German terrists released and Germans kidnapped in Iraq - was one a spy ?
As expected (see Lord Patel Jan 19th )the Stuttgart State Court has announced this morning the release of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, on 5 years probation on March 27. One of the last jailed members of the Baader-Meinhof gang, she received 5 life sentences.
In anticipation, no doubt of widespread public objections, the court was anxious to point out that this was not a pardon and was a decision that is based on the specific legal consideration that no security risk exists.
President Horst Koehler is also considering a pardon for Mohnhaupt’s former RAF (Rote Army Fraktion) colleague Christian Klar, (pics from74 - he looks a litle like Matthew Parris, and today) who has also spent the past 24 years behind bars.
Their jailed colleagues Birgit Hogefeld (L) and E H Haule (R) remain in prison.
German victims of Terrorism in Iraq Today
The Berliner Morgenpost reported this weekend that two Germans (so far un-named) had been kidnapped in Baghdad. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says they were kidnapped last Tuesday and officials in Berlin as well as the German embassy in Baghdad have been working "hyperactively" on the problem.
On November 25th 2005 the Bavarian archaeologist Susanne Osthoff (45) was taken hostage with her driver at the end of 2005 - she had been working in Iraq since 1991 and was a convert to Islam and had been married to an Iraqi. An armed group kidnapped 2 engineers from Leipzig, Thomas Nitzschke and René Bräunlich, in January 2006. All 3 victims of terrorism three were eventually freed unharmed, but in Osthoff's case, who was returned after 3 weeks on December 18th 2005, it is alleged that Angela Merkel's German government paid a ransom of millions of euros and also traded her for a convicted terrorist named as Mohammed Ali Hamad. a Hezbollah militant serving a sentence for killing U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethemin on a hijacked TWA jetliner in 1985 - he was apparently quietly shipped from Germany back to his native Lebanon after serving only 19 years of his life sentence.
The State government in North Rhine Westphalia, where he was being held, not the federal Government authorised his release because he had "had qualified for parole ".
There also reports that she worked for the German intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) , and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member of the terrorist organization al-Qaida, possibly Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and had access to safe house run by BND.
The German magazine Focus also claimed that Osthoff was carrying several thousand dollars on her when released, that formed part of the ransom which were traceable from their numbers.(Reuters)
About 100 Germans now live in Iraq, according to the Ministry, including aid workers, employees of German security firms, and a number of German-Iraqis -- people with German passports who returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
UPDATE "Where are they now ?" No. 253 Susanne Osthoff
Curious, how picking over an old (?) story reveals some interesting nuggets. A video was released of the smart and savvy bone digger Susanna Osthoff when she was in captivity - see top of story. This was a short while after the SAS duo was picked up in Basra (Sept 18th 2005) that General Mad Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday "Mike" Jackson was so anxious to recover.
On her return to Germany she appeared on a a German TV network ZNF in arab dress , and was highly confused and gave a cock and bull story of the abduction etc., which "official" sources said was due to "exhaustion"m "confusion".
Then some folks started comparing the videos about Nick Berg and the possibility that they were concocted - plastic chair the same as Abu Ghraib (and let's face it 50 Mn patios around the Mediterranean) , captors had trainers, unusual with Islamofascistjihadist heavy men etc., etc., - which brings to mind the DVD's allegedly found in the flat of Mr Hussein who decamped from the scene of 21/7 bombings via Eurostar to Italy when everyone was looking for him - but actually listening in to his mobile - wunnerful thing modern technology. DVD's which were shown to the jurors of the 21/7 bombers today (missing the actual beheadings out - (of which there wasn't actually one in the Berg video published)).
So here for those interested is the picture of these suspiciously large men holding Susanne Osthoff, no flags, no jihadist slogans , no insignia, no headbands. Just what was happening when Susanne Osthoff was "kidnapped" ?
1 comment:
WHAT HE REPORTED
They put a bag upon my head
To bring me to the prison. There
On meager fare so I was fed,
The circumstances very spare.
One very prized of their techniques
As happened more than days and weeks
To tie a cinch around the penis:
So they would laugh when they had seen us;
Or they would urinate upon one,
And varied were the tortures done one,
Backdrop of other prisoners
Wailing in torment, theirs yet worse.
There was the sound of barking dogs
And we were treated less than hogs,
Till, after two years, give a day
Or take, so I was sent away:
Since I was not a terrorist
Nor from the outset did resist,
I wonder what the purpose was,
Why someone does the things he does.
An Arab, so I was a target,
This I believe; while men in war get
Treated to cruel injustices,
But never had I thought of this:
That the United States in turn
From petty dictators would learn,
But so, in all the world´s esteem
Must vanish fanciful that dream,
That former vision of a place
Where rule of law but men did trace
Within their actions, all beneath
The law. That image comes to death.
The soldiers took directives from
Men without uniform, as come
From private enterprising firms,
So I have learned, who set the terms.
Me they injected with syringe,
Stripped naked, and it makes me cringe
To think--who knows what it was for?--
I can´t have children anymore.
Ah, USA,
The stories are so many,
You threw away
A good name for a penny--
How ever shall
You get back reputation?
No, once let fall,
Though it were deputation,
It never will come back;
Derailed from virtue´s track.
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