French president kept in dark on hostage rescue

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 3, 12:27 PM ET

PARIS - As it meticulously planned and executed its daring rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Colombia kept a very important person out of the loop: French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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That is stunning because Betancourt is a dual French-Colombian national, her captivity was a cause celebre in France and Sarkozy had maintained a drumbeat of diplomatic pressure to try to spring her from the hands of Colombian rebels.

And yet, when word of Betancourt's long-awaited freedom started to reach Paris on Wednesday night, Sarkozy was out of the office, at his wife's residence in a posh part of town, his office says. He scrambled back to the presidential Elysee Palace. France learned of the release just 15 minutes before Colombian media broke the news, said Sarkozy's closest aide, Elysee chief of staff Claude Gueant.

Gueant explained on French TV that while Colombia did tell France months ago that a military operation was being contemplated, "it is true that we weren't expecting it at that precise moment." Gueant added that the French played no role in what Sarkozy called the "extremely brilliant" Colombian army rescue.

But Sarkozy is a master of spotting public relations opportunities, and this was too huge to miss. Having collected himself, the French leader gathered Betancourt's children, Melanie and Lorenzo, and her sister Astrid to his side and led them out before the cameras, for an address Wednesday night that French television stations broke into normal programming to broadcast.

For Sarkozy, it could not have gone better: The joyful kids and Betancourt herself, who spoke in Colombia, thanked the French leader publicly for his efforts — even though he was kept in the dark for the final chapter. Unusually, even his political opponents tipped their hats to Sarkozy's unrelenting diplomatic efforts after he promised on his election night last year that, for him, getting Betancourt out was a priority.

The image boost for Sarkozy from Betancourt's release comes after a rocky first year in power, where he's suffered slumping polls and often failed to maintain the statesmanslike poise that he displayed Wednesday night, standing quietly behind Betancourt's children as they breathlessly described their delight.

Just this week, Sarkozy started France's six-month presidency of the European Union on an undiplomatic foot, ripping into the bloc's trade chief. He accused Peter Mandelson in a television interview of making job-destroying concessions in global trade negotiations. The public spat with Mandelson — who responded though his spokesman that Sarkozy's criticisms were "wrong and unjustified" — cast a pall over what promises to be a tricky spell for France at the helm of the EU.

Embarrassingly, Sarkozy was also surreptitiously caught on camera losing his cool before that TV interview, when a studio technician ignored the French leader's greeting of "bonjour monsieur."

"A guest is entitled to a 'hello,'" Sarkozy said, twitchily adjusting his suit and chair, obviously peeved. "Unbelievable."

French diplomats said they didn't find it strange that France was kept in the dark about the army operation that freed Betancourt. They said the rescue was planned over months in great secrecy and that even some members of Colombia's government weren't in the know.

But while France wasn't informed, the United States apparently was. The freed hostages included three Americans. U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said U.S. and Colombian forces cooperated closely on the rescue mission, including sharing intelligence, equipment, training advice and operational experience. U.S. presidential candidate John McCain also said Colombia's president had told him in advance of the rescue plans.

Gueant said he expected Betancourt to fly to France on Friday afternoon, on a plane that Sarkozy dispatched to Colombia, with her children on board. Her arrival will offer another photo-op: Sarkozy's office said he would preside at a welcoming ceremony for her at the airport.

news.yahoo.com . . .

If the fwench had been informed, the rebels would have known about it in 30 minutes.

already posted.

simplefrench wrote:

already posted.

Yes, but we love stories of fwench irrelevance and impotence.

you love to say bullshit indeed.

find the real thread and you will see the truth is slightly different.

same title

July 5, 2008
Betancourt, in France, Details Her Captivity


PARIS — Two days after her rescue, six years after being captured by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, Ingrid Betancourt arrived in Paris on Friday to thank the joyful nation that had championed her cause and to begin to share some of the painful details of her long ordeal.

“I owe everything to France,” she said, after landing at a military air base outside Paris to a warm greeting by President Nicolas Sarkozy. “France is my home. You are my family.”

