Right Thinking From The Left Coast
"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Team Colombia, FARC Yeah!
by West Virginia Rebel

This is great news.

The Colombian military today rescued 15 hostages from a leftist guerrilla group, including three American defense contractors and former Colombia presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Betancourt, the three Americans and 11 members of the Colombian army and police were later flown to an air base near the capital, Bogota. The Americans—Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes—were expected to arrive tonight at a U.S. military base in Texas.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference in Bogota that all the rescued hostages are in reasonably good health after being held for years in jungle camps by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

“I imagined this moment very often,” Betancourt said on the airport tarmac after landing with the other freed hostages in a Colombian military plane. “Mom, you don’t have to cry anymore.”

Wearing a camouflage hat and vest and looking ebullient, Betancourt was greeted by her mother, who hugged and kissed her repeatedly.

She described the rescue operation as “perfect.”

The three Americans held with her were apparently whisked away after the plane landed and did not address the news media. They were conducting an aerial surveillance mission as part of an antidrug program when their plane crashed in FARC-held jungle territory in February 2003. Last year, videos captured by the Colombian military from suspected rebels showed the three haggard men standing in a clearing in what appeared to be a clandestine jungle camp.

Congratulations and thank you to our Colombian allies, and I hope Hugo Chavez chokes on this.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 07/02/08 at 06:25 PM in War on Terror/Axis of Evil  • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Discuss this in the forums
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