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| Europe | |
| German, Russian intel join search for Israeli soldiers | |
| 2006-07-22 | |
| German and Russian intelligence services are using contacts to Middle East extremists in a bid to win the freedom of three Israeli soldiers being held by militants, a report said Friday. The German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) - in tandem with Russian intelligence - is seeking to activate long-standing links to both Hamas and Hezbollah, said the Berlin Zeitung newspaper quoting unnamed officials. BND chief Ernst Uhrlau is an experienced negotiator with Mideast militants. In January 2004, as the intelligence services coordinator to then chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, he helped organise a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in which a German Air Force jet flew a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers from Beirut to an airport in Germany. A second Luftwaffe jet brought more than 30 of the over 400 prisoners to be released by Israel to Cologne for repatriation to Lebanon and other countries. The remaining prisoners were released on Israel's border to Palestinian territories. A similar swap was arranged between Israel and the Hezbollah under chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1996 in which Israel released prisoners for the return of bodies of its soldiers. Uhrlau's continued role in such deals was apparently spotlighted by Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor. "It is now time for the same functionaries from Germany to get active again," said Palmor in a German