January 09, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Susanne Osthoff, the German archeologist kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on Nov. 25 and released before Christmas was connected with her country's intelligence service, the BND, and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member of the terrorist organization al-Qaida, possibly Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi himself, according to well informed German sources Sunday.The UPI story also says that new German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a ransom for Osthoff in addition to releasing Hamadi. Supposedly German intelligence is "cooperating with U.S. counterparts", but, given German duplicity in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, and near total intransigence in the GWOT, it begs the question how much cooperation is actually taking place.The sources confirmed German press reports that the 43-year-old woman had worked for the BND in Iraq on a freelance basis, and had for some time even stayed in a German intelligence safe house in Baghdad.
A convert to Islam and a fluent Arabic speaker, Osthoff had lived in Iraq for over a decade, and was at one time married to an Iraqi. Archeology is a classic intelligence cover: T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) posed as an archeologist in the Middle East in the early part of the last century. But archeology is Osthoff's real profession. One Washington-based German source said Osthoff had been working on arranging a rendezvous with an al-Qaida member on behalf of a German intelligence agent in Iraq. Whether the meeting ever took place has not been revealed, but another source in Berlin, reached by telephone, said experts believed that the kidnapping may have been the work of a rival group, possibly within the same organization.
A day after Osthoff's release, the Germans had quietly freed and sent home to his native Lebanon Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a Hezbollah militant serving a sentence for killing a U.S. Navy diver in a hijacked TWA jetliner in 1985.
Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.
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http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,392690,00.html
This would be a story worth exploring if it involved less loathsome characters.
Posted by: Asgerd at January 09, 2006 07:37 PM (/XHB/)
Posted by: reliapundit at January 09, 2006 07:55 PM (QPnrn)
Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at January 09, 2006 08:22 PM (8e/V4)
Posted by: Agent Meatball at January 09, 2006 10:21 PM (30FRH)
Posted by: hondo at January 09, 2006 10:36 PM (3aakz)
Posted by: Dan at January 10, 2006 04:45 AM (Z2OsI)
Her sister tried to organize a march in Germany for her release, but no one would join her.
Ooookay.
Posted by: Oyster at January 10, 2006 05:56 AM (YudAC)
The German people and therefore government took the stance that they were against the Iraq campaign. The near total intransigence against the TWAT means they have soldiers in Afghanistan (and have suffered KIA) and they supported the EU taker of Bosnia/Kosovo from NATO so that the UK and US had enough troops to go to Iraq.
As a Brit the notion of paying Kidnappers is wrong, and if true does not help matters. As for Ali Hamadi, your government’s policy on GTMO and the Death Penalty as well as the German Constitution prevented him being legally extradited to the US. Nuff Said.
Posted by: jailor at January 10, 2006 06:45 AM (hDcCz)
Posted by: jesusland joe at January 10, 2006 10:40 AM (rUyw4)
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at January 10, 2006 12:09 PM (0yYS2)
Have you served your country? Have you done a tour of Iraq? Do you know anything about the German or UK or European constitution.
Stupid ignorant immature responses like yours alienate the US from the rest of the world lose you freind and allies and support the myths proported by the Jihadists.
I am not a dual citizen yet but I may be one day. My wife and Son are US citizens, I am serving Officer in the Royal Air Forces. I have done overseas tours in support of OEF and OIF.
Grow up.
jon.dennis@fbigs.mod.uk
Posted by: jailor at January 11, 2006 10:22 AM (LKcW9)
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at January 13, 2006 09:55 AM (0yYS2)
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