In a development highlighted by the McCain campaign, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was briefed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe before Wednesday’s rescue of 15 hostages held by terrorists, including three Americans.
The rebel organization has been hit by a series of reversals, most of which were facilitated by intelligence penetrations or communications intercepts before this latest setback. The NYT dry observed, “the rescue came during a period of fragmentation in the FARC after the killing and capture of several senior commanders in recent months.” The BBC described how the operation to rescue the hostages held by FARC was mounted, how the rescuers “slipped” someone into the FARC operational chain and diverted it to their enemies. There were several problems that needed to be solved to carry out this switch. First the hostages had to be retrieved from their dispersals to where they could be rescued en masse. The second problem was how to effect the rescue itself.
Operation Check – as in “checkmate” – came after months of information gathering and preparation. The Colombian authorities received close co-operation from US security services, who shared intelligence, equipment, training advice and operational experience, according William Brownfield, the US ambassador to Colombia.
It was a complicated affair. According to reports, the 15 hostages had been held in three separate locations. Through duplicity and subterfuge, “Check” brought them together in a single holding station in southern Colombia.
From there, the captors were duped into believing their charges were to be transferred by helicopter into the hands of another Farc leader, “Alfonso Cana”, at a location somewhere between La Paz and Tomachipan, according to Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.
The concept of “taking over” an enemy command and control system was reputed to have been employed by the IDF in their recent attack on Syria’s nuclear reactor. The basic idea is to hack into the control system and subvert it over a critical time window. Wired describes what happened in Syria:
U.S. aerospace industry and retired military officials indicated today that a technology like the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system developed by BAE Systems and integrated into U.S. unmanned aircraft by L-3 Communications was used by the Israelis. The system has been used or at least tested operationally in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last year.
The technology allows users to invade communications networks, see what enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator so sensors can be manipulated into positions so that approaching aircraft can’t be seen, they say. The process involves locating enemy emitters with great precision and then directing data streams into them that can include false targets and misleading messages algorithms that allow a number of activities including control.
The operation against FARC appeared to work on the same principle. FARC was spoofed into thinking they were following orders when in fact they were being misled. But the illusion has to hold up seamlessly for the duration. At any point in the operation an information leak would have meant the failure of the operation. And the last part, which involved the impersonation of a FARC helicopter flight by Colombian military men, could easily have become a death trap. 
The infiltrators then herded the 15 captives, as well as two of the rebels – including the notorious Cesar – onto the chopper. It was only once the aircraft was airborne that the rescuers revealed their true identities – the rebels were disarmed, stripped naked and tied up as the liberated hostages celebrated so jubilantly that in the words of Ms Betancourt, “the helicopter nearly fell from the sky”.
Winston Churchill once wrote that “nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” But the difference between exhiliration and tragedy is often inches; and victory and defeat is often separated by the narrowest of margins. With the loss of the hostages to the government, FARC has probably lost all opportunity to trade them for its prisoners held in Colombian jails. But it could so easily have turned into defeat. The power of information — and information security — was never more dramatically demonstrated.
But one other thing was on display in this instance: decisiveness. After the last preparations have been made and the final contingencies prepared for, there always remains the last bit of irreducible risk. Uribe had to spin the wheel and hope it worked out. He and GW Bush would probably have been pilloried by the press if the rescuers had walked into a trap or had a firefight ensued which resulted in the death of the hostages. And John McCain would have fared differently if it had failed utterly. But that’s academic. The bullet missed, and now the hostages, Uribe and his American allies can bask in their moment of exhilaration.
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26 Comments
1. Lifeofthemind:The unraveling of the FARC after the raid into Ecuador and capture of the rebel leader’s laptop is looking like a series of explosions on the trail of a slow lit fuse. Will the fuse lead to Chavez, to persons linked to Obama, to the New York Times?
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:32 am 2. Richard Fernandez:Recall that the arrests of Victor Bout and Monzer al-Kassar, two of the biggest arms dealers in the world, were in connection with FARC. FARC has become an interesting nexus. It is where Chavez, Ahmedinajad, Hezbollah and unnamed American sympathizers all come together.
What this operation tells us is that a lot of information warfare resources have been have been at work for a long time. The operation which captured of the laptop was itself probably guided by signals intelligence. Certainly the takedowns of Bout and Monzer involved those elements too. My guess is that they already know where the US end connects. Just think of how thoroughly they must have owned the FARC command net to pull of this stunt. But I don’t think there’s any direct link between FARC and any major American political figure. But there’s a good chance that persons one or two degrees separated from them are sweating bullets. If there’s any indirect connection it will be used to illustrate the “bad judgement” and “unreadiness” of whoever it taints more than anything else.