In comments to Europe 1 radio, she said that her captors had chained her day and night for the first three years, but that she was sustained by her Roman Catholic faith and thoughts of her family. “I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years,” she said. “I tried to wear those chains with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable.”

Asked if she had been tortured, she said, “Yes, yes,” and said her captors had fallen into “diabolical behavior,” adding, “It was so monstrous I think they themselves were disgusted.” She called her rescue “a miracle of the Virgin Mary” and said, “You need tremendous spirituality to stop yourself falling into the abyss.” She had made herself a wooden rosary in the jungle, she said.

Pope Benedict XVI has invited her to meet him next week.

Speaking at the Élysée Palace with Mr. Sarkozy later on Friday, before a reception for her family and supporters, Ms. Betancourt said the jungle was “an absolutely hostile world.” She described “no sun, no sky, a green ceiling — it was too much, it was too much, a wall of trees, a lot of insects, each more dreadful than the next.”

She said she walked perhaps 200 miles a year. “I walked with a hat pulled down over my ears because all sorts of things fall on your head, ants that bite you, insects, lice, ticks, with gloves because everything in the jungle bites, each time you try to grab on to something so that you don’t fall, you’ve put your hand on a tarantula, you’ve put your hand on a thorn, a leaf that bites, it’s an absolutely hostile world, dangerous with dangerous animals,” she said. “But the most dangerous of all was man, those who were behind me with their big guns.”

Ms. Betancourt, 46, whose father was a Colombian diplomat in Paris, studied here and married a French diplomat, attaining dual citizenship. They divorced, but their two children campaigned for their mother’s release, helping make her a French symbol of suffering and endurance.

On the flight to France, news agencies reported, Ms. Betancourt said: “I owe my life to France. If France hadn’t fought for me, I wouldn’t be here making this extraordinary journey.”

Mr. Sarkozy, who championed her cause, greeted her at the airport with an embrace, and said: “Dear Ingrid, we have been waiting for this so long. All of France is welcoming you back today.”

He called her bloodless rescue “a message of hope today for all those who believe in freedom.”

Mr. Sarkozy was accompanied by his wife, Carla, senior officials and members of the support group that has campaigned for Ms. Betancourt’s release. It was a signal honor for the French president to meet the plane, which he had sent to Colombia with her children to reunite the family and which now brought them all back to France. But it was wonderful publicity, too, covered live on television, allowing Mr. Sarkozy to bask in the good feelings around the release, which he had made a priority of his government.

At one point, Ms. Betancourt grabbed Mr. Sarkozy’s hand and said, “I owe so much to this extraordinary man who did so much for me,” and she praised France for aiding her family, providing moral support and for pressing the Colombian government to find a nonviolent way to rescue her. “France opposed a military operation that would put the lives of the hostages at risk, particularly my life,” she said. “So in a sense you saved my life.”

She asked Mr. Sarkozy for his continuing help in freeing the other 700 or so hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She was freed along with three American contractors and 11 Colombians. He answered, “Let it be clear, we will continue.”

While the French saw Ms. Betancourt as a symbol of their own sense of political activism — an ecologist, an educated person with a social conscience, independent and brave — many in Colombia saw her as a dilettante, an exile who returned to teach the natives how to live and who courted publicity.

Mr. Sarkozy’s own role became a topic of heated internal politics on Friday. The rescue operation, carried out by Colombian forces with American guidance, was done with no French involvement and no forewarning to Paris.

That prompted the Socialist he defeated for the presidency, Ségolène Royal, to belittle the diplomatic role Mr. Sarkozy had played. “Nicolas Sarkozy had absolutely nothing to do with this liberation,” she said in an interview during a visit to Canada. She called his diplomatic efforts “useless.”

Mr. Sarkozy’s allies leaped to counterattack. Prime Minister François Fillon said Ms. Royal was behaving like “a little girl in the playground” while Frédéric Lefebvre, a spokesman for Mr. Sarkozy’s political party, said it was “pitiful” that Ms. Royal was “trying to break the national unity” surrounding Ms. Betancourt’s release.

