"Ransom Payment" for Colombian Hostages Proven False

Freeing the Colombian FARC hostages: The originator of the "Ransom Payment" rumor has been traced to a Swiss mediator and shown to be false.

The German newspaper Die Weltwoche has the story:

The Swiss mediator Jean-Pierre Gontard played a role in the hostage rescue in Colombia, albeit unknowingly and involuntarily. The false report concerning a supposed ransom payment originated from his milieu. With it, Swiss diplomacy has lost its last trace of credibility.

Hat tip: French Blog 5 Years Later

The German news article gives a lot of details about the extensive preparations for the Colombian military raid that freed Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages from the FARC communists. Apparently, the ransom rumor was picked up from a single source, not verified, and was rapidly dessiminated throughout European media.

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The article describes preparations for the raid as follows:

For months, Colombian elite troops had planned the operation and rehearsed it again and again down the last detail. Psychologists, martial arts and meditation trainers, and even an acting coach prepared them for their roles. Television images of an analogous hostage release that took place last January under the patronage of the Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chávez served as model. Even the red and white Russian-built Mi-17, with place for two dozen passengers, corresponded exactly to the scenario of the January operation. Only the Red Cross insignias were missing.The aircraft had barely taken off when the members of the “humanitarian” delegation overpowered the two FARC commanders. As Ingrid Betancourt later reported, the hostages were so overjoyed by the unexpected turn of events that the helicopter starting rocking from their jubilant celebration. Colombia had awakened from a nightmare.

Read the article here.

Saber Point reported the emergence of this rumor before it was widely known.

FARC Communists Lying About Colombian Rescue Operation

The FARC Marxists of Colombia, embarrassed by having high level hostages snatched from beneath their noses, have launched a propaganda offensive through leftist blogs and websites.

They are claiming that the Colombian military's rescue operation this past week was "staged," not real, fake. Tell that to French citizen (and Colombian Presidential candidate) Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and a number of Colombians who were freed by the raid.

According to the leftist Swiss Roman Radio, the FARC communists were offered 20 million dollars to release the hostages and agree to the staged rescue operation. But for what purpose? Obviously, to make Colombian President Uribe look good so he can be reelected. However, Uribe is limited by the Colombian constitution to two terms and is in his second term now.

Miguel Garroté reports that this false story is being supported by leftist journalists in Colombia and elsewhere, who will report the story as fact. Tomorrow, Sunday, July 6, the Colombian weekly "Semana" is going to publish an article about the rescue operation, claiming it was actually a ransom situation camouflaged as an audacious commando operation by the Uribe government.

Clever, these Marxists. Like most leftists, they are good at spinning the facts and creating new conspiracy theories. It's an effective technique. No matter how absurd or far-fetched, such alternative explanations of world events will be believed by many. The effect will be to dampen the public outpouring of support for Uribe, reducing him from a hero to a fraud and even a villain.

It is similar to what the left did to George W. Bush: instead of allowing him to be presented as the heroic President fighting back at an Islamic attack on America, they claimed that he was actually a vile traitor who had staged 9/11 for his own political gain. Instead of giving him credit for attacking Iraq to prevent it from using weapons of mass destruction, they accused him of lying about such weapons in order to start a war for oil.

Such leftist techniques are by now well known and to be expected.