC is James C. Jones, who the Congressman’s office says is a “development expert and a former consultant to the United Nations.”

Accounts of Mr. Jones’s exchanges with the FARC appeared in Colombia’s Semana magazine on March 15. This Mr. Jones should not be confused with the former Congressman and ambassador to Mexico of the same name from Oklahoma.

“Receive my warm greetings, as always, from Washington,” Mr. Jones began in a letter to the rebels last fall. “The big news is that I spoke for several hours with the Democratic Congressman James McGovern. In the meeting we had the opportunity to exchange some ideas that will be, I believe, of interest to the FARC-EP [popular army].”

[nomorelurker]

LOL “those are Russian made helicopters shoot them down”. “Sir they appear to be American made”. “Don't fire no wait shoot don't shoot” “Damn it” . Could be a niche market for nondescript helicopters here. In some seriousness if this was a “Mission Impossible plot” we would all be saying “yeah right”.

[Bahbah]

So we have members of our Congress working with terrorists, as we all can plainly see.

When Uribe came to DC, Pelosi refused to meet with him. Since she was pulling for the other side, at least she didn’t provide phony photo-ops while trying to knife him in the back. I’ll give her that.

[STARWISE]

These scummy democrats are beyond belief.

[Squantos]

Thank you Starwise ! I copied that for my own files !

http://keepvid.com/

[STARWISE]

My pleasure.

[ottbmare]

Asked if she had been raped. . .

Of course she was raped. She is an attractive woman who was held in the middle of nowhere by lawless subhumans. And the reporters who asked her this question are little better. No wonder everyone hates the press. Drug dealers are more respected.

[Travis McGee]

Wall....cigarette....blindfold.

[prairiebreeze]

view in AM

[STARWISE]

Fire!

[Travis McGee]

So many traitors!

[STARWISE]

And no consequences!

[Paladin2]

I’m sure 60 Minutes will get right on this story. /sarc