Caught in the Net: FARC

When the Colombian military pulled off its successful sting operation against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in July, rescuing French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, its operatives posed as members of a fictitious Spanish humanitarian organization named Misión Humanitaria Internacional. Had FARC’s guerrillas done their homework, they might have easily foiled ...

When the Colombian military pulled off its successful sting operation against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in July, rescuing French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, its operatives posed as members of a fictitious Spanish humanitarian organization named Misión Humanitaria Internacional. Had FARC's guerrillas done their homework, they might have easily foiled the ruse. Not only were parts of the fake group's Web site lifted wholesale from a real non-governmental organization called Global Humanitaria, but a quick Whois search would have revealed that its domain name (misionhi.org) had been registered just six days before the raid, and the telephone number listed was 000000000. Of course, cybersavvy has never been FARC's forte.

When the Colombian military pulled off its successful sting operation against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in July, rescuing French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, its operatives posed as members of a fictitious Spanish humanitarian organization named Misión Humanitaria Internacional. Had FARC’s guerrillas done their homework, they might have easily foiled the ruse. Not only were parts of the fake group’s Web site lifted wholesale from a real non-governmental organization called Global Humanitaria, but a quick Whois search would have revealed that its domain name (misionhi.org) had been registered just six days before the raid, and the telephone number listed was 000000000. Of course, cybersavvy has never been FARC’s forte.

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