Colombia penetrated FARC at all levels

CNN:

Secret agents posing as leftist rebels hoodwinked insurgents and freed 15 hostages from the jungles of Colombia by pretending an "international mission" was on its way to visit the hostages, authorities in Colombia say.

Plans for the bold and daring mission began months ago, when Colombian agents penetrated the leadership group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgent force that has waged war on the Colombian state for 40 years, Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon told CNN.

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.

Their efforts culminated in an audacious mission that freed former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 police officers and soldiers Wednesday. The 15 hostages had endured several years in captivity.

Posing as FARC members, the agents gained the rebels' trust and eventually ordered them to move several hostages from three separate locations to one central area.

"We convinced the FARC that they were talking to those of their own," said Gen. Mario Montoya of the Colombian Army. "It was all human intelligence."

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 agents persuaded the FARC to turn over the hostages by saying an "international mission" was coming to visit the hostages, Montoya said.

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Colombia's intelligence on FARC operations has been very good for months now and we are beginning to see how. While it is unusual for a government to admit that it has intelligence assets at various levels of an enemy organization the revelation is likely to cause another purge within FARC that could lead to more damage to the organization.

For the FARC team that was left behind they better start looking for a way to surrender quickly, because FARC has been brutal with those who fail. They may very well get the death penalty from their own side if they stick around for the consequences of losing their hostages.