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:42 am 3. Lifeofthemind:I am waiting for thumb sucking analyses from media complaining how these operations endanger innocent peace workers and NGO people.
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:46 am 4. Doug:Nancy Pelosi will deliver the definitive words on the subject esp wrt how this demonstrates the wisdom of stiffing Uribe and Co. on trade.
Jul 3, 2008 - 4:14 am 5. Doug:Hitchens On the Waterboard
ht – al-Bob
Jul 3, 2008 - 4:25 am 6. RWE:Back in the 1930’s my grandfather became involved in a rescue attempt for the warden of the state prison. Two tough thugs, lifers, and a younger inmate managed to take the Warden as a hostage in his own office. They demanded a car and to be allowed to escape with the Warden.
This drama attracted the attention of both the news media and the Governor. My grandfather proposed a plan to the Governor. “See this? It’s a Thompson Submachinegun. We will surround the office, give a certain signal, and open fire. The Warden is trained and will know to hit the floor. We’ll kill the three inmates and most likely get him out alive.”
But this was too harsh a plan for the Governor. The Warden might be killed and one of the inmates was not a hardened criminal. He turned down the plan.
Eventually, the inmates killed the Warden. The Thompsons then opened up. All four men ended up dead.
You said it: Decisiveness.
During the Reagan Administration, the President was visiting a bakery in the Midwest when they took him aside and advised him that that they had identified that terrorists who had hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro and killed a wheelchair-bound American were about to board an airliner. Assets were in place to intercept the aircraft. Did the President want to give the Go order?
There, among the pots and pans of the bakery, President Reagan though for a moment and then said “Yes.”
Apparently the men there recalled Jimmy Carter, who was plugged into the command network for the attempted rescue of the American hostages in Iran. And before that, Richard Nixon, who was known to issue orders without informing the Joint Chiefs. And before that, Johnson, who bragged that “The Air Force can’t bomb an outhouse in Vietnam without my specific permission.”
So they said “Okay Mr. President, we have to get you to a command center so that you can monitor this operation.”
Reagan replied “Hey! I can’t fly an airplane or command a ship. Why do you need me? Let me know how it comes out.”
Decisiveness, again. And Decisiveness about knowing when to keep your hands off, too.
And by the way, if you want to make your blood boil look up what happened to the Achillo Lauro hijackers we captured.
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:02 am 7. Bombadil:I wish it wasn’t necessary to know anything beyond the fact that a courageous rescue was made. I like the idea of keeping the bad guys guessing at the details of how it was done.
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:06 am 8. Doug:The Achille Lauro is often mentioned, but this exploit by Samir Kuntar isn’t.
Zenster reminded us a few threads back.
Once again this bastard is freed:
Israel Swaps Prisoners for Soldiers’ Bodies
—
RWE,
I didn’t know you could stack all that atop an Atlas.
Have they been structurally strengthened?
The Rise of Rockets -
Also, what are the towers lining the delivery lane?
Jul 3, 2008 - 6:10 am 9. NahnCee:Never not do something because something bad might happen — what I’d want on my tombstone if I weren’t going to have a Viking funeral.
Jul 3, 2008 - 7:41 am 10. Mark:Memories of the legacy of Jimmy Carter are nightmares.
Anyone of a Carter-persuasion can look at the Columbia outcome and say, “This outcome could have been accomplished via dialog and diplomacy. By using force, have we not possibly created additional root causes of problems?”
Unfalsifiable. And very possibly our national policy beginning in January.
Jul 3, 2008 - 7:58 am 11. Dr. Scott:Bombadil:
Oh, I agree. But maybe the details of “how it was done” are wrong. Maybe they’re disinformation. What’s more fun than getting the bad guys to start a search for internal turncoats that don’t exist?
Jul 3, 2008 - 8:45 am 12. j willie:Doug Farah at Counterterrorism blog corroborates.
Jul 3, 2008 - 10:31 am 13. Roderick Reilly:The actual details of the FARC rescue operation will come out in the New York Times as soon as the Times’ quisling contacts at the CIA can get a hold of those details. Names of Colombian government operatives will also be revealed, either by the Times or Congs. Delahunt and Murtha.
