Athena
April 30th, 2008, 01:33 PM
After crashing in the jungle in February of 2003, three U.S. defense contractors, Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves, have been held by FARC rebels in Columbia. The conditions are appauling, as the rebels refuse any Red Cross assistance. These men are weak, depressed and ill...and because of our policy against negotiating with terrorists, it doesn't look like they will be released any time soon.
...Still, a video that police seized last fall from FARC operatives in the capital, Bogota, shows the men looking weak and depressed. They have now been in captivity for five years — one of the longest hostage episodes in U.S. history. Yet few Americans know about it. President George W. Bush has mentioned the hostages publicly only once, when he visited Colombia last year. "It's amazing and discouraging to think that these three guys, former U.S. servicemen, could be left behind and forgotten this way," says Lynne Stansell, Keith's stepmother, of Bradenton, Fla. "The Bush Administration has all but ignored them."
Please read Time's heart-wrenching article, America's Forgotton Hostages (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1735671-1,00.html). It'll give you some insight on the fucked up things going on in a part of the world not called Iraq or Sudan.
...Still, a video that police seized last fall from FARC operatives in the capital, Bogota, shows the men looking weak and depressed. They have now been in captivity for five years — one of the longest hostage episodes in U.S. history. Yet few Americans know about it. President George W. Bush has mentioned the hostages publicly only once, when he visited Colombia last year. "It's amazing and discouraging to think that these three guys, former U.S. servicemen, could be left behind and forgotten this way," says Lynne Stansell, Keith's stepmother, of Bradenton, Fla. "The Bush Administration has all but ignored them."
Please read Time's heart-wrenching article, America's Forgotton Hostages (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1735671-1,00.html). It'll give you some insight on the fucked up things going on in a part of the world not called Iraq or Sudan.