US jammed FARC communications during rescue

Sunday Telegraph:

American spy planes carrying sophisticated jamming equipment blocked frantic attempts by a Colombian rebel commander to contact his superiors about last week's hostage handover, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Gerardo Aguilar Ramírez, known to Ingrid Betancourt and her fellow captives by his alias, César, wanted to confirm orders delivered by hand to him by courier to transfer the hostages to a "humanitarian" mission arriving by helicopter on Wednesday.

The jamming operation, high above the Amazonian rainforest canopy, was the key, final element in an elaborate plan to hoodwink César into surrendering the communist rebels' most prized assets: the former presidential candidate Ms Betancourt, 46, three American defence contractors and 11 Colombians.

At a rendezvous point in a jungle opening he was told they were to be ferried by helicopter supplied by the "International Humanitarian Group" to a base where Alfonso Cano, the overall supremo of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), wanted to question them. César, a commander notorious for his cruelty, decided to comply with the instructions.

He had tried to contact Cano on four separate occasions, unaware that intelligence aircraft were intercepting or blocking his radio and satellite phone communications.

In fact the orders were fake, sent to him by Colombian intelligence teams that had infiltrated the Marxist rebel force with well-paid double agents.

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I suspect that the intercepts of FARC communications have become routine. We can only hope that the Democrats do not get too concerned about the narco terrorist privacy rights. Would this operation require a FISA warrant under the new law? If so, it is a very foolish law.

This story says the operation was moved up 10 days out of fear it would be disclosed.