Friday, July 4, 2008 THE NEW MEXICAN A-3

Former hostage Betancourt takes center stage

By Patrick J. McDonnell and Chris Kraul
Los Angeles Times
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Ingrid Betan-
court, whose plight in captivity came
to embody Colombia’s fratricidal social
strife, Thursday embraced her grown
children for the first time in more than
six years and prepared for a trip to Paris
and a state welcome in France.
The exhilarated Betancourt, thin but
seemingly in good health and flashing
a broad smile after being rescued on
Wednesday, has generated a sense of
euphoria and hope in a nation clearly
eager to shed the legacy of more than
four decades of civil conflict and gen-
eralized despair.
“Paradise, nirvana, must be some-
thing very close to what I am feeling
in this moment,” she said on an airport
observation, she has been a ubiquitous rebels. Following her release, she first
While three U.S. contractors released along and ecstatic presence here in the hours appeared in public with braids and a
since her liberation on Wednesday in floppy military cap, smiling and holding
with Betancourt were whisked to a Texas an audacious rescue mission. back tears. She seemed notably lacking
military base for medical observation, she has Long rumored near death, she has
displayed a vivaciousness that has
in rancor, while harshly criticizing the
rebels’ hostage-taking strategy.
been a ubiquitous and ecstatic presence. delighted compatriots who are follow-
ing her family saga and tragedy like a
On Thursday, she also caught up
with another lost aspect of her family
real-life soap opera. life: She stopped by the church that
tarmac after being reunited with her her case has become a cause célèbre in Betancourt, 46, lamented having lost holds the remains of her father, who
two children, Lorenzo, 19 and Melanie, France, while generating intense inter- precious years of her childrens’ youth died while was she was in custody.
22, who arrived in Bogotá on a French est throughout Latin America. and vowed to “be stuck to them like Colombians broke into spontaneous
government aircraft. “These children “This has been the triumph of life, chewing gum” from now on. The for- applause as she left.
are my light, my moon, my stars. It was the triumph of peace, the triumph of mer senator was kidnapped by rebels The rescue of Betancourt and 14
the desire to see them again that drove democracy and liberty,” Chilean Presi- with the Revolutionary Armed Forces other hostages, including three U.S.
me to get out of the jungle.” dent Michelle Bachelet, herself a former of Colombia, or FARC, while running defense contractors, has abruptly
It was another nationally televised political prisoner, said Thursday in San- for president on a peace platform more transformed this beleaguered nation’s
chapter in the socio-political drama tiago, at the other end of the continent. than six years ago. mood and may have broader implica-
that has transfixed Colombia and While three U.S. contractors released Betancourt appeared far from the tions: News reports were already spec-
much of the world. Betancourt is a along with Betancourt were whisked dour, downcast figure pictured in a ulating on her presidential candidacy,
dual Colombian-French citizen, and to a Texas military base for medical photograph released last year by the declaring her a favorite.

Obama Accessing famous passports proves popular, report finds

wavers
By Paul Richter the department’s administra- To assess the extent of the The report did not try to report said.
Los Angeles Times tion program, including what breach, investigators assembled assess which of the “hits” were Five persons have been fired.
investigators said was a lack a sample of 150 famous Ameri- unauthorized, but it said that Officials said they were con-
WASHINGTON — A federal of sound policies on accessing

on Iraq
cans, including athletes, politi- the 85 percent rate “appears to tinuing to investigate whether
investigation of unauthorized the electronic records, training cians and entertainers, and be excessive.” additional personnel had vio-
snooping into government pass- staff and disciplining those who examined how many times State Department officials lated procedures or federal
port files has found evidence broke privacy rules. their files in a government did not identify the celebrities privacy laws and deserved pun-

timeline
that such breaches might be far The investigation was database were viewed over six whose files were included. ishment.
more common than previously launched in March after it was years. More than 20,500 federal Michael Kirby, a senior
disclosed and urged an overhaul disclosed that government Of the 150 celebrities, the files and contract employees have official in the Bureau of Con-
of the program’s management. workers and contract employ- of 85 percent were accessed access to the records database, sular Affairs, said officials “are
By Jonathan Weisman A report issued Thursday ees had snooped in the files of at least once; the files were including State Department reviewing the circumstances
The Washington Post by the State Department’s Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, accessed a total of 4,148 times. staff and officials involved in under which people looked at
inspector general found Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Nine files were opened more investigations, security assess- these records, and we will take
FARGO, N.D. — Sen. Barack “many control weakness” in John McCain. than 101 times. ments and other analyses, the action.”
Obama raised the possibility
of slowing a promised gradual
16-month withdrawal from Iraq
if he is elected president, saying
Thursday he would consult with
military commanders on an
upcoming trip to the region and
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“continue to refine” his plans.
“My 16-month timeline, if you
examine everything I’ve said, was
always premised on making sure
our troops were safe,” Obama
told reporters as his campaign
plane landed in North Dakota, a
state no Democratic presiden-
tial candidate has carried since
1964. “And my guiding approach
continues to be that we’ve got
to make sure that our troops are
safe, and that Iraq is stable. And
I’m going to continue to gather
information to find out whether
those conditions still hold.”
In a second, hastily convened
press conference, Obama
insisted his policies had not
changed, and that he has “not
equivocated” or “searched for
maneuvering room” on Iraq.
Consultations with command-
ers in the coming weeks would
be focused more on the size of
U.S. forces needed to train and
equip Iraqi military and police
units, as well as maintaining a
“counterterrorism strike force”
to prevent al-Qaida from mak-
ing a comeback, he said.
“Let me be as clear as I can
be. I intend to end this war,”
he said. “My first day in office,
I will bring the Joint Chiefs of
Staff in, and I will give them a Example:
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hard-fought primary fight with
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he
stuck to that 16-month timeline,
building support for his can-
didacy among anti-war voters
leery of the depth of Clinton’s
commitment to a pullout.
But since securing the nomi-
nation, a series of pronounce-
ments has helped ease him
toward the political center. He
backed a compromise on war-
rantless wiretapping, criticized
a Supreme Court decision
preventing the death penalty
for child rapists and failed to
criticize another decision scut-
tling the District of Columbia’s
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Thursday’s comments were his
most extensive on perhaps the
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