PAYS TO BE PART OF THE AXIS OF GOOD:

US jamming operation hoodwinked rebels in Ingrid Betancourt rescue (Martin Arostegui and Philip Sherwell, 05/07/2008, Daily Telegraph)

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.

The audacious rescue in Operation Checkmate involved "a combination of electronic penetration of Farc's command and control and human infiltration into its guerrilla units", said John Marulanda, a Colombian special forces officer.

The Colombian mission was backed by a multi-billion dollar US spy operation and dozens of American officials who worked full-time at the US embassy in Bogota on rescuing the three anti-narcotics contractors, captured when their plane crashed in 2003.