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| Europe |
| German hostage sez she was being held by Zaqawi |
| 2005-12-29 |
| A German woman held hostage in Iraq for three weeksbelieves a group allied to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, abducted her and yet also set her free. "I was quite clearly told about whom it concerned, namely a grouping of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi group," Susanne Osthoff said in an interview conducted by German public television station ZDF on Tuesday and broadcast on Wednesday. Zarqawi, who has a $25 million reward offered for his capture, is blamed for a relentless series of attacks, suicide bombings and beheadings in Iraq. His supporters have killed many, if not most, of the people they are known to have abducted. Groups not allied to him have also kidnapped Westerners and have been more ready to free them in return for ransoms. Osthoff, speaking from Doha and dressed in a yashmak or black veil covering all but her eyes, did not say why she believed she had been released. The archaeologist, who converted to Islam and lived in Iraq, was seized heading north from Baghdad on Nov. 25 by gunmen who threatened in a videotape to kill her and her driver unless Germany ended all support for the Iraqi government. She was freed by Dec. 18 after the intervention of the German government, which has declined to comment on any conditions for her release. Osthoff, 43, has made it clear she is not rushing back to Germany, but there have been conflicting reports about whether she plans to return to Iraq. She gave her first interview since her ordeal to Al Jazeera, telling the Arabic station her kidnappers had promised not to hurt her because she was a Muslim. Some German media wrongly referred to her saying she planned to return to Iraq. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leading government figures have strongly urged Osthoff not to go back to Iraq. Asked by ZDF if it was indeed her intention to head for Iraq, Osthoff replied: "That's a lie, I have the cassette here ... I have never said that, I wouldn't do so to such a dumb question and it has never been asked by the Arabs." ZDF broadcast excerpts from the interview, in which Osthoff gives few direct answers and digresses at length. She ended by thanking former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who made a televised appeal for her release, but pointedly declined to thank her sister who did the same. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Her sister's just....a woman, so her appeal on this witch's behalf was worth half of Schroeder's. Why thank her? |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-12-29 18:40 |
| #1 The Germans have been "had" big time by this hostabitch. Germans release a killer and big dollars in exchange for an AQ ruse. Bend over and grab your ankles Merkel! |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-12-29 17:48 |