He said that Mr. Sarkozy had displayed “total commitment these past 12 months in the search for all possible ways” to ensure Ms. Betancourt’s release, and that making accusations against him “is really not worthy of a woman who aspires to the highest responsibilities.”

French officials also dismissed Swiss reports that bribes had been paid to the FARC and that the rescue was a staged affair. Ms. Betancourt is expected to undergo a medical examination at a French military hospital on Saturday.


I'll bet the presidential candidate never goes back to reside in Colombia.



www.nytimes.com . . .

If the fwench had been informed, the rebels would have known about it in 30 minutes.

HA---good point

...“total commitment these past 12 months in the search for all possible ways” to ensure Ms. Betancourt’s release

and devadeva is totally committed to a better way to fuel our vehicles,provide energy and lower the price of gasoline. when it happens i expect youse frogs to offer me your humble obeisance's even though i'll absolutely nothing to do with the solution

simplefrench wrote:

already posted.

Still accurate.

OldLyme wrote:

“I owe everything to France,” she said, after landing at a military air base outside Paris to a warm greeting by President Nicolas Sarkozy. “France is my home. You are my family.”

We need to bleach out the French gene from the human race immediately.

Same reason the Colombians didn't tell Obonga. Both him and the frogs have known FART sympathizers on their staffs.

AMERICANPHYCO wrote:

Same reason the Colombians didn't tell Obonga. Both him and the frogs have known FART sympathizers on their staffs.

Hey, Check this out!

US, Colombia choked rebel communications network
Jul 10 08:41 PM US/Eastern
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer
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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The stunning rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors owed its success not just to artful deception, but also to a five-year U.S.-Colombian operation that choked their captors' ability to communicate.

Known as "Alliance," it began with a satellite phone call in 2003, just weeks after the Americans' surveillance plane crashed in the southern Colombian jungle, according to U.S. and Colombian investigators and court documents.

The call came from Nancy Conde, the regional finance and supply chief for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, whose boyfriend would become the American hostages' jailer. She was calling confederates in Miami to see if they could supply the rebels with some satellite phones.

What Conde didn't know was that state security agents were listening.

U.S. law officers arrested the Miami contacts, who in exchange for promises of reduced sentences put Conde in touch with an FBI front company, according to a U.S. law enforcement official involved in the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Over more than four years, that company provided wiretapped satphones and other compromised telecommunications equipment that threw the rebels off balance and eventually helped authorities strangle their supply lines.

The operation laid crucial groundwork for the brazen July 2 commando rescue of 15 hostages held by a rebel unit that Conde supplied, the biggest blow ever dealt to the FARC.

In all, U.S. and Colombian agents intercepted more than 5,000 rebel phone conversations, investigators told The Associated Press.

They allegedly heard Conde and her coconspirators negotiate shipments of everything from assault rifles to condoms for distribution to about a third of the FARC's estimated 9,000 fighters, including the 1st Front that held the hostages.

"We're not talking just about finances, communications equipment, food and weapons—but also medical supplies, medicines and people who cared directly for the wounded," said Luis Ernesto Tamayo, the security official who ran the Colombian side of the operation. He wouldn't say whether hostages were discussed in any of the intercepted conversations.

Many of the calls went to a rebel "call center" in the gateway city of Villavicencio, where radio communications from the jungle were relayed to international phone circuits.

It was in Villavicencio that Conde, 35, allegedly operated several front companies. Located where the Andes mountains open out onto Colombia's southeastern plains, the city's airport was a key conduit to airstrips in rebel-dominated zones.

In addition to Miami—a major shopping destination for Latin Americans—she had suppliers and buyers in at least seven countries and territories including Brazil, Venezuela and the three Guyanas, the U.S. investigator said. The FARC units operating in her area were major cocaine exporters.

"A big part of the business was drugs for arms," the American official said.

Conde allegedly acquired supplies that ran the gamut from death-delivering devices to personal beauty accessories, according to Colombian and U.S. court documents. They included:

—Two ICOM V-8 military-grade portable radios;

—20 high-tech compasses and assorted GPS devices;

—350 satellite phone minutes from the United States;

—Rifles, rifle scopes, pistols, shotguns, bomb fuses and ammunition;

—Instruments "for surgery and body reconstruction."

