Politician Ingrid Betancourt, 3 American Hostages Rescued From Colombian Rebels

Politician Ingrid Betancourt, 3 American Hostages Rescued From Colombian Rebels

www.foxnews.com

Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas on Wednesday after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury, the defense minister said.

The rescue came as U.S. presidential candidate John McCain was visiting Colombia. When news of its success reached McCain on his campaign plane, he said he and two other U.S. senators traveling with him — Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham — had been told about it in advance by Uribe.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Shades of the Iranian hostages being released on the day of Reagan's inauguration. Hey, if you find a good trick, you stick with it. The blurb on Fox was McCain was trusted with the info on the plan because of his national security expertise, or something like that.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

My response to this story may be offensive to some, but if you read the article, you will see there are some inconsistencies and questionable events that just don't fit.

For instance:

The helicopters took off with the hostages, Cesar and one other rebel, and those two "were neutralized" during the flight, Santos said.

No witnesses. No conflicting accounts of what happened.

The army let the rest of the rebel group, who retreated into the jungle, escape "in hopes that they will free the rest of the hostages," Santos said. The government says the FARC still holds about 700 hostages.

Chances are better they will kill the rest of the hostages in retaliation for the rescue, imo. Why not hang on to Cesar and the other guy that they "'neutralized' during the flight" to get further intelligence on the location and condition of the other hostages? Why not have a ground force standing by to engage the rest of the rebel group after the rescue in order to prevent the execution of the rest of the hostages. I'm no national security expert like McCain, but the details just don't add up to me.

Just heard on the 10PM news 7/2 that they are about to land at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. Looks like they are home.

It is great that these hostages have been released. It is also good news that the FARC is crumbling. My concern is who the new boss is going to be. Any thinking person can connect the dots on this one. The three Americans who were held hostage were doing drug surveillance.

The Americans, who worked for a Northrup Grumman Corp. subsidiary as Pentagon contractors, were captured a year after Betancourt when their drug surveillance plane went down in rebel-held jungle. They were the longest-held American hostages in the world.

I don't want to put a damper on what should be a joyous occasion for the families of the hostages. I just want the truth to come out. I don't think it will here. I guess that is the way of the world these days. Maybe it has always been this way.

IMO there was someone else (The US, France, another govt) involved in this rescue. Don´t know if you know the details of allof this, but it was TOO movie like...they "tricked" the FARC into beliving that the hostages were being transferred to Cano (now the head honcho of the FARC) they landed in an unmarked helicopter, picked them up and left. Lots of "How in the hell" IMO there are many questions left unanswered. McCain shows up for a visit to Colombia, and in less than 24 hours, the hostages who have been "unfindable" are found, picked up and taken home WITHOUT a shot or death? And why can I only find Ingrid Betancour interviews, I have seen nothing from the three amercians rescued on any news agency.

Yeah, the whole thing seems staged for the benefit if the major players. I read in another thread on this subject that the rescue was carried out by US Special Forces. My opinion of the rescue and its ancillary motivations in no way detracts from the success and heroism of the effort.