Colombia tricks rebels into freeing hostages

[shadow1768]

I couldn't stop laughing. Dumb rebels!
Colombia tricks rebels into freeing hostages - Americas - MSNBC.com
Some of these people have been held captive for a decade and I think its wonderful news to have them escape without any injuries. The 15 prisoners that were freed include 3 American contractors whos drug surveillance plane crashed deep in the rebel controlled jungles of Colombia and also an ex-colombian presidential canidate.

[Magnum Force]

Hahahahahahaha that's a pretty clever idea. Glad to see it worked so well.

[SkandaL]

Hell Yea, being Colombian myself you cannot imagine how happy we all are. Not just entirely because the people were released but because this means that the FARC (Rebels) are a step closer to being completely over thrown. This makes me extremely happy. I love our president now, he is just great and what he is doing for our country is even better. (Im talking as a Colombian right now not an American) Lets just hope everything gets even better.

[Scuba Steve]

The following is more information than CNN or news websites will give you. I'm not going to link to any websites because they simply don't give you all of the information, nor technically the truth.

For example, all news agencies are saying the Americans were contractors, but they were U.S. Military.

I don't know how many of you have heard, but the longest held American hostages ever in history (over five years) were rescued last night, along with 12 other high-profile hostages from a Colombian terrorist group, called FARC.

The operation was in the planning for over a year and ended without any shots being fired.

The Americans who were taken hostage were flying a drug-interdiction mission when they were shot down. Five Americans were on the aircraft, but two were murdered when FARC members arrived. The three remaining military personnel have been in captivity since 2003 until last night.

We (America) had been hunting for them ever since the incident. Over the past year, Colombian military had been killing off FARC leaders and such. We sent messeges to FARC telling them to gather these 15 hostages to be transported to the new leader of FARC.

When the 15 hostages were gathered, two helicopters with Colombian military disguised as FARC members landed. The hostages were put on the helicopters, along with two real FARC members. Once in the air, the Colombian military disarmed the two men and told the hostages they were free.

This has had a huge effect on all of the world. People in Colombia are dancing in the streets over this.

One of the Americans (all were male) had five-year-old twins who he had never met.

Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who had been captive for over six years was among the 15 rescued hostages.

Anyway, that's basically everything and a lot more information than you'll get from the news. The Americans are currently being tested and medically checked.

Also, after the rescue, the hostages were flown to a Colombian military base. As soon as they landed, the Americans were removed from the rest of the hostages and put on Air Force jets and were never photographed with the rest of the hostages. Pretty strange. They landed on a Texas AFB later.

[shadow1768]

Humph? They always said the plane just crashed. I don't remember exactly but in the transcripts they radioed in "mayday we lost engine going down" (something along those lines).

Yeah when I read that they were the longest held American hostages, the only thing that ran in my head was damn, after 5 years of crap is when they finally are freed. And in the plane I thought it was 4 americans and a colombian soldier or something like that. As far as the colombian rebels that were onboard the plane, i have a question, were they in on it too and knew it was happening and were just giving themselves in? OR they were jsut subdued on board?

I was watching the colombian news channel when they were showing the plane land with 12 of the hostages on bored (the colombians). I was counting and I only counted 12 people come off the plane and was thinking, where are the other 3? I figured the 3 Americans were already on their way home.

It was a spectacular thing to see though, people cheering and music playing and Betancourt hugging her mother after being held captive for so many years.

And skandal I can imagine, my girlfriend (shes colombian) told me she and her mother were crying when they saw the freed prisoners walking off the plane.

They say the FARC fighting force has been diminished to nearly half of what it was a decade ago, to about 9000 guerrillas.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by shadow1768

Humph? They always said the plane just crashed. I don't remember exactly but in the transcripts they radioed in "mayday we lost engine going down" (something along those lines).

No, it was shot down by FARC.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

Yeah when I read that they were the longest held American hostages, the only thing that ran in my head was damn, after 5 years of crap is when they finally are freed. And in the plane I thought it was 4 americans and a colombian soldier or something like that. As far as the colombian rebels that were onboard the plane, i have a question, were they in on it too and knew it was happening and were just giving themselves in? OR they were jsut subdued on board?

The plane that was shot down (some form of a fighter/spy jet) had five American Air Force personnel in it. All five survived the crash, but FARC murdered two of them when they first got there. The other three are the three American military personnel (not contractors) that were rescued last night.

