Quote Originally Posted by Creon01 View Post
This may seem like a good idea to some but I can't begin to explain why in the long term this is going to hurt the cause. Although I'm happy that these hostages are free, the use of well known humanitarian symbols as an integral part of the mission will feed into the belief that humanitarian NGOs, the UN and the Red Cross are all just tools of the US and full of spies. Does the end justify the means on this occasion? Hard to justify to me, but like I said I’m happy to see these guys back home.
That was a covert mission. They were obviously not wearing visible military uniforms as well. The kidnappers thought that the helicopter was a charter helicopter.
I believe that's not covered by conventions.

And everybody knows that NGO personnel, UN organization personnel, embassy personnel and journalists have a high probability of co-operation with interested nations. The IAEA inspectors that searched in Iraq during Saddam's time were full of MI6/CIA spies, for example.