New Betancourt Video Released

ANCHOR:
And we have exciting new video to show you of rescued hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Now you may remember she was rescued by Colombian authorities from FARC rebels, who held the politician in captivity for more than six years. Let's take a look.
STORY:
A moment of joy like no other. Cameras of the Colombian military rescue team capture the moment when Ingrid Betancourt and the other hostages realize they are free. Betancourt is overwhelmed by emotion while others can't contain their excitement and delight.
The 14 hostages had been kept in Columbia's jungles for up to ten years by Marxist so called FARC rebels. Negotiations for their release had been repeatedly fruitless.
Now details of the audacious sting used to extract the captives are becoming clear.
In this video hostages can be seen with the FARC rebels waiting in the jungle. Colombian military intelligence officers pretended to be members of a fictitious non-governmental organization sympathetic to the rebels. They had come to check on hostages health and transport them to meet with
rebel leader Alfonso Cano.
They had acting training and posed as a blonde nurse, an Australian looking like Crocodile Dundee and as campaigning youngsters.
In this shot one of the rebel commanders can be seen being interviewed by a bogus journalist. Relaxed and laughing, the degree to which he is taken in is obvious.
To add to the authenticity the fake group bound the hands of the captives before boarding the helicopter.
The captives look unhappy as they are lead on to the helicopter along with two rebels.
Once of the undercover soldiers was so convincing he persuaded a rebel to hand over his gun. There is a break in filming as the rebels are overwhelmed by the military on board the helicopter - band the captives are informed of their release.
Colombian defense ministry proud of its operation said the U.S. had not been involved except in offering emergency support. The defense minister also denied that 20 million U.S. dollars had been paid to the rebels.
[Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian Defense Minister]:
"All of that information is absolutely false, it has no basis. We don't know where the information is from nor why it has come out. We haven't paid a single cent. Twenty million dollars? Well, the truth is it would have been cheap because we had offered up to 100. If they had handed them over, we wouldn't have had to do this operation."
Whatever the rumors and politics, nothing can take away from the ecstatic moment when after years of captivity these people realized they were free.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• ingrid
• betancourt.
• FARC
• rebel
• politician
• captivity
• Alfonso
• Cano

[dark9005]

They are not rebels! they are terrorist!