The rescue was done with two helicopters, not planes. Colombian military were on the helicopters, dressed as FARC. We (America) had sent false messeges to several FRAC camps telling them to gather the 15 hostages to be transported to a camp where the new FARC leader was. Keep in mind, the U.S. and Colombian military had been killing FARC leaders and members for the past year, so their leadership was very disorganized.

Everyone on the helicopters (the rescuers) would have been killed as soon as they landed if this operation had leaked. When the hostages boarded, two actual FARC members boarded, too. The Colombian military waited until they were in the air and disarmed and tied up the two FARC members and then told the hostages they were free.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

I was watching the colombian news channel when they were showing the plane land with 12 of the hostages on bored (the colombians). I was counting and I only counted 12 people come off the plane and was thinking, where are the other 3? I figured the 3 Americans were already on their way home.

As I said earlier, after the rescue, all of the hostages were flown to a Colombian military base. As soon as they landed, the Americans were removed from the rest of the hostages and put on Air Force jets and were never photographed with the rest of the hostages.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

And skandal I can imagine, my girlfriend (shes colombian) told me she and her mother were crying when they saw the freed prisoners walking off the plane.

Yes, this is a very big ordeal.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

They say the FARC fighting force has been diminished to nearly half of what it was a decade ago, to about 9000 guerrillas.

The FARC are stronger than that and still have over 700 hostages in their control. None are American, though. The FARC are losing power, though. They were formed back in the '60s but the Colombian military have been fighting back, which is why the Colombian people are so happy.

Also, you should change the title. Most people are going to pass this up simply because they won't think it affects them.

[dark_mullet]

Yeah this whole operation was pretty much bad ***. Glad to have seen it work out.

[shadow1768]

Whoops, yeah I meant helicopters earlier, I was thinking of planes while I was typing I guess.
I'm still confuzzled about the people onboard the surveillance plane when it crash landed. They said it was the 3 rescued, the American pilot whom they shot to death named Janis, and a Colombian soldier. The plane was a single engine Cessena with a bunch or spy equipment onboard.
Reports reveal little on plane crashes in Colombia
There they also say they weren't shot down but actaully due to engine failure. Then again after the plane went down, a couple weeks later the FARC claimed responsibilty for shooting down the plane.

Thanks for clearing the other stuff up for me Scuba.

Ex-captive reunites with children - Americas - MSNBC.com
They stripped the FARC commander onboard naked, LMAO

(Off Topic but related to Latin America) And for those that care, the U.S 2nd Fleet has been officailly re-established, July 1 (based mainly in the Southern Atlantic). Basically they will be near Latin American countries in the sourthern part of the western hemisphere and Chavez is mad because of it.

I think it's sad how people actually do read the title and just shrug it off because it simply doesn't affect them directly. Quite sad, and we wonder why people hate us.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by shadow1768

Whoops, yeah I meant helicopters earlier, I was thinking of planes while I was typing I guess.
I'm still confuzzled about the people onboard the surveillance plane when it crash landed. They said it was the 3 rescued, the American pilot whom they shot to death named Janis, and a Colombian soldier. The plane was a single engine Cessena with a bunch or spy equipment onboard.
Reports reveal little on plane crashes in Colombia
There they also say they weren't shot down but actaully due to engine failure. Then again after the plane went down, a couple weeks later the FARC claimed responsibilty for shooting down the plane.

You can't trust the news for giving 100% of the truth on stories. For example, they are saying the Americans were contractors. For those that ask why, it's because they weren't "legally" supposed to be flying over Colombia, much less "bombing" drugs. We wouldn't spend over five years looking for contractors.

The people on the plane were all American Air Force and were shot down by FARC.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

Thanks for clearing the other stuff up for me Scuba.

No problemo.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

Ex-captive reunites with children - Americas - MSNBC.com
They stripped the FARC commander onboard naked, LMAO

(Off Topic but related to Latin America) And for those that care, the U.S 2nd Fleet has been officailly re-established, July 1 (based mainly in the Southern Atlantic). Basically they will be near Latin American countries in the sourthern part of the western hemisphere and Chavez is mad because of it.

He's mad because he knows he couldn't beat us in a million years. Colombian and our military have been going into Venzuela and Honduras to kill FARC for the past year.

Originally Posted by shadow1768

I think it's sad how people actually do read the title and just shrug it off because it simply doesn't affect them directly. Quite sad, and we wonder why people hate us.

I agree with you. It's sad but it's reality. I wouldn't say it's just with Americans, but it's the nature of the majority of the human race.

[DarkFlames]

Turns out..

Keith Stansell was the father of one of my childhood friends. It was a pretty big shock when I saw my friend and his sister (his children) on the news about this.