If this is true, folks, this is BIG news. It MEANS that the cowboy, tough guy image this administration wants to project is nothing but a farce! That they PAY terrorists ! That they make fun of Obama for wanting to negotiate and compromise, yet send our tax dollars to terrorists! Don't worry, I shall keep on this one, and press the media to investigate it!
Was 20 Million Dollars Paid to Free Betancourt and 3 American Hostages in Colombia?
Editor and Publisher
A report from Swiss public radio that $20 million was paid to release three American hostages, Ingrid Betancourt, and 11 Colombian soldiers and police officers is being pretty much roundly ignored in the United States.
Not so the case in the UK, where the Times reported the allegation on July 4th:
But while she [Betancourt] 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.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/102