On Feb. 2, authorities pounced on Conde, arresting her as she entered Colombia from Venezuela, where she'd gone to give birth. They rounded up a total of 39 alleged members of her supply and communications network, including three doctors—one of them a 61-year-old Cuban—and two of Conde's three female deputies.

The arrests, which began in 2006, notably included the capture of Jose Maria Corredor at a jungle camp. He allegedly shipped in hundreds of assault rifles from Venezuela in exchange for cocaine.

"With this operation we neutralized a great deal of the (rebels') logistical and financial support," Tamayo said.

So much were rebel supply lines squeezed that Betancourt could notice it in captivity.

She said upon being rescued that over the past year, "we've eaten very little, with very little variation in the food," adding that there was trouble getting boots and underwear. "Logistics could be in trouble," she said.

News coverage of Conde's arrest—the army chief was widely quoted as saying she was wanted for extradition to the United States—almost certainly prompted her boyfriend, hostage jailer Gerardo Aguilar, to seriously limit if not shun radio communications, officials say.

Conde and 10 others had been indicted in the District of Columbia in September on charges of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization. The group included Aguilar, alias "Cesar," and Alexander Farfan, alias "Enrique Gafas," both of whom were captured in the July 2 rescue mission and also face charges of hostage-taking and terrorism.

The United States is seeking their extradition.

The U.S. indictment, unsealed in February, says "Cesar" and "Enrique Gafas" had the three Americans in their custody at least as early as 2006.

___ www.breitbart.com . . .

I give karma to all posters who own SimpleFrench in this thread.

devadevadasa wrote:

and devadeva is totally committed to a better way to fuel our vehicles,provide energy and lower the price of gasoline. when it happens i expect youse frogs to offer me your humble obeisance's even though i'll absolutely nothing to do with the solution

French hot air from failed diplomatic negotiations would do the trick.

Update: FARC releases more hostages.

Colombia's FARC rebels free eight hostages: ICRC

By Hugh Bronstein Thu Jul 24, 6:59 PM ET

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas have released eight hostages in the first such handover since the rebel group was tricked in a military operation to free Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other captives on July 2, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
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The eight Afro-Colombians were kidnapped last week by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, while traveling on the country's northwestern jungle rivers.

Their release to the Red Cross in the province of Choco appeared to allay concerns about the organization's ability to work effectively in Colombia after its symbol was improperly used by the military in the July rescue.

"The operation was made possible through discreet dialogue between the parties concerned," said Yves Heller, ICRC spokesman in Colombia. "We continue to work as a neutral mediator."

The 44-year-old FARC holds hundreds of Colombians for ransom and political leverage.

The military has pushed the guerrillas onto the defensive this year with a series of strikes using information provided by deserters who are fleeing FARC ranks in record numbers.

"As the FARC starts to fragment we expect to see more kidnappings as individual fronts grow desperate for money," said Cesar Restrepo, an analyst at Security and Democracy, a Bogota think tank.

"If these eight hostages were set free it was only because their families could not pay," Restrepo said.

Freed hostage Horacio Palacios said the guerrillas told the eight to pass the message to local river taxi owners that their boats will be sunk and their captains killed if they do not make protection payments to the FARC.

Aid groups protested last week after the government said it improperly used the Red Cross symbol when soldiers duped the FARC into handing over French-Colombian politician Betancourt by posing as aid workers.

She, three American defense contractors and 11 Colombian soldiers and police officers were rescued after years of being chained up in secret jungle camps. The dramatic mission highlighted the success of President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed offensive against the guerrillas.

But the use of the Red Cross symbol raised questions about the operation. Falsely portraying military personnel as Red Cross members is against the Geneva Conventions as it could put humanitarian workers at risk when they are in war zones.

"It is important that all parties in Colombia's conflict continue to trust our organization and respect the Red Cross emblem," Heller said.

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein)

news.yahoo.com . . .