Stone: my part in hostage baby saga

[struggle4progress]

David Smith in London and Sybilla Brodzinsky in Bogota
Sunday January 6, 2008
The Observer

... Stone, speaking before Farc's statement was released, denied that the discovery of Emmanuel in the orphanage was a major blow to the rebels' credibility. 'Even if it were true, I would say to you, so what? What would be the motive for Farc to create such a build-up and not release the hostages? That would be such bad intention, such bad faith, that it would condemn them from the whole world, and if that was the truth I would be surprised and upset with them.'

Stone, 61, served in the US army in Vietnam, was wounded twice and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He has won Oscars for his Vietnam dramas Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, as well as for his screenplay for Midnight Express. Among his other best known films are Salvador, The Doors, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Alexander and World Trade Center. He is a trenchant critic of US foreign policy.

He blamed the collapsed deal not on Farc but on President Uribe and his American backer. 'It's Colombia's fault, Colombia did not want it to happen, and I think there were other outside forces, like Bush. Uribe went to great lengths to justify his behaviour that day. For the President to fly down to this place and give a long press conference and have his general give a long talk feels like a lot of over-justification to me. I think there was a lot at stake in getting Chavez out of the hostage situation. I heard that day from two rival sources that Uribe had made a phone call to Bush the day before or that day. The Bush phone call is significant.'

Stone continued: 'I said at the time, shame on Colombia, shame on Uribe, and I meant to say shame on Bush, too. I think Bush has a spiteful attitude towards Chavez, as does the American establishment. They want to see Chavez fail. The New York Times had an article the next day saying: "Chavez's promised hostage release fizzles, his second major setback in weeks." If that's the headline, that's certainly a surprise to all those people who were down there, including the families of the hostages. It was a genuine effort to free them.' ...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2236055,00.html