Posted on 02/14/2003 5:37:20 PM PST by MadIvan
Two Central Intelligence Agency operatives have been captured by Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, it appeared yesterday, while another two were dead, perhaps assassinated, after a light aircraft they were travelling in crash-landed.
United States officials were prepared only to admit that one of their aircraft, carrying four American citizens and a Colombian, was forced to make an emergency landing in the guerrilla-dominated southern province of Caqueta.
"Somewhere during the flight, the engine cut out and they were looking for a place to put down," said a State Department spokesman, Chip Barclay.
Sources in the Colombian defence ministry have indicated there was more to the situation, but said they were prevented from commenting officially as the United States has imposed a media blackout and taken over the operation.
Officials from the prosecutor-general's office who flew over the site said two foreigners' bodies could be seen.
A source at the defence ministry, who insisted on anonymity, said that the bodies each had a shot to the head, while the other three people on board, two more Americans and a Colombian army officer, were missing, presumed kidnapped by the guerrillas.
He also said that the Americans were CIA contractors on an anti-drug intelligence mission.
"We were on the scene within 30 minutes of the crash," said the defence source. "The survivors would have known we would come for them as there is a military base with helicopters very close. So we must assume they are in the hands of the Farc [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]."
The United States stepped up its involvement in the 39-year civil conflict under President George W Bush, who has embraced the battered Andean nation in his war on terrorism. Three of Colombia's warring factions, including the Farc, are on the White House's terrorism list.
Suspected rebels planning to assassinate President Alvaro Ulribe with a large bomb detonated it yesterday when police discovered it, killing 15 people and wounding 30 others.
The bomb was packed into a car near the airport in the southern city of Neiva. Nine police officers were among the dead.
Regards, Ivan
If true, it would be yet more needless deaths in the War On (some) Drugs.
Now you accuse Freepers who oppose the WOD of possessing cocaine? Sad.
Are you crazy? FARC is a marxist revolutionary group. They are motivated by a desire for a communist revolution not drugs, and terrorism is their weapon.
I can't imagine the hell our guys are going through right now. The terrorists have killed two already and they're probably torturing the rest for information. CBSNews.com says our guys were contractors for the US Southern Command. I guess that means they are ex-military (SEALs?, Deltas?). Here's some more info from the story on cbsnews.com:
"CBS News State Department Reporter Charles Wolfson reports the plane carried four U.S. citizens and one Colombian. All were involved in a counter-narcotics operation.
The Americans were contractors for the U.S. military's Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. government officials said in Washington. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota said the plane crashed eight minutes before its scheduled arrival in Florencia, a provincial capital."
Ha... only the CIA knows for sure...
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