ingrid?? Could you please elaborate a little bit more as to the circumstances with which ingrid has found herself in? for those of us whom want to know more about it?

Ingrid Betancourt former candidate for the columbia presidency, held by the FARC for 6 and a half years as hostage. It should be frontpage news today. It is here.

CNN has ingrid live meeting her family RIGHT NOW

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!! this was a miracle!!!! and so well planned not a shot was fired WOW what an accomplishment. i watched it last night until i couldn't keep my eyes open (its a big story here in Texas, the 3 americans landed in san antonio late last night and it was live on all the channels. i was laughing and crying at the same time.)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

*quote from article
*Agents infiltrated the "highest level" of the seven-member secretariat of FARC, he said. They also penetrated a team of rebels led by a fighter who had been assigned to guard hostages

*After the 15 hostages were in one location, agents ordered FARC fighters to march their captives about 93 miles (150 km) north, he said, through the sweltering jungles of southeastern Colombia.

*The plan reached its climax on Wednesday, when an unmarked white helicopter with room for 24 people swooped into the jungle carrying Colombian security forces posing as FARC rebels. Some wore shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution.
About 60 actual rebels guarded 15 hostages when the chopper landed, Montoya said.

Agents spilled out of the helicopter and told FARC fighters that they would take the hostages to another location in Colombia -- where they were to meet the "international mission," Montoya said at a news conference late Wednesday.

During their time on the jungle floor, the government pilot and co-pilot spoke in code with their colleagues, authorities said, using phrases such as "Generators okay" that carried a secret meaning to the security forces.

They were on the ground for 22 minutes. (imagine it felt like 22 hours!)

*Betancourt had heard talk about an "international mission," she said, and expected when she heard the helicopter to see a Red Cross emblem or meet members of a delegation from France or Switzerland. She said she was crestfallen to see the helicopter had no markings

*The men who stepped off the helicopter handcuffed her and put her on board.

"We were very unhappy," she said.

The agents -- still posing as rebels -- persuaded two rebel commanders to board the helicopter with 9mm pistols.

Then the helicopter took off.

Once aloft, Colombian agents, still posing as rebels, persuaded the two FARC members on board to hand over their pistols.

"Suddenly there was something happening," Betancourt said. "Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor, naked, with bound eyes."

A man spoke.

"We are the national military," he said, Betancourt recalled. "You are free." (what beautiful blessed words OMG i'm tearing up again)

Ohhh mah-velous indeed! Your explanation has indeed helped for those whose familiarity with the events is only minimal. This is truly a great breakthrough! So, glad you were able to find more news for us.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

i sat here crying like a baby watching ingrid greet her children, the most beautiful thing in the world, oh i'm so happy for all the families today. Praise God, whatever your beliefs, it really seems like a miracle to me.

*quotes from article

*Betancourt, 46, met her daughter, Melanie Delloye, and son, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, on the steps of a plane that had just arrived from France at a Colombian airport.

The three tearfully clung together, hugging and kissing each other fervently before disappearing inside the plane. Her children, now adults, were accompanied on the plane by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.



*The security forces who deceived the rebels "are entering the page of the heroes of humanity

*Hours earlier, Betancourt walked off a Colombian military jet in Bogota into the arms of her mother and later her husband. She appeared healthy after being held hostage for six years in the jungle.

"God carried out this miracle," she said. "This is a miracle because I know that all of you suffered with my family, my children, with me. This is a moment of pride for all of Colombia for such a perfect operation."

Along with Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 Colombian police and military personnel were rescued.

*Asked if she still wants to be president, Betancourt said, "If I continue with the dream to serve Colombia, yes, from the presidency, only God knows. At this moment, I just want to feel like another soldier, another soldier for Colombia, in the service of the fatherland."

Beautiful just beautiful, i hope all the remaining hostages are free soon.

I did too!

Was there ever a woman so unjustly separated from her young ones. I read that her husband upon seeing images that she was near death, went as far as he could into the jungle until he boarded a plane and dropped thousands of pictures of his children in the hope one would find their way into the hands of his wife so that she would fight. I'm tearing up now. I really couldn't care less about South American politics but while that woman was captive, she was in my thoughts constantly. Thank you God, thank you Heavens, thank you whoever finally had the right idea about getting her out.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07 ... index.html

ingrid has returned to France.

*quote from article
*Her plane touched down at the Villacoublay military airport in Paris at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) Friday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy -- who has been accused of trying to capitalize on the rescue despite his lack of involvement --greeted Betancourt. He now plans to entertain her in the glitzy surroundings of his Elysee Palace official residence

Also Friday, the Vatican said the pope would meet with Betancourt as soon as his schedule permits.

Betancourt is a Catholic who said the first thing she did when she awoke on Wednesday, the day of her release, was pray the rosary.

*In an interview posted Friday on France 2 Television's Web site, Betancourt said that while a hostage she "was treated like a dog."

"I got myself ready for four more years in the jungle. Freedom has come rather suddenly. I'm still numb from shock. I've had some difficulty in coming to terms with it," she said.

But she added: "Death comes quickly in the jungle. I'm in fine spirits. There's nothing tiring about being free."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25525751/

HERO'S welcome in France

*quotes
"cried a lot during this time from pain and indignation," Today, she said, "I cry with joy."

"It's a very, very moving moment for me: Breathing the air of France, being with you,"

*Betancourt, her family and supporters then went to a party at the presidential palace. Hundreds of people, some carrying Colombian or French flags and many with cameras, lined up behind police barriers around the Elysee palace in hopes of getting a glimpse of her

*She recalled humiliating treatment by the FARC, saying she had to wear chains 24 hours a day for three years

*Sarkozy had been pushing for negotiations with the FARC, not a military operation. And France had no role in the operation to free her
*France learned of Betancourt's release just 15 minutes before Colombian media broke the news.

She says she has no feeling of vengeance. She's a better woman than I. I hope they nominate her for a Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

the details of this rescue are just amazing!
the video is jumpy but those black clad rebels armed in the background are creepy, i wouldn't have got off that plane unarmed, such brave people.

i'd like to praise Colombia for its honor and bravery in this outstanding mission. I don't care what kind of "help" or $$$ they received it was GUTS AND BRAVERY that got the job done. HURRAH
i'm very proud and thankful.

I am sorry but I will have to disagree with you all Betancourt supporters.

This woman does not look like she has been taken as a hostage for 6 years. She looked fine when she got on the helicopter.

She looks well and in perfect health. The hospital check-ups have confirmed it.

This "hostage in the jungle" thing is most probably all fabricated. If she was indeed in the jungle as a hostage of FARC, then she must have received an extra-special care and treatment specially being catered for making sure she always got everything that she needed.

This is all fake and a bunch of lies!

I am not a sheep. I never believe everything I am being told by the mainstream media, especially with a SarkoBruni who has all the press at his feet.

In the mean time, all the real social problems in France are being muted.

How I wish we had Ségo instead of SarkoBruni!!! The great majority of the French are a bunch of hopeless dumb*sses!!!

Alabaster Skies wrote::D ingrid?? Could you please elaborate a little bit more as to the circumstances with which ingrid has found herself in? for those of us whom want to know more about it?

Pondering all the above statements. It would seem to me that the rebels had a vested interest in keeping her alive and in fairly good condition as a political pawn. It did not mean that she was well treated only well kept? I do not always believe all I see and read but it seems to me that had she died the ending with the rebels would have been quite different. By the media making her a cause celeb they also drew attention to the other hostages who had families and were perhaps not so well treated. Obviously there are huge political PR advantages to such a dramatic rescue but in the end lives were saved one way or the other and two rebel commanders are not held to which the government can obtain information - mostly obtained in a way the Geneva convention would not approve.

As for Sarko, he's damed if he does and damned if he doesn't in this situation. He pretty much has to make a big play if he has an ounce of politician in him. He's no different from what most others would have done. With all the media hype he couldn't very well ignore the situation. I'm not a Sarko fan, but I do try to look at the situation as a whole.

As the self-appointed forum conspiracy theorist - I've got one! Uribe had the FARC kidnap her to keep her out of the political arena all this time. There. I've said it.

Loulou wrote:As the self-appointed forum conspiracy theorist - I've got one! Uribe had the FARC kidnap her to keep her out of the political arena all this time. There. I've said it.

well done!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

i watched ingrid on CNN last night. i have no doubt she was held in horrible conditions and endured things she still can't talk about.....,sexual abuse- i quote "somethings need to be left in the jungle", when asked about her friend having a baby in captivity. she wouldn't comment.

*quotes from article
*Ingrid Betancourt says death was her "everyday companion" during the six years she was a hostage of a leftist rebel group in Colombia

*Betancourt said she knew her captors had orders to kill her if a rescue operation was launched

*Betancourt answered nearly all questions, but she would not discuss Emmanuel, the child born in captivity to her running mate, Clara Rojas -- who was captured along with her -- or whether she was sexually abused.

*Rojas was released earlier this year. Rebels took Emmanuel from his mother about a year after his birth in 2004, delivering him to a farmer who posed as an uncle and had the boy placed in foster care in Bogota, where he remained until being reunited with his mother after her release.

*"I think that many things that happened in the jungle we have to leave in the jungle," she said.

*"I don't want to fill myself with those memories," she said.

But the worst thing that happened to her, she said, was "realizing that mankind, that human beings can be so horrible to other human beings."

Despite her nightmare, Betancourt said she harbors no hatred for FARC rebels. "It's like a kind of position I took many years ago that when I was released I wouldn't take out of the jungle any kind of bitterness or any kind of eagerness to seek for revenge, anything of that," she said. "And now that I'm out, I feel that I am like in another land. It seems so far and people seem so alien to me.

"I don't want to forget but I want to forgive."

*Betancourt said she is still concerned with the fate of other hostages held in the FARC-controlled jungles.

"We could be over there, we could be the ones left in the jungle," she said. "We had this incredible luck to be here, so for me it's very, very important, very important to ask all the people that can help us to fight for the release of the ones who are still in the jungle."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/ ... pstoryview

sadly it took a heavy toll on her marriage

I wondered about her husband. What she endured might have been too hard for her to thaw so fast and reconnect with her husband. Of course, he would have had affairs. Should the both have gone insane? A mother's bond may forfeit the need for intimacy, but a man's rationale needs to be cleared of impulses sometimes. Please let her forgive him if case be, as much as the FARC - at the very least!!

In Argentine, a dog adopts an abandoned baby!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7577275.stm

Unbelievable! Sometimes animals supercede humans in my eyes!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 650655.ece

awwwww, if you can look at this pics without smiling you might need a heart transplant. my cats would never stand for such humiliation, but the dogs seem into it. so cute, don't miss the little dog in the coffin with dracula OMG, or the expression on the dog in the chinese silk outfit LMAO

Try this: http://breathingeasy.wordpress.com/2008 ... dog-dance/

Those are funny, I agree some look a bit humiliated! Like, please someone - help me!

I had a friend who use to dress up her Labs every year at her Halloween parties -- She insisted they were really into it! They did seem to kind of strut and preen. The only problem is that they also liked to take a dip in the pool whenever they felt like it!