Ingrid is free!
 

Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas on Wednesday after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury, the defense minister said. In all, the operation freed 15 hostages including Colombian soldiers and police, Juan Manuel Santos said.
The rescue is the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who considered Betancourt and the three Americans their most valuable bargaining chips.
In Paris, the French-Colombian politician's son Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt called her release after six years of captivity, "if true, the most beautiful news of my life." There was no answer at the homes of American families of the three U.S. hostages: Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell.
Santos said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.
Surrounded by military commandos, Cesar and the other guerrillas gave up without a fight as they helicopters took the hostages to a military base in Guaviare.
Betancourt was abducted in February 2002 as she was running for president. Because she also holds French citizenship, France's government has campaigned for her release. She turned 46 on Christmas Day.
The Americans were captured a year later when their drug surveillance plane went down. They worked for a Northrup Grumman Corp. subsidiary as Pentagon contractors. They were the longest-held American hostages in the world.
Since their abduction, families of the U.S. hostages have received only two "proof of life" videos, the latest in November.
That latest tape also showed the first images in years of Betancourt, who hadn't been seen since 2003. The images, along with letters and reports from other hostages, described a once-vibrant, confident woman slowly succumbing to Hepatitis B, tropical skin diseases and depression.
One former hostage said Betancourt was kept chained to a tree after trying to escape.
Betancourt's family waged a campaign for her freedom, organizing marches and events in Colombia and France, where her case became a cause celebre. French President Nicolas Sarkozy implored the FARC to free the ailing Betancourt and sent a mission to Colombia to try to gain access to her. He also urged Colombia's government to contact the rebels.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who shares an affinity with the leftist FARC, also tried to negotiate Betancourt's release as part of a prisoner swap.
But none of the efforts could bridge the gaps between the guerrillas and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose father was killed by the FARC and who made the group's defeat the cornerstone of his presidency.
Colombia's government even criticized the family for its efforts to raise Betancourt's public profile. With all the interest in her, officials said, Betancourt became too valuable a bargaining chip to be traded for anything less than a comprehensive deal. The family countered that its work had drawn attention to the plight of all Colombia's kidnap victims.

Good argument for abolishing drug laws.

People can't be stopped from ruining their lives but others can be hurt in attempting to prevent them from doing so.

I glad she and the 13 other were freed, but there are still plenty being held captive.:cry:

Good thing they finally managed to liberate them.:up:

Well done to the spies who pulled off such a ballsy stunt!
Disagree entirely.... drugs cost money, so many petty thieves and burglars are druggies...

besides, even if legalisation of drugs drops the price right down, how are you then going to deal with the increase in health problems due to more people being happy to try the newly legalised products - "after all, if its legal it cant be that bad, can it?".

Then you have more issues - do you allow these people who are more than happy to inflict damage on themselves to clog up overloaded health care systems? Do you allow them pensions and social security and the like because they're too ill to work, because of drug use?

then, what about drugs that more often than not cause users to lose control of themselves, and subsequently cause damage to people, property etc. these drugs that are more prone to causing these sorts of issues are limited now because they're illegal, but hey, one puff of a bong can be enough to cause people to snap and have mental issues for life, do we support them also? ALL drugs are bloody dangerous and detrimental, difference IMO between caffeine/alcohol/nicotine and the illicit substances is that with the illicit substances just one dose can cause irreversible harm, i've never heard of someone having a sip of beer and never having full control of their faculties again!

yes i hate illicit drugs, i did last year when it came up and i hate it even more now since one of my best mates suicided 3 weeks ago by ODing. i say lock up the dealers and the growers and the importers.. for life, screw them. as for the users who'd suddenly be without their crutch, rehab until they prove they're clean!