A hostage who was not who she seemed.
The case of German “hostage” Susanne Osthoff and her capture by Islamist terrorists had an odd smell to it. It gets curiouser -- after she was ransomed and released, she was taken to the German embassy in Baghdad where among other things, she took a shower.
Read this
Reuters report for the rest:
Report says ransom money found on Osthoff
Part of the ransom money alleged to have been paid by the German government to win the freedom of Iraq hostage Susanne Osthoff last month was found on Osthoff after her release, the German magazine Focus said on Saturday.
Without citing its sources, Focus said officials at the German embassy in Baghdad had found several thousand U.S. dollars in the 43-year-old German archaeologist's clothes when she took a shower at the embassy shortly after being freed.
The serial numbers on the bills matched those used by the government to pay off Osthoff's kidnappers, the magazine said.
And of course, Osthoff was just an archaeologist working in Iraq:
...Osthoff, who converted to Islam and lived in Iraq...
And of course, there was no other compensation from the German government other than the money (US Dollars -- what? The Euro isn't good enough for terrorists?):
Two days after her release, the German government freed a Hizbollah member jailed for life in 1985 for the murder of a U.S. Navy diver. Berlin has denied a connection between the two events.
And people complain about
our government being duplicitous...
Posted by DaveH at January 21, 2006 8:36 PM