Rebels free 4 Colombian hostages

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Rebels free 4 Colombian hostages
Feb. 1, 2009 03:53 PM
Associated Press

BOGOTA - Colombia's badly battered FARC rebels delivered three police officers and a soldier to the International Red Cross on Sunday in a mission marred by accusations of military interference.

A Brazilian military helicopter, emblazoned with the Red Cross insignia, retrieved the four hostages from a spot in the southeastern jungles.

A reporter accompanying the mission said it was hounded by military overflights.

"The operation was basically on the verge of being aborted," Luis Enrique Botero told the Venezuelan television network Telesur by satellite phone just before the handover. He said he had recordings to prove it.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/02/01/20090201colombia.html

[EFerrari]

1. Headline should be "Hostages Freed Despite Colombian Government".

Those people are lucky to be alive. :grr:

[Peace Patriot]

2. God, this 'news' article reads like it was written by a third grader.

I don't call them the "Associated Pukes" for nothing. Besides being conduits for every US State Department 'talking point' about South America that ever got scribbled on paper and handed to them, they often produce lame-brained writing like this, that fails to establish facts, never connect dots, and seems ignorant of even the recent history of events. Actually, third graders could probably put something more coherent together about South America. OR, AP's South American writers are being heavily edited.

EXAMPLE:

"Colombia's U.S.-backed military has seriously weakened the rebels in the past two years, killing top commanders, compelling hundreds of desertions with hefty rewards and forcing the rebels into virtual radio silence with sophisticated surveillance.

"FARC commander Alfonso Cano, meanwhile, has refused to renounce kidnapping, a key rebel political and fundraising tool. The guerrillas' main revenue source is the cocaine trade."

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It reads like a Children's Book written by Condi Rice. WHO said that "the guerrillas' main revenue source is the cocaine trade"? WHAT is the source? WHERE is the evidence? The article is riddled with unattributed statements like this that don't satisfy even the most minimal journalistic standards. I've read several statements by FARC commanders elsewhere that they don't traffic in cocaine, for instance. Where is this disclaimer in the article? There is not the slightest effort to verify this assertion and establish facts, or to make the article's assertions trackable (back to a person, a government spokesman, a document, a study, a report).