BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY, CAROL ROSENBERG AND FRANCES ROBLES

The rescuers came wearing Che Guevara T-shirts and logos declaring them delegates of some obscure organization.

They didn't look much like an international humanitarian brigade. And they weren't.

They were the Colombian intelligence agents who pulled off ''Operation Checkmate,'' one of the greatest military capers in Colombia's history -- a mission that would finally liberate the world's most famous hostage from the hands of leftist rebels in the jungle.

Without firing a single shot.

''Who are these people? What kind of international commission is this?'' former hostage and once-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt remembered thinking. "Are we clowns in another circus? I didn't want any part of it.''

In a military operation described as ''unprecedented'' and ''perfect,'' the Colombian armed forces Wednesday infiltrated the top command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- Latin America's oldest insurgency -- and tricked rebels into handing over Betancourt, held hostage for six years, and three American defense contractors, held for five years. It was an effort the White House says it knew about and helped support.

The hostages, the rebel group's most-prized possessions, were held in chains in jungle camps in the hopes the government would swap them for guerrilla prisoners.

The three Americans -- Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves -- were scuttled out of the Andean nation and were set to arrive Wednesday night in San Antonio.

Their release brought praise from presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, House Leader Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the ruse that also freed 11 Colombian soldiers and police officers was straight out of an action flick, and added that the mission garnered even more spoils: ''César,'' Betancourt's guerrilla warden all these years, was captured and placed under arrest.

''This was an unprecedented operation,'' Santos said at a press conference at the military airport in Bogotá. "What our armed forces did was something out of a movie.''

He said the military infiltrated the FARC's top hierarchy and arranged for a transfer of hostages on the ruse that they were going to be handed over to Alfonso Cano, the rebel group's maximum leader.

THE TRANSFER

The government mole arranged for the hostages to be brought together from three different locations to one camp, and then taken in a helicopter the FARC believed belonged to a friendly aid group that would transport the hostages to Cano.

''The military planned this for more than a year by establishing a fake helicopter company that had been offering transport services to the rebels for some time,'' said Newlink Political senior analyst Mauricio De Vengochea, who has close contacts in the Colombian military.

"It shows they infiltrated the highest levels, because there is no way the guerrillas would have turned over the crown jewel to a stranger in an unknown helicopter. It's truly impressive.''

The chopper was piloted by intelligence officers dressed as leftist sympathizers. Betancourt said the hostages thought they were being picked up by some kind of international humanitarian organization to be taken to the FARC high command.

''Our hearts broke. More captivity. Another transfer,'' Betancourt said in a dramatic press conference minutes after embracing her mother. "Every time we heard helicopters my pulse would race. Run, hide, gather your things. But this helicopter was white. It was exciting.

''It was surreal,'' Betancourt said, describing the bizarre white helicopter and the strangely dressed men who came for her. ``They had logos that certified they were a delegation of who-knows-what.''

She and the others were handcuffed as they boarded the chopper, which she described as ''humiliating.'' Once aboard, something happened so fast Betancourt missed it.

But then she saw ''César'' -- the ''cruel despot'' who guarded her -- subdued on the floor of the helicopter. The pilots turned and said the words she and the others had waited so long for:

"We are from the army. You are free.''

''The helicopter almost crashed; we jumped, we screamed and we cried,'' she said, lavishing praise on the military, the defense minister and President Alvaro Uribe.

Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002 on the campaign trail, instantly becoming a cause célèbre in both Colombia and France, where she also has citizenship. Her campaign manager was released from captivity earlier this year.

A year after Betancourt's kidnapping, the Americans also were taken by FARC guerrillas. The Americans were working for a U.S. defense contractor corporation, Northrop Grumman, taking drug crop surveillance photos when their plane crashed into Colombia's jungle, which at the time was overrun by leftist rebels.

Betancourt has been in captivity 6 ½ years; the Americans 5 ½.

''This is unbelievable,'' said Stansell's ex-wife, Kelly Coady. ``I'm the happiest person on the planet right now.''

George Gonsalves, father of one of the hostages, learned about his son Marc's release as he did yard work at his home in Hebron, Conn: "I'm really excited about this. It surprised the heck out of me.''

RELATIVE'S JOY

Amanda Howes, the niece of Thomas Howes, learned about her uncle's release after she saw a news bulletin from The Associated Press while working at Boston television station WHGH. ''I just screamed,'' she said, quickly calling her father Stephen Howes to tell him his brother had been freed. "We hope that he's safe.''

The rescue coincidentally came on the same day as McCain's visit to Cartagena, on Colombia's north coast. McCain said Uribe alerted him to the operation the day before. It also comes amid a political crisis in the South American country, where Uribe is under fire for efforts by his supporters for Uribe to seek a third term. At a public appearance in Bogotá, Uribe was received with resounding applause.

''This is a huge success for Uribe,'' De Vengochea said. "Nobody can beat him now.''

The Pentagon's top commander for Latin America hailed the rescue as a ''brilliant operation'' from Southern Command headquarters -- where he reported military and civilian staff were cheering at the Pentagon's Miami outpost. ''This is a day of enormous joy for Marc, Keith and Tom and their families,'' Navy Adm. James Stavridis, Southcom chief, told The Miami Herald. "My deepest congratulations to the Colombian security forces, who executed a brilliant operation to successfully free the hostages.''

White House spokesman Blair Jones said the administration was ''aware of the operation in its planning stages.'' He said it was "conceived and led by the Colombian government and we supported the operation.''

Jones said the U.S. ambassador and Stavridis "were engaged in the planning stages.''

Southern Command regularly held remembrance ceremonies underscoring its commitment to freeing the hostages. Some employees at the Pentagon outpost also wore MIA-style rubber bracelets with the three captives' names on them.

In February, the admiral said in a speech at Southern Command that he had 35 staff members working full time on the hostage issue. The three were expected to be taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Miami Herald staff writers Casey Woods, Lesley Clark and Phil Long and McClatchy News Service contributed to this report. Special correspondent Susana Hayward contributed from San Antonio.