While many of us revel in the patriotic excesses of the upcoming three day holiday weekend, John McCain is taking his Straight Talk Express tour to Mexico and Colombia. I’ve gotta tell you, ever since the itinerary of the tour was announced, I’ve been scratching my head a bit. It didn’t make any sense. Why would a U.S. presidential candidate feel the need to hobnob with the political elite in Mexico City and Bogota? And on a day that it was revealed that one of McCain’s biggest financial boosters had paid off right wing Colombian guerrillas over a long period of time?

Teh wierd, as the kids would say.

Let’s further tighten down the tinfoil hat for a moment. Earlier this afternoon, it was reported that several hostages who had been held since 2002 / 2003 time frame by a Colombian militant movement (one that’s associated, at least in the press, with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez), had been freed. Among the hostages who were “liberated” by Colombian military forces was a former Colombian presidential candidate, and three American military contractors:

Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt has been rescued, the country’s defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said Wednesday.

Betancourt, who is reportedly in severely deteriorating health, was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, in 2002.

Along with Betancourt, three Americans and 11 other hostages who were Colombian police were rescued from FARC…the freed include Americans Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes.

…Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes have been held since February 13, 2003, when their single-engine plane crashed in mountains south of Bogota. The Americans were working for Northrop Grumman Corp. as part of a U.S.-funded counternarcotics effort…

I know this doesn’t mean anything to most Americans, but: Northrup Grumman? U.S.-funded counternarco operation? What were three guys who work for a private American military contractor doing flying around Colombia in the first place? My goodness, there are some stories to be told.

But what’s most interesting in assessing this entire development is that it occurred, serendipitously I’m sure, at the same time that GOP candidate McCain is getting ready to fly into the country.

This is just too weird. And the coincidence is not lost on most of us who at least bother to follow this crap on a daily basis. The fix was in. Banana republic, indeed.

Note: I’m very pleased that these hostages have been released, and can be reunited with their families. But this smacks - literally smacks - of the hostage release in Iran on the day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. The entire operation, from McCain’s itinerary announced last week, through the actual hostage rescue operation, is just too damn coincidental.

Update: Al Giordano at Narconews has the latest (and best) takedown of the faux “rescue mission”. The photo at the top of his post is worth the price of clicking through.

Update, 7/4 This whole affair is starting to stink like yesterday’s diapers. From Forbes:

…The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army ‘were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,’ the radio’s French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million…

So, that’s the price of publicity these days? Paying off a terrorist organization?