A conspiracy theory built on the premise that American voters give a damn about anything that happens in Columbia? Write in Al Qaeda, blow something up, and find a role for Liv Tyler (plucky American journalist with great legs or plucky American Peace Corps volunteer with great legs). Need a new draft by Tuesday.
Plucky elf with great legs did wondered for New Zealand.
They don’t care what happens in their capital district? 
Oh, you mean Colombia*? Alright, carry on.
*Sorry, my favorite nit to pick. 
Why do you keep asking me questions about stories that are all over the news? Don’t you watch the news? The US provided intelligence, logistical assistance, and material assistance in the form of arms and helicopters.
I agree, but the White House certainly knew the exact timing of the rescue, since the US asssisted with it. Covert military operations cannot be conducted without the express orders of the president. The government might not have timed the rescue to match McCain’s visit, but it certainly could have done it the other way around. I watch the news every day, and only heard of McCain’s visit a couple days ago, right about the time he changed out his top operational people. There’s no reason the White House (or McCain’s Colombian buddies, for that matter) couldn’t tip him off that it was time to come down.
Incidentally, Ridley isn’t the only one wondering about all this. Mainstream media have been asking questions about it since last night. The White House and the McCain campaign are jointly denying it.
Yeah, perfectly nonsensical. And Enfant Terrible’s “it’ll be forgotten in a week, much less in November?” Piffle. Most American who heard anything about it AND realized that McCain was flying to Colombia as it went down did not make a connection and have forgotten about it already. The rest of America doesn’t know and doesn’t care.
However, the rescue was way cool and could make an entertaining part of a movie. Liv Tyler actually bears some resemblance to Ingrid Bettencourt, if you aged her sixteen years and stuck her in a grass hut and terrorized her for a few years.
When come back bring evidence.
Another Obama voter who thinks it’s just a coincidence; anyway I doubt it’ll help McCain much, if at all.
Clearly, the Colombia-FARC civil war has been a long-term conspiracy to boost McCain’s standing at just the right time. (We’re through the looking glass now.)
It would have been impossible, they were setting this up for months, sneaking double agents in, that sort of shit. John McCain didn’t rescue the hostages any more than Chuck Norris rescued POWs. And while its true that some of the tighty righty Ricky Retardos are trying to claim some credit, that is worthy of mild amusement, and nothing more.
Here’s the Washington Post lead:
“Colombia’s military.” Not anything else. Other highlights from that article:
Nowhere in the article does it say that the mission used U.S. resources in the form of arms, helicopters, or intel.
Please provide an actual citation to this claim that’s been “all over the news.”
This, at least, is an acorn of truth in the thread. John Ridley is indeed an idiot who has, at least recently, made a career of attracting attention and controversy to himself.
Piffle? 
I’m betting that among those paying attention the story will stick in the brain for about a week.
Meanwhile, was it not our next President himself who placed distractions ‘on notice’? This is small beer. In fact, I think even the Right Wing Scheme Machine (apologies to Rachel Maddow) is too smart to try to make hay on this one.
And Ridley is starting to sound like Conspiracy Brother in Undercover Brother, which Ridley co-wrote. Truly an idiot.
Yes, I watch and read the news. I just don’t read into it what is not there. The US has provided help to Columbia to fight rebels and drug lords, but it is unclear exactly what our role was in this particular mission. From the NYT:
Satellite imagery. Wow, that’s damning proof for sure!
But here’s the thing. This was a very risky operation. It’s quite likely that had McCain timed his trip to be there during the rescue, that he’d be visiting when the hostages were killed. I doubt he’d take that risk.
Shoulda ;)-ed that word, though I’m sticking with my contention that most of the people paying attention have nearly forgotten it already and that after tomorrow’s beer and fireworks will need to be reminded. And as the people paying attention start as a small minority in this country, I’m comfortable saying the lion’s share of Americans know nothing whatsoever about this and care even less.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Larry, what’s interesting, if you put what Tim was just reporting together with what I’m hearing from a senior U.S. official, that you had the intelligence the Colombian government was getting, but a big breakthrough came recently, I’m told, when U.S. intelligence picked up specific information pinpointing where these hostages were.
They then – the U.S. officials passed that on to the Colombian government and that helped them launch this rescue operation with some U.S. help.
I’m told there were some U.S. support – unlikely that it was actual U.S. troops, more likely equipment, maybe helicopters that were helped. More of a supportive role.
[…snip…]
What I’m told is that behind the scenes very quietly U.S. officials have been involved in some of the planning here of this rescue operation about what they would eventually do when they got the intelligence that would pinpoint the location. The U.S. has quietly been working on this for up to five years.
[…snip…]
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have heard a short while ago from the Pentagon that the U.S. military did get some intelligence on where these hostages were being held in the jungle. They shared that with the Colombian military. The Pentagon has also said that they helped in planning and gave some support to this operation.
“Maybe helicopters”. So, someone is speculating that. Where’s evidence of logistical support?
That’s what logistics is — providing equipment (no maybe on that one) to assist in carrying out a mission.
“Maybe”. That’s a rather lukewarm piece of evidence, wouldn’t you say?
The thesis of your OP is that this event was engineered by those planning it to assist Senator McCain. In support of idea, you’ve offered very little. Even if I took the “maybe” we provided helicopters as a gospel truth – and, obviously, it’s quite far from that measure of reliability – you still haven’t shown any particular evidence that it was timed to benefit McCain. In fact, none of the sources you’ve provided have offered up any quotes, even of unnamed officials, saying that this was orchestrated to assist McCain.
All three senators traveling to Colombia were briefed – one of them is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. I suspect that if Senator Obama had been on that trip, he’d have been briefed as well; it was a stunning success for a country that has long struggled with insurgency.
As always in GD, it’s for the person advancing the claim to provide the proof, and extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. Here, the central tenet of your thesis has been supported by no proof at all.
Do you mean “no maybe on that one” in the sense that it’s certainly, without a doubt, the definition of logistics?
Or did you mean that certainly, without a doubt, the U.S. provided equipment to assist in the mission itself?
If the latter, I still haven’t seen that cite.