Jul 3, 2008 - 10:34 am 14. RWE:Doug:
The Atlas V rocket that is shown in the link that you provided is almost nothing like the Atlas E’s and H’s I used to launch at VAFB. The Atlas V is a new vehicle developed under the USAF EELV program and utilizes a rigid aluminum tank rather than the pressurized stainless steel skin of the earlier Atlas boosters. The pressurized skin approach was the most efficient structure ever devised (booster structure being on the order of 1% of the total lift off weight) but due to the increased hoop stresses, that design is not usable much over 10 ft in diameter.
The Atlas V also uses a Soviet-developed, Russian built first stage engine. This was necessitated by the Space Shuttle program’s ruthless elimination of the rest of U.S. launch capabilities. We did not just take perfectly good Atlas E’s and run over them with bulldozers; we also quit building new rocket engines, or even designing them. Thanks to the Soviet engine, the Atlas V has become the most successful of the new USAF-developed boosters. Boeing quit marketing the Delta IV commercially a few years ago, but it is still used for military missions.
The towers around the Atlas V launch pad (not the delivery lane) are for lightning protection. They were erected during the Titan IV program and were retained for the Atlas V. The Atlas V is unique among large U.S. rockets in that it does not have a mobile service tower around it at the pad before launch.
And as for that article, I think those are pretty poor pictures of the USAF space museum and SLC-34! I would have picked some different perspectives.
By the way, it turns out that one of those Americans rescued from the FARC lives about 2 miles from me.
Jul 3, 2008 - 11:13 am 15. CP:Doug,
So sorry to see that you’re carrying over your bad Off-Topic habits here. Why don’t you get your own **** blog? I hear Blogger is still free.
Jul 3, 2008 - 11:13 am 16. 49erDweet:“Decisiveness” How can one demonstrate that trait when one must first “stick their finger to the wind” to see which way today’s opinion blows?
Protect us, Lord, from focus-group groupies. Real leaders lead, “politicians” push.
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:05 pm 17. Brian H:The captured FARQers will soon be out on bail, due to the new SCOTUS rulings. All foreign national enemies of the US have all the rights of citizens, doncha know? They can even run for POTUS, apparently!
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:18 pm 18. Brian H:Oops, “FARCers”, not “FARQers”. (:-0
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:21 pm 19. Doug:Thanks, RWE.
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:05 pm 20. One for the history books….. » The Ethereal Voice:Great info.
The original Atlas was one of the most ingenious designs of all time imo.
[...] The Belmont Club and SPIEGEL have more details. [...]
Jul 3, 2008 - 3:49 pm 21. krontekag:The best part of this will be seen in the coming months as FARC tries to purge itself of impurities. With a bit of luck it will dissolve into competing factions, each of which is below critical mass in terms of self-sustainability. Hopefully FARC will then dissappear in a burst of revolutionary Hawking radiation.
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:02 pm 22. Martin:You want some definitive analysis? Here it comes:
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:18 pm 23. Doug:http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2008/07/how_dare_the_colombians_rescue.cfm
Yes, Sarkozy freed her by suckong up to Chavez.
This is waht we in Europe have to live with.
That is truly amazing, Martin.
Jul 3, 2008 - 5:39 pm 24. lc:Comparable to some of the left’s crowning achievements here.
The accelerating collapse of FARC has got to be a big big win in the war on terrorism (kind of an apt name in this case).
Jul 3, 2008 - 6:27 pm 25. Drive Time Happy Hour » 7-7-08:[...] Richard Fernandez: The BBC described how the operation to rescue the hostages held by FARC was mounted, how the rescuers “slipped” someone into the FARC operational chain and diverted it to their enemies. There were several problems that needed to be solved to carry out this switch….After the last preparations have been made and the final contingencies prepared for, there always remains the last bit of irreducible risk. Uribe had to spin the wheel and hope it worked out. He and GW Bush would probably have been pilloried by the press if the rescuers had walked into a trap or had a firefight ensued which resulted in the death of the hostages. [...]
Jul 7, 2008 - 11:06 am 26. Ed:Interesting. So they briefed McCain. Did they NOT brief Obama? If not, then why do you suppose? As a sovereign power they don’t need to observe Senatorial courtesies. They did (as noted above) need to maintain operational security.
Again, if Obama was not briefed then why not? What does that say about the chances of an Obama administration regaining the world’s respect?
Jul 7, 2008 - 11:50 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.