Colombia rejects Israeli involvement in hostage rescue

Colombian defense minister Juan Manuel Santos says rescue of 15 hostages was '100 percent Colombian; not a single foreigner participated'

Colombian military intelligence agents flew to the jungle aboard a white helicopter, staging a mock humanitarian mission that rebels were told would ferry their hostages to another camp for talks on a prisoner swap, AP reported.

The would-be envoys had honed their accents in acting lessons: Italian, Arab, Caribbean Spanish, and Australian English - "Identical to Crocodile Dundee," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Friday as he explained how Colombia's military duped rebels into turning over 15 hostages.

He rejected reports in international media that Israel was involved in the operation, adding that it was "100 percent Colombian."

"Not a single foreigner participated," he said.

"In the last two handovers of hostages," Santos told reporters, "There was always a cameraman sent by Chavez." The three-minute video presented at Colombia's military headquarters showed the mission was modeled after the Venezuelan operations down to the red T-shirt worn by a supposed journalist, who poses questions to a rebel while hostages' hands are bound with plastic handcuffs.

Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt along with 14 others freed form the claws of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Betancourt and the French-Colombian politician were kidnapped in 2002.