Hostage ruse's fake Web site irks group with similar name

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/18/colombia.website/index.html

Hostage ruse's fake Web site irks group with similar name


BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian military intelligence apparently set up
a Web site for a fake humanitarian group as part of a ruse to dupe leftist
rebels into giving up 15 hostages this month.

Colombia's Defense Ministry did not respond to CNN's requests for comment
about the counterfeit organization and its Web site.

However, a Bogota college student who said he registered the domain name and
hosted the site through his company said he was surprised to learn of the
site's purpose.

Mision Humanitaria Internacional's Web site popped up a few days before the
July 2 mission to rescue the hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or FARC <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/FARC> , in the jungles of
Colombia.

The organization was based in Barcelona, Spain, and had been founded in 1999
"to improve the processes of development to guarantee equality of
opportunity for individuals and peoples," according to informational pages
posted on the site.  Video
<http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gif> Watch
<http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Hostage+
ruse%27s+fake+Web+site+irks+group+with+similar+name+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlI
D=29832909&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2008%2FWORLD%2Famericas%2F07%
2F18%2Fcolombia.website%2Findex.html&partnerID=211911#cnnSTCVideo> how
another group's emblem may have been misused >

Spanish-language news articles and press releases from the last nine years
filled some of the site's pages. The organization's logo -- a stylized red
bird on a white background in the centermost of three concentric circles,
with blue leaves on white in the middle circle and the organization's name
on a blue background in the outermost circle -- is featured prominently
throughout the site.

That same logo was pasted on the side of a helicopter used on the rescue
mission that brought former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 Colombian police and soldiers
back from the jungle, according to unpublished video shown to CNN by a
military source who had been looking to sell the material.

...

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