[MossadConspiracy]

15 Hostages Held by Colombian Rebels Are Rescued
By SIMON ROMERO

CARACAS, Venezuela — Colombian commandos disguised as rebels spirited 15 hostages to freedom on Wednesday, including Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician held for six years, and three American military contractors, according to the hostages and the Colombian authorities.

Ms. Betancourt, speaking just hours after her rescue, described the operation as “perfect.” Talking to Colombian radio and later at a news conference in Bogotá, she said helicopters of what had seemed to be rebels had landed around dawn in jungle area where the hostages were being held.

It had appeared to be just another change of location, she said, and she was handcuffed and “humiliated” before being put on board the helicopters.

But after takeoff, she said, the crew told their passengers they were free.

“Thank you for your impeccable operation," she told top military commanders in Bogotá, after a joyful reunion with her mother.

The United States was involved in the planning of the operation and provided ‘’specific support,” according to the White House. But officials would not describe the nature of that support, or say whether it included military help or intelligence assistance.

The Colombian government said the three Americans — Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes — were en route to the United States on Wednesday evening, news agencies reported. In France, where Ms. Betancourt has been a symbol of suffering, courage and endurance, , television stations broke into programming to run specials on the release, and President Nicolas Sarkozy made a televised appearance with members of her family. The Colombian authorities said the 11 other hostages Colombian soldiers and police officers.

The rescue of the captives, who were reported to be in good health, marks a major victory in Colombia’s long struggle with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency that has been attempting to topple the Colombian government for more than four decades.

The defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said the rescue operation was carried out Wednesday in Guaviare, a jungle region in south-central Colombia. It comes after the killing and capture in recent months of several senior commanders of the FARC.

Gordon Johndroe, the deputy White House press secretary, said the American ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield and the United States combatant commander in the region, Admiral James G. Stavridis, were “engaged in the planning stages.”

“This was a Colombian conceived and led operation; we supported the operation,” he said, adding, “This rescue was long in the planning, and we’ve been working with the Colombians for five years, since the hostages were taken, to free them from captivity.”

He said President Bush was kept apprised of the planning and that Mr. Bush called after the rescue to congratulate the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, calling him “a strong leader,” Mr. Johndroe said.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, released a statement said Mr. Uribe and Mr. Santos had briefed him about the operation on Tuesday night, during his visit to Colombia.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made the freedom of Ms. Betancourt a diplomatic priority and a public goal, offered in April to go to the border to accept her release. He attempted to work through the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, and sent a French medical team by air to Colombia wait for her. Ms. Betancourt has both French and Colombian citizenship.

Mr. Sarkozy, according to his office spoke to Mr. Uribe Tuesday night.

Late Wednesday night, he appeared on live television with Ms. Betancourt’s children and her sister, and said France would fly them to Colombia, accompanied by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

The FARC captured Ms. Betancourt while she was campaigning in Colombia’s interior in 2002. The three Americans were taken captive in 2003 after their surveillance plane went down on an antinarcotics mission for the United States Defense Department. Officials in Washington also said that the Colombians came close to mounting a similar rescue mission about four months ago, but what one official called "a window of opportunity" closed before the Colombia security forces could carry out a rescue.

Colombian officials announced in June that the American contractors had been spotted by troops in the jungle a few months earlier, but said it had been impossible to try a rescue at the time.

Had the Colombians tried a rescue mission in that period, there might have been direct American involvement, American officials said Wednesday. "We had assets postured to help more directly about four months ago," one American official said. "We had more assets postured then that we did not. This one was planned, led and executed by the Colombians."

In January, in a deal brokered by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, freed Clara Rojas, 44, who was captured along with Ms. Betancourt, and Consuelo González de Perdomo, 57, a former Colombian lawmaker abducted in 2001.

Ms. Rojas bore a child during captivity, who was found to be living in foster care in Bogotá shortly before her release, and not with the guerrillas, as they had indicated.

In his television appearance, Mr. Sarkozy also made an appeal for the release of another dual citizen of France, the Franco-Israeli Gilad Shalit, who was taken hostage by Hamas in a raid into Israel two years ago and whose release has been the subject of long and frustrating negotiations between Israel, Egypt and Hamas.

Ms. Betancourt’s plight gained new urgency in February when a former hostage warned that she was very sick and depressed, prompting tearful appeals for her release from her two children and her mother. Mr. Sarkozy made efforts to secure her release, and even sent a airplane with doctors to wait for her, but then in vain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/wo...html?ref=world

[dreamdeferred]

I thought this was going to be about the CIA

Thanks for the article though.......I've been following this story throughout the day.

[MossadConspiracy]

The rescue was incredible. Its going down in history among the ultimate special forces operations

[dreamdeferred]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

The rescue was incredible. Its going down in history among the ultimate special forces operations

Yeah man.......those guys got hoodwinked in truly cinematic fashion. I'm sure FARC will take a massive hit in terms of perceived competence.

[MossadConspiracy]

Originally Posted by dreamdeferred

Yeah man.......those guys got hoodwinked in truly cinematic fashion. I'm sure FARC will take a massive hit in terms of perceived competence.

Its like Operation Thunderbolt multiplied by 20