Posted on 07/04/2008 7:53:57 AM PDT by milky
Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'.
The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said.
Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million.
The radio said its source was 'close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years.'
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I read some months ago that they had paid the ransom - and gotten no hostages. That is, they’d been stiffed by FARC.
So I would suspect they did pay, didn’t get what the hostages, and then the Colombian govt went ahead with Plan B.
The Colombian military has been heavily trained and professionalized by the US in the years since the end of the horrible Clinton era (which virtually gave Colombia to FARC). And in addition, apparently we were very much involved in this rescue.
I refuse to believe the anti-American media.
I understand they arrested the kidnappers. The French/Columbian lady rescued even saw him tied up when it was announced they were free.
I took some heat yesterday for saying this looked too convenient, the timing and all. It will interesting if this pans out. I do not approve of paying ransoms to kidnappers. It just insures someone else will be kidnapped.
Her guard and another guard got on the copter with the hostages, and once they were in the air, the hostages heard a commotion behind them. When they dared to look around, the guards were lying on the floor, stripped naked and bound.
The last time we were up against murderous Muslims, it was the Barbary Pirates. At that time a Member of Congress declared, "Millions for defense. Not one cent for tribute." Have we no such Members of Congress left?
Congressman Billybob
If this was a money issue...it would have been fixed up several years ago. I suspect that FARC has slipped badly in the past two or three years...and probably is a “Woody Allen-style” guerrilla operation, with drug money keeping them up and running but nothing else to brag about. The Swiss report...I’m guessing is speculation rather than actual fact.
I’m pretty sure you’ll find they paid the ransom earlier - and got no hostages. I remember reading about this some months ago. The French had also been “negotiating” to get her. Of course, her (French) mother said something stupid like, “oh, if only they could have dialogued...” Numerous groups actually had been “dialoguing” for years, but these high-value hostages were FARC’s big bargaining chip and it’s not likely they gave them up.
One thing that might be involved, however, is a big buy-out of somebody on the inside of FARC. The good guys infiltrated the group very high up, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a very wealthy ex-FARC out there right now. (Probably in deep hiding, of course!)
They have been working closely with the best for the last 8 years, and the whole operation seems to have been conducted with a great deal of American electronic warfare involved.
I'll come right out and say it: This story is bull****. The international Left cannot allow the Bush administration and its allies ANY successes, so they have come out with this story just so that the left-wing blogs will have something to point to. NOTHING can be allowed to disrupt the narrative of the Left in this all-important election year.
I'm not inclined to believe this report but, if it is true, then what was left of Bush's spine has been removed
FARC Muslims?
Another example of things depending on the people in charge is when Fujimori launched the raid on the residence of the Japanese ambassador where Tupac Amaru terrorists were holding dozens of hostages. That raid killed all fourteen of the terrorists with the loss of only one hostage (due to heart failure).
FARC has an aging leadership. Most of them are in their 70s; they haven’t been replaced by fresh blood, and the Colombian government has been very successful with a two-pronged approach of military action and “reinsercion,” that is, retraining of former guerrillas to reenter normal society. In many cases, the “guerrillas” weren’t particularly voluntary, but were peasant children who had been kidnapped and brought up in guerrilla camps, where the boys were trained to blow things up and the girls were used as prostitutes. So amnesty and retraining was an offer that was very attractive to many of them, especially as the leadership began to age out and lose some of its grip.
Does anyone think we will get to know the real truth, if so, how would it be proven? If people don’t like what they hear, they will just say they don’t believe it, regardless of the evidence.
That’s the great thing about the internet.
I agree. They hate Uribe, too. The thing that amazes me is how many people here seem to want to believe it and are already cursing Bush for "weakness." Strange.
The thing that amazes me is how many people here seem to want to believe it and are already cursing Bush for “weakness.” Strange.
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Makes you wonder why they’re really her!
“a reliable source” = a total fabrication
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