I immediately grabbed my hat!

Haven't had much chance to engage in web logging ("blogging") today, but when I read about the freed hostages I was overjoyed for the captives and their families, but thought, there's a lot more here than is being reported. For instance, what a coincidence (helpful of the NY Times to point that out for us rubes) that John McCain would be in Columbia (during a hotly contested U.S. presidential campaign) just as it was about to take place.

On Thursday, three American officials in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity while citing the sensitivity of the assistance, confirmed that the United States provided intelligence to support the operation. They offered few details about the intelligence support, but one intelligence official said that the United States provided satellite imagery to the Colombian government as it planned the operation.

In addition, according to this official, the Colombians for some weeks have also been able to eavesdrop on communications of the FARC leadership — the result of successfully penetrating the group’s communications network.

According to an American indictment against Gerardo Antonio Aguilar Ramirez, the man known as “Cesar” who was captured Wednesday, FARC leaders often communicated through radio call centers located in the Colombian town of Villavicencio.

“These centers have the technical capacity to receive calls from FARC members using short-range radios, and to patch them through to the more advanced and long-range land line and cellular phone network operating in the more urban parts of Colombia,” the indictment reads.

Colombian officials first broached detailed plans for their secret rescue mission to American officials about two weeks ago, top diplomats and officials from both countries said.

“We’ve been working this very closely with the government of Colombia now for about two weeks,” William Brownfield, the United States ambassador to Colombia said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Wednesday night.

Mr. Brownfield said that while the Colombians planned and executed the operation, the United States provided important intelligence, planning and technical assistance.

“We were able to cooperate,” Mr. Brownfield said. “We were able to endorse. We were able to share our own experiences, and some small bits of equipment for this particular operation.”

"We were able to endorse," Mr. Brownfield said.

To repeat, I'm overjoyed for the victims and their families, and I'm conscious that I sound like a member in good standing of the tinfoil hat community, but, shit, if all it took to fool FARC was to dress up in a Che t-shirt... I mean, fuck the heck??