Was 20 Million Dollars Paid to Free Betancourt and 3 American Hostages in Colombia?

In the mid-80s I had my first full-featured computer setup at home and got all excited about sending protest letters to foreign governments about releasing their political hostages. Truth is, I got disgusted with Amnesty International. Their newsletter was all about sending in the money, money, money, money, money with about a 1/3 page on foreign addresses a person could write to to protest the imprisonment of political hostages. To be clear, I have _no_ evidence whatsoever but since then I've always wondered whether political prisoners are usually bought out of jail.

is a motley and dreadful "guerilla force" that is as corrupt and reprehensible as the right wing Colombian death squads who are killing trade unionists -- with a wink and a nod from the government -- in that nation." What a bullshit caveat. Farc is opposing Drug Cartels, the CIA, the DEA, and corporatist death squads. What do you want, a pacifist revolution? Gandhi wasn't facing the opponents Farc is facing. If he was he would have been assassinated before he even got started. Revolution is a dirty business. Guerrilla warfare isn't pretty, or nice. Farc are no angels by any means, nor are they even the ideal, but they are not as bad as the drug cartel controlled government, the CIA, the DEA, or the fascist death squads. There were places in Southern Colombia where a person couldn't go out on the street in the middle of the day without being raped, robbed, or beaten. There is security there now because of farc. Unfortunately, in Colombia, the struggle can't always be a noble exercise of civility.

U.S. and Colombian authorities have labeled the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a terrorist group and have ruled out payments to terrorists.

This statement is simply false. In March of 2008, Uribe himself offered FARC $100 million for the release of all hostages.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has said he would pay cash to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for release of hundreds of hostages from its captivity. He said he would pay the amount from a fund of $100 million for the release of hostages, including former politician Ingrid Betancourt, many of whom were held by the group for several years.

The government, and the media, must think the public are really stupid! This whole rescue movie was as contrived, and easily seen through as all the rest of the propaganda schemes dreamed up by our crooked government! The hostages who were interviewed by the media were first debriefed by the FEDS, and not allowed to speak until they agreed to follow the government script. The statement by the one hostage who blasted FARC, sounded like something that Karl Rove would dream up. It was so phony, that only a kool aid drinker would believe it was sincere. As far as McLame being in Columbia, just in time to share the limelight! My God!! What a pathetic little mentally disturbed idiot he is, to think that people would believe it just wasn't a photo op! And, if I recall in one of the news clips, wasn't that Joe LIEberman lurking in the background? I guess he went along for the ride in case McLame once again needed someone to whisper in his ear to correct a potential gaff! Thankfully, the American people are no longer paying attention to the propaganda being spewed over what used to be the public airwaves! The harder things get, the more people wake up. It is finally time for the citizens in this country to get together to remove and imprison the crooks in government who are destroying America! The alternative is to KISS DEMOCRACY GOODBYE.

To its credit, BuzzFlash has been on this since the event happened, as have BuzzFlash.net contributors. There's much to speculate about, especially if you "connect the dots." A super-conspiracy can be built up, with the U.S. planning attacks on Venezuela, via the Fourth Fleet. Will try to get that together.. but in the meantime, it's good to see more and more news people getting on board the "backlash" to ths obvious scam. McClatchy is on it -- On BuzzFlash.net check out INSIDE SOUTH AMERICA: Betancourt rescue: The backlash begins-McClatchy News http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=58681 (you probably will have to paste the url into your browser -- this part of the Buzzflash comunity is a bit behind the curve on the use of urls.)

Now they did just that - pre-emptively - trying to prove that presidential hopeful McCain is safer for the country than presidential hopeful Obama.

I sincerely hope EVERYBODY remembers that the hostages were taken on bushwa's watch.

Also, the current misadministration and the presidential hopeful McCain is dealing with terrorists.

So much for the war on terror, right? All it takes is some taxpayers' money, and lo and behold, the hostages are free to go. With a big front page story about miraculous recovery of hostages by some pachyderm heroes...

