It's great news that the Colombian military was able to free those 15 hostages from a FARC hideout in the Amazon. The operation went off without any violence or injuries to either side, which is obviously the best case result anyone could ask for.
But I just heard today that the way the Colombian special forces were able to get the rebels to let them close to the hostages was by posing as aid workers that were supposedly bringing food and medicine.
I think that's a really bad and irresponsible idea, because it now casts suspicion on anyone who from now on will claim to belong to an international NGO, and it directly threatens the lives of aid workers around the world. What rebel group is going risk negotiating with the real aid orgs now?
It used to be a favorite tactic of CIA agents to pose as journalists in the field, until the CIA was forced to stop doing it in the 1970s because they were getting too many real journalists killed. I wish the Colombian military had behaved with the same restraint.
I'm glad the 15 Colombian hostages are free, but I have a bad feeling that this operation is going to end up killing a lot more than 15 people in the long run.
Posted by case at July 4, 2008 10:07 AM