Some of you may remember, a German archaeologists held hostage briefly in Iraq. She was released amongst a number of rumors that ransom had been paid. There was even some indication that she had collaborated with her hostage takers, because some of the marked money was allegedly found on her after she was free. Now, more indication that she may have been complicit in her own kidnapping, and at least two secret agents from the German government as well.

Wherever the truth lies, it's a strange case. And it is now certain that, despite denials of it, German intelligence had a presence on the ground during and after the Iraq invasion.

John Rosenthal sends me his article from World Politics Watch:

What exactly is the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, doing in Iraq? Although the public has had occasion to be aware of the BND presence, up until now most will have been led to believe that the BND has been "quietly" cooperating with American and coalition authorities. Even more skeptical observers will have assumed that it is at least not cooperating with America's enemies in the country. But a photograph published earlier this month in the German weekly Stern provides disturbing evidence that it is doing precisely that....

The Iraqi "host" has been identified as Sheikh Jamal Al-Dulaimi; the other two men as agents of the BND, the German equivalent of the CIA. As it happens, Al-Dulaimi is regarded by Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigations (BKA), the German equivalent of the FBI, as the principal suspect in the alleged 2005 kidnapping in Iraq of German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff. Osthoff disappeared -- supposedly taken hostage by a hitherto unknown "resistance" group with the colorful name "Stormtroops of the Earthquake" -- on Nov. 25, 2005. According to the Stern account, the photo of Dulaimi and the two BND agents was taken on Nov. 24: the day before the kidnapping....

The newly published photo reveals, however, that it was not only Osthoff who had amiable contact to the chief suspect in her "kidnapping," Al-Dulaimi, but also local agents of the German BND. Osthoff is known in turn to have had extensive -- and, on her own account, highly amiable -- contacts with local BND agents in Baghdad. It was indeed the Osthoff case that first brought the BND presence in Iraq to public attention, when reports of these contacts surfaced. Osthoff was surely not herself a BND agent, as a sensational UPI headline from January of last year implied, but she does appear to have served as an informant for the agency: in particular -- and again, on her own account -- passing information to her BND "friends" on impending terror attacks. It was her "duty as a German," she said. That she was privy to such information is yet another indication of her proximity to local terror milieus.

UPDATE: I forgot to open a blockquote, which when I first published this post made it seem that much of what had been written by John Rosenthal had been written by me. My bad, sorry. So, neither the investigation nor the conclusions from it are "mine".

For more, see our extensive Susan Osthoff archives.

Related:

Susanne Osthoff Hostage Taking a Hoax?
Hostage Susanne Osthoff Was German Intelligence Agent
Did The Germans Cave? German Trade-off Suspected in Release of Terrorist Killer
German Archaeologist Susanne Osthoff Taken Hostage in Iraq

Posted by: Rusty at 08:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 575 words, total size 4 kb.