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TechnoratiLONDON - The former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt returned to what she called her "other family" in France today as doubt was cast on the apparently daring rescue that won her freedom.
Arriving to a warm embrace from Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, the 46-year-old, who was largely brought up in France as the daughter of a Colombian diplomat and also has French nationality, was welcomed at the Villacoublay military air base near Paris, where she flew in on the French presidential Airbus.
But while she was still in the air, the Swiss radio station RSR broadcast a report questioning the official version of the operation to free Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages - saying that money, not cunning, had clinched their freedom.
According to Bogota, the hostages were freed in an elaborate ruse by Colombian intelligence agents who had infiltrated the Marxist Farc rebels holding them.
But RSR said that the 15 hostages "were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up". Citing a source "close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years", it said that the United States - which had three citizens among those freed - was behind the deal and put the price at $20 million.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry furiously denied the allegations, with a spokesman calling them "completely false." He added: "They are lies".
The French Foreign Ministry denied any involvement in any deal and there was no sign that the Swiss report would sour the celebrations planned by Mr Sarkozy both at the airbase and later at the Elysee Palace.
Speaking by the steps of the aircraft, Mr Sarkozy publicly welcomed Ms Betancourt to France, telling her that "all of France" had followed her struggle in the jungle and admired the strength of her spirit.
"We ordered in the sun today, because we could not very well welcome you in the rain, could we?" he joked.
In a lengthy reply, Ms Betancourt paid tribute both to Mr Sarkozy - "this wonderful man who has worked so hard for me" - and to her rescuers, for an operation in which "not a single bullet was fired".
Most notably, however, she thanked France for having driven forwards the negotiations that ultimately led to her release - implying, perhaps, that her liberation was the result of more than simply a cunning rescue plan.
"France is my home - you are my family," she said.
Before the allegations of a payments arose, Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said the rescue "was conceived by the Colombians and executed by the Colombians with our full support," while implying that Washington had provided intelligence and even operational help. The US has not responded to the allegations.
The French Foreign Ministry said it had not paid any money. "Not having been associated with this operation, we could not have been associated with its means of financing, if there were such means," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
French media have also raised questions about Ms Betancourt's relatively healthy appearance after her release, compared with the gaunt and haggard look of her last video from captivity. French state radio suggested the hostages may have been given food and medicine to return them to health before their release. There was no suggestion that the hostages knew they were to be released.
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
18 Comments so far
Show AllCan you say "Jessica Lynch"?
"What a tangled web we weave when first... "- Robert Burns
That's the problem with lying. Even if this story were true, the Jessica Lynch bit and the Pat Tilman bit make people so skeptical that any public relations benefit that comes out of this is smirched with doubt.
As for Uribe, the fact that many of his associates are members of the paramilitaries who make their living as narcotic trafickers and hit men for corporations unwilling to allow unionization is not going to disappear just because of this event. He still will bear responsibility for his past (and probably his present as well) which will eventually catch up with him. Just ask Pinochet and the various Argentine military torturers and murderers.
Endcapitalism - you're right! Paying a ransom is better!
The military airbase in Colombia will be a shoo-in now as the US and Columbia are working together - close to the Venezuelan oil fiels no doubt.
Unless El Salvador and Venezuela have something to do with it! As if anyone will listen to their protests. Yet I hope so!
Re-certifying the air base in Columbia will give the US a perfect stepping stone to the rest of South America. They are so ready for an infusion of dollars!
The rescue news was a coverup for American strategy and ransom payoff to insure a base in South America when the one in Ecquador closes. After all, who could imagine a base in Miami similar to the one there?
$20 million was a small price to pay to keep Uribe in power and the government aligned with the US military complex.
ALL....Exactly!!!
Did you notice that someone managed that good ol' "shakeycam" recording the the whole affair???
They can seem to put a camera anywhere nowadays huh? Dont know if you guys seeing the footage, but over here they broadcasting New footage of the Daring Rescue"
And yes, notice how quickly this will disappear from the news, unless Democracy Now or someone like that should go ask the dirty questions.
Happy Independence Day!! ha ha ha ha ha ha
Rather than fight "despots", we ought to "buy" them. We could have made a deal with Saddam for a measly billion dollars. Would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, time and a whole lot of money. Saying "we don't negotiate with criminals" is a joke. Almost all battles like that end up with the "criminals" sitting down and talking - then becoming part of a new government.
a plausibly deniable ransom fee, 20 million dollars.. world headlines and a propaganda coup that the shitstream media won't bother to retract, priceless.
