Americans held by leftist rebels in Colombia critical of celebrated hostage Betancourt

[Judi Lynn]

Updated: 2:04 a.m.
Americans held by leftist rebels in Colombia critical of celebrated hostage Betancourt
By FRANK BAJAK | Associated Press Writer
2:04 AM CST, February 26, 2009

BOGOTA (AP) — A memoir by three Americans held captive by Colombia's leftist rebels for 5½ years is anything but flattering to Ingrid Betancourt, the most famous hostage who shared their jungle cavalry.

The chronicle of the U.S. military contractors' 1,967 days as rebel captives is a striking survival tale, describing their pain and perseverance, mind-numbing boredom in jungle cages, forced marches in chains, close calls under fire and ultimately, a miraculous rescue.

But the most provocative revelation of "Out of Captivity" deals with Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician kidnapped a year before they were marched into the gulag they say she dominated.

One of the Northrop Grumman employees alleges she was haughty and self-absorbed, stole food and hoarded books, and even put their lives in danger by telling rebel guards they were CIA agents.

"I watched her try to take over the camp with an arrogance that was out of control," Keith Stansell told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "Some of the guards treated us better than she did."

More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-hostage-book,0,332780.story

Chicago Tribune is probably by subscription. Here's the story from another source:
http://www.whnt.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-hostage-book,0,1028349.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. You may want to look at the link EFerrari posted, a video made soon after they were caught

in Colombia:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3756708#3756717

[Judi Lynn]

2. NY Times "ace" Simon Romero gives the story his own magical treatment:

Book casts harsh light on former hostage in Colombia
By Simon Romero
Friday, February 27, 2009

CARACAS: Ingrid Betancourt, the aristocratic Colombian politician greeted as a heroine last year after enduring years as a hostage of Marxist guerrillas, is depicted as a selfish and haughty captivity mate in a memoir by three American military contractors who were held alongside her.

"I don't want to attack her, but the truth is very savage," said Keith Stansell, 44, an ex-Marine and one of the authors of the book, "Out of Captivity," which was released Thursday. "We were infected enough with her behavior in the jungle," he said in a telephone interview from New York. "Now I just want to get immunized."

Indeed, Stansell and his co-authors, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves, offer a far different portrait of Betancourt in the 457-page book than the generally accepted image of her outside Colombia as a long-suffering abduction victim who had nobly resisted her captors since her kidnapping in 2002.

In a daring operation last July, Colombian commandos plucked Betancourt, the three Americans and 11 other captives from the arms of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC. The rescue operation thrust Betancourt, a former presidential candidate in Colombia who has since settled in France, back into the public eye.

The Americans' book is mainly an account of their capture by the FARC and their survival while faced with jungle marches, a raft of tropical diseases and being chained to one another to discourage escape.

The book also portrays Betancourt as seeking to put herself at the top of a hostage hierarchy, hoarding used clothing and writing materials from the others, determining bathing schedules, hiding information from a transistor radio that she had squirreled away, even throwing a fit about the color of a mattress she was given. (It was baby blue.)

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/27/america/colom.php

[EFerrari]

4. Romero can't decide if he wants to sleep with her or smear her.

Now I have to go take a shower.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Found Simon Romero's image. Now we have a face to visualize when we read his gibberish!

SIMON ROMERO writes for The New York Times, and is a former Times correspondent based in São Paulo. Before heading to New York, he worked in Brazil for Bloomberg News, having launched the company's news bureaus in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. He is also a former senior correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro for pan-regional business magazine America Economia. Born and raised in New Mexico, in the southwestern United States, Romero graduated from Harvard College with a degree in History and Literature. He also studied for one year in the history department at the University of São Paulo.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7Se7iswAanA/SN628Gfd-ZI/AAAAAAAAC74/sTnDTYgwijM/s400/Simon+Romero_COPY.JPG

Here's the article that catches the region's worst journalist red-handed. Now compare the content to Abiding in Bolivia's last few days' worth of content....YOU BE THE JUDGE!

And a big round of applause to the blog "Down South" that caught the fascists on video and posted the footage up for all to see. This was important work, because not even the apologists can ignore it any more.

Ever needed proof that humble bloggers can make a difference to public opinion? See above.

http://www.incakolanews.blogspot.com/2008/09/confirmed-simon-romero-reads-abiding-in.html

(That link also has a link to this video taken showing some of the Bolivian racists' finest marching down the middle of the street making Nazi salutes. It will make you sick.)
http://m-grace.blogspot.com/2008/09/video-of-strange-paraderally-last-night.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Mixed views on Ingrid Betancourt from this group, apparently

This is the BBC News account of the book:

Page last updated at 12:15 GMT, Friday, 27 February 2009
Betancourt 'selfish in captivity'

~snip~
The harshest words for Ms Betancourt are from Mr Stansell, who accuses her of telling their Farc guards that the Americans are CIA agents, a charge other freed hostages have denied.

"Ingrid had sent notes to Sombra telling him that we were CIA agents and she wanted us out of there for that reason," Mr Stansell writes.

The 44-year-old former marine said Ms Betancourt tried to dominate the camp.

"I watched her try to take over the camp with an arrogance that was out of control," he told the Associated Press in an interview before the book was published.

"Some of the guards treated us better than she did."

Mr Gonsalves says Ms Betancourt put pressure on Farc commanders to keep the Americans out of her shelter.

"She wasn't making a request, but issuing a command," he writes. "She wanted us put in some other part of the camp."

However, he writes that his opinion of her changed after she agreed to share her radio with him.

"Maybe she was not the person we thought she was. Maybe Ingrid has a far more complicated and multi-dimensional person than she'd allowed us to believe."

Mr Gonsalves developed a close friendship with Ms Betancourt, he says, and came to admire the former Colombian presidential candidate.

"She's a tough woman. She used to give those guerrillas a hard time."

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7914287.stm