"...Finally -- and most curiously -- John McCain inexplicably showed up in Colombia around the time of the "rescue." _______________ June 24, 2008 - McCain announces trip to Colombia and Mexico Posted: 06:55 PM ET - From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby RIVERSIDE, California (CNN) – John McCain announced Tuesday that he will travel to Colombia and Mexico next week...called Colombia a “vital ally” and praised the “enormous battle that they are waging against the drug cartels which have had such a damaging effect on their country but also on ours.” McCain also contended that Colombia is “succeeding in combating the FARC,” the left-wing guerrilla group that has carried out attacks and kidnappings against the government since its formation in the 1960s. Uribe, the popular second-term president whose father was killed by FARC rebels in 1983, has made eliminating the rebel group a central cause of his administration. He has also clashed publicly with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whom McCain has called a dictator. ____________ McCain Briefed Yesterday on Hostage Rescue Operation WP - The Trail - Juliet Eilperin - Posted @ 7:16 PM ET 070208 ABOARD THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN PLANE -- While Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke repeatedly over the past 24 hours about how he would work as president to free three American hostages held by leftist guerrillas in Colombia, he did not reveal one key fact: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his aides had briefed him Tuesday night about the plan to rescue the Americans, along with 12 other captives. "These are very high-risk operations," McCain said, adding that the plan was unconnected to his visit yesterday to Colombia. "I would remind you that these things require incredibly long planning and coordination, etc., there's no way possible that it could have had anything to do with our visit that I could imagine.... It's a very happy moment." ______________ Hostage Rescue Is Happy Coincidence for McCain in Colombia By ELISABETH BUMILLER - Published: July 3, 2008 The timing of the rescue, which occurred while Mr. McCain was in Colombia, was in many ways a fortuitous turn of events for a presidential candidate who is using a three-day trip to South America and Mexico to try to show that he is a more agile foreign policy hand than his Democratic competitor, Senator Barack Obama. Although the timing of the rescue was a coincidence and Mr. McCain’s trip to Colombia had nothing to do with it, the event nonetheless put him in the middle of classified talks about covert operations with the head of another government. The talks about the planned rescue, which Mr. Lieberman described as detailed, delayed the start of a news conference on Tuesday that Mr. McCain held with Mr. Uribe outside the presidential retreat in Cartagena. In the news conference, Mr. McCain gave no hint of what he had just learned, although he mentioned the American hostages and praised Mr. Uribe’s efforts to battle FARC. “I thank you for the success you have achieved at great sacrifice on the part of Colombian citizens in trying to eliminate the flow of drugs and the struggle against the FARC and other paramilitary groups that have caused so much difficulty for the Colombian people,” Mr. McCain said at the news conference. “And I also want to urge you to continue your efforts, as I know you will, to free those people who are being held by the FARC. Our thoughts and prayers will always go out to the three American citizens who have been held captive for a number of years.” Mr. McCain mentioned the American hostages again during another news conference in Cartagena on Wednesday shortly before he learned the news of the rescue. ________________ CNN Betancourt, U.S. contractors rescued from FARC - 1225h 03 July A senior State Department official said the United States played no role in the operation, though it was briefed on it ahead of time. The official called the operation "brilliant" and "a huge success," saying it involved a deception operation against the FARC. According to Pentagon officials, Colombians told the United States about the operation in the past few days. The U.S. approved the plans but had no part in them. _______________ Press Briefing by Dana Perino or Immediate Release July 3, 2008 James S. Brady Press Briefing Room - 1235 EDT MS. PERINO: Sure. I think you just heard from the President -- I don't know if you've seen it yet, but he was able to make a couple of comments about the hostages being released from the FARC down in Colombia. The President got a call yesterday from President Uribe to let the President know that the operation had been successful. The United States had been working with the government of Colombia for the last several years, ever since the American hostages had been taken, in order to try to free them safely and successfully in a way that would not cause any harm to the individuals. And thankfully, that's what happened yesterday. We were aware of the operation in its planning stages. We provided some specific support, which I'm not allowed to go into the details on, but President Bush was certainly supportive of it. But I will say that President Uribe and his government and his military really get the credit for successfully freeing these hostages, because they conceived of the operation and then they carried it through -- with some support from us, but it was largely a Colombian exercise. And the President congratulates President Uribe and the military. Q After the U.S. learned that this rescue mission was going to go forward, did at any point any U.S. officials loop in Senator McCain? There seems to be a lot of speculation about why Senator McCain happened to be in Colombia right on the eve of this -- MS. PERINO: I don't know. I think this was long in the planning stages and I think the Colombians were able to take action when they were ready to and there was actionable intelligence to be able to carry out the operation. I've heard nothing to suggest that there was any connection. I just think it was a coincidence, but I did read somewhere that President Uribe let Senator McCain know about the possible operation when he was down there, but there's no connection in terms of timing. Q But you're not aware of anyone here at the White House or the State Department who briefed Senator McCain? MS. PERINO: Absolutely not, no. And President Bush yesterday -- just a little bit more -- he was yesterday getting ready for -- to do some of the Japanese television interviews. He was informed by the Chief of Staff and the National Security Advisor at about 3:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon that the operation had been executed and that it had been successful. And he's very happy for all of the families today, and he's glad that they're able to be reunited on the 4th -- right before the 4th of July. MS. PERINO: Okay. What I can tell you is that the whole world now saw who is responsible for releasing the hostages, and that was President Uribe, who deserves all of the credit. We certainly supported the operation and provided some specific support. _____________________ Hmmm... - McCain talks daily with Bush. - Bush was notified 10 days in advance (June 23-24) of the operational date (July 3/4). - McCain 'surprises' with Colombia trip announcement 24 June. Just a 'Co-Inky-Dink' IF you're a 'low informmation voter' ('idiot;) OR a NYT steno 'plant' (Liz Bumiller, sure sounds/writes a lot like Judy Miller, doesn't she?). I'm REALLY looking forward to someone/anyone with REAL investigative journalistic cred (probably a European) to 'flush out' the Swiss News Agencies speculation. Kenneth E. Tucker One PISSED OFF Viet Vet ('72-'73)

f-ing pathetic u.s. media. I really don't care as much about the method as I do about those poor people being free, but considering Lynch, Tillman, et al, one almost has to conclude that this whole thing was a Bush-op. Don't be surprised if that turns out to be the case, in which case we'll be the last to know. Or rather, MSM will will be the last to report. There are several other disturbing factors IF a payment was made, as in now terrorists might start taking more hostages for money, and that these people were used as props for propaganda. Illiteration aside... also keep in mind that the general was forced to concede that a U.S. spy plane was monitoring the whole thing, after insisting that it was "absolutamente ciento percento" a Colombian operation.

Those who control the information, control the people. Considering the loss of credibility of current leaders and the disemmination of "official" carefully crafted wordage--many times it's not what is being said, but what is left unsaid that is important- who and what can be believed? The lust for greed and power at any cost have become more important than honesty, integrity, and simple truth.