I smell Rove.
I just thoroughly enjoyed these comments and agree 100%...especially with Little Brother. I'm a very senior citizen who is learning so much from Common Dreams and the many other news sources available on the internet. While so much of the news is disturbing, the encouraging benefit to me is how much we are learning about the rest of the world. Surely the fact that McCain has been so interested in Colombia recently is no coincidence. Also...wonder if Dana Perino's mother (who was in the "audience" that day is proud of her daughter. Ugh!!
She's shown all along her willingness to be a mouthpiece for spreading the lies of the Bushies and is a disgrace to all intelligent women!
"Before the allegations of a payments arose, Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said the rescue "was conceived by the Colombians and executed by the Colombians with our full support,""
Dana Perino also added that several million U.S. dollars were used as payment to secure the release of the prisoners. AP apparently forgot to report this tidbit.
And how amazing is it that John McCain "just happened" to be in Columbia. I'm surprised he didn't jump out of a helicopter, dressed as Rambo!
The one aspect of this story that bothered me the most, and about which I have seen no comments or discussion, is the fact that the rescuers (at least some of them) masqueraded as humanitarian aid workers. It would seem to me that this makes the tasks of real humanitarian aid groups and workers much more risky than normal, which is already dangerous enough, and could also diminish their ability to even enter and work in some areas.
There were many aspects of this 'rescue' that just did not seem reasonable, as others here have pointed out; but this is the one that I found most troubling.
When CD first published the report of Betancourt's being freed by a daring rescue mission, and this characterization was amplified in corporate news reports, my first thought was that this version of events was all too similar to the fictionalized accounts of Jessica Lynch's supposed "rescue" from the evil Iraqis.
But I decided not to comment about it for a change, because occasionally even I can use a break from finding dark linings to silver clouds.
But I knew it. I KNEW it!
FARC has helicopters? One of their commanders would believe that?
Furthermore, this version is different from the initial one, which was even fishier.
Somehow, the big ransom is more plausible - but we'll have to wait and see. FARC will have no interest in letting the world believe that they were "tricked," but then, why would we believe them, either?
Whether it is a "lie" or not---one must consider the one most important aspect of this-----three of the four "hostages" were Americans, who were "contractors" for US Firms, dealing with the US Army, flying over the Colombian jungle in the endless, corrupt war on "drugs" financed with US Tax dollars.
Of course there are perhaps millions of Americans here on the "4th" who desperately need to believe their propaganda and that, "right will triumphantly win in the end, if we just spend more money on the war on drugs"----------------repeating a failed doctrine is an important aspect of the American mind set-----------forget about those crumbling bridges, over those filthy rivers, which transport those "guest workers" to "do the jobs americans won't" to jobs, that the established order were not able to export to India or other over populated nations -----------
The kidnappers will never forget that they will still be paid the ransoms they demand, especially for those Americans they capture as prisoners in the "War on Drugs".........
Then again, IF THE INCOME TAX WERE APPORTIOINED, AS THE CONSTITUTION DEMANDS, the "people" would know just how much Tax money was paid for those "hostages"-----but it isn't----and they will never know where there money goes...........ignorance IS bliss.
A "Fools Parade never ends"..............
That story is even more suspicious. Probably why few news stories report anything about it. "We're moving the hostages, I'll take the fifteen new guys that nobody knows with me."
endCapitalism - It is Colombia, not Columbia
tobiasaurusrex - Read the news. There were 2 rebels captured, including a high-ranking commander of the FARC. The Colombian Army was posing as rebels and the 58 other FARC rebels on the ground did not even know what happened because it all happened in a helicopter that was supposedly taking the hostages to the camp of the sumpreme commander of the FARC. The rebels were tricked.
What's highly suspicious, is that the hostages were freed, but I don't hear about the FARC platoon that was captured. If Colombian forces so overpowered FARC that no shots were fired, then surely there was a mass surrender, and prisoners taken.
Paying a ransom certainly seems far more plausible than the bullshit Columbia has put out. Trusting any truth to come out of Columbia is like believing anything Pinochet had to say during his dictatorship.