[Ha'aretz] Yossi Melman - Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was released after six years in captivity on Wednesday, compared her "impeccable" rescue operation to Israeli commando operations and Israel indeed contributed to the daring rescue mission. The Israelis involved in the operation feel it is important to accord the credit to Colombia. "It's a Colombian Entebbe operation," former IDF General Staff operations chief Brig.-Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv said Thursday. A year and a half ago, Colombia asked Israel for help in its struggle against FARC, which had become a militia specializing in kidnapping civilians and military figures for ransom. The Israeli activity, involving dozens of security experts, was coordinated by Global CST, owned by Ziv and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yosef Kuperwasser, former head of IDF Military Intelligence's research division. A company source said, "We helped them prepare themselves to fight terror. We helped them to plan operations and strategies and develop intelligence sources." Israelis also provided equipment and intelligence technology.
2008-07-04 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive