Colombians took acting classes for hostage rescue

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian intelligence officers took acting classes to prepare for freeing Ingrid Betancourt and her fellow hostages, putting on Che Guevara T-shirts and pretending to be leftists out to help the insurgents.

The leader of the rescue mission posed as an Italian member of a fictitious group offering to transport the hostages by helicopter to a meeting with a top guerrilla leader.

His weeks of rehearsal -- alongside other agents learning their roles as journalists and medics -- made him so convincing he persuaded one insurgent to hand over his pistol before getting on board.

The pseudo reporter and cameraman irked the unit's guerrilla commander, who refused to grant an interview in the jungle clearing despite their pleading for sound bites away from the clatter of the helicopter's rotor blades.

Had their acting been poor, the agents risked more than bad theatrical reviews. The guerrillas could have kidnapped them or worse if they had discovered the scam.

Defense Minister Manuel Santos told reporters on Friday the military closely studied films of hostage releases this year to determine how far they could push the guerrillas to cooperate with their secret plan.

"This was more an intelligence operation than a military operation," he said in presenting a video of the operation.

The helicopters were painted white and red to resemble those used in previous missions led by aid groups.

Once in the air, the two rebels on board were subdued and tied up while the hostages, including three American defense contractors and 11 kidnapped Colombian soldiers and police officers, were told they were free.

The video shows the hostages' hands tied with white plastic cuffs as they glumly board the aircraft.

The idea of binding the hostages came from the rescuers, to build credibility with the rebels. One intelligence officer acted as an Arab and another as an Australian in keeping with the international make-up of a bogus rebel-friendly group.

An American hostage, apparently Keith Stansell, angry about being handcuffed, leaned toward the video camera and shouted an expletive before getting on board. He did not know he was minutes from freedom after years of being shunted around in insect-infested jungle camps.

He was captured along with Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves after their light aircraft crashed in the jungles of southern Colombia during a 2003 anti-narcotics mission.

They and Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen captured by the guerrillas during her 2002 presidential campaign, were the rebels' main bargaining chips for a possible prisoner swap bogged down in negotiations with the government.

(Editing by Saul Hudson and Todd Eastham)