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More on the Colombian hostage rescue
From TerrorWonk: 'There are many implications to this tremendous success. It indicates both the FARC’s rot and impressive Colombian capabilities. That Colombian intelligence could manage this elaborate ruse shows how much information they have gathered about the FARC’s internal workings.'

From Counterterrorism.org: 'This is a classic demonstration of how a country can use a mixture of law enforcement, intelligence, military, diplomatic and other mechanisms together, with a great deal of patience and tenacity, to achieve profound results against terrorism. It's an operation that needs to be studied, understood, to see what its lessons are for handling other hostage situations and other terrorist groups.'

From Lawhawk: "It's curious to look back at some of the reporting and punditry surrounding the March cross border raid and the opining of pundits that it put the lives of those hostages in jeopardy. It now looks like the raid helped gather intel to crush the terror group and rescue hostages. Far from putting lives in jeopardy, it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back."

Good show! In addition to the comments made above and yesterday on the Burg, the operation shows how success becomes cumulative, and how once you get an opponent moving down the slippery slope you can keep them going that way. Previous successes generated intel and understanding that made yesterday's success possible. And the FARC commanders seized in the operation will sing, count on it, since there's really nothing out there for them now. That means we'll be reading about another operation in the near future.

Posted by: Steve White 2008-07-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=243245