WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States knew of Colombia's daring hostage rescue in its planning stages, but Bogota did not need Washington's "green light" for the operation, the White House said Thursday.
"We were aware in its planning stages, but this was an operation that was conceived by the Colombians and executed by the Colombians with our full support. But they did not need a green light from us," she said.
Perino said the United States had been working with Colombia even since the hostages were taken and implied that Washington had provided intelligence and even operational help -- while insisting that Bogota would have to decide how much of the US role to reveal.
"We'd also been working with the Colombian government ever since the hostages were taken in order to try to free them," she said. "I'm not able to go into any specifics."
"I think that if the Colombians want to provide more in terms of the information that was provided in terms of intelligence, or operational help, I think I'll let them decide if they want to do that," said Perino.
Perino spoke after Colombian commandos dramatically rescued Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages by posing as their Marxist rebels and flying them out of their jungle prison by helicopter.
Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the rescue, made possible by a military agent's infiltration of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, "will no doubt go down in history for its audacity."
US ambassador to Bogota William Brownfield told CNN that Washington had provided "technical support" to the operation but Santos insisted it was a "one hundred percent Colombian" effort.
Perino underlined US-Colombia cooperation and said "you have to do that in a way to make sure that people are going to be safe. And also you have to have actionable intelligence in order to find them and to bring them to safety."
Betancourt paid tribute to the international efforts to end her six years in captivity and admitted even she had been taken in by the army operation late Wednesday, which also freed three US defense contractors and 11 Colombian soldiers.
She said the hostages did not know that rebels who had come to move them to a new hideout were Colombian soldiers in disguise, noting some wore T-shirts bearing the portrait of legendary revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
The disguised soldiers made the hostages board a helicopter with their wrists bound, saying they were being transferred to a new FARC base.
It was only when they were in the air that "the chief of operations said, 'We are the national army and you are all free,' Betancourt said after arriving at Bogota's military airport.
Betancourt, a candidate for the Green party, and her campaign manager Clara Rojas, were abducted by the FARC on February 23, 2002. Rojas was released in January.
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