Best use of unilateral intervention in a foreign war: French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin's gambit in commandeering a French Air Force plane, loading it with a few medics, a security unit from the French foreign intelligence service (DGSE) and one of his own senior aides, and flying the thing to the Brazilian-Colombian border — without bothering to ask Brazilian authorities, or even his own government, for permission to do so. Monsieur Multipolarit�'s plan? To pick up an old family friend, Ingrid Betancourt, who had been abducted by Colombian FARC guerrillas, as part of a deal that would have provided medical care to an ailing terrorist leader. According to reports in Le Monde and in the Brazilian press, when the Brazilians expressed outrage and demanded to board the aircraft, Villepin's man claimed diplomatic immunity for the plan and its contents. When the story broke, Villepin quickly arranged his cover with French president Jacques Chirac and then defaulted to French form: They retreated and Villepin apologized to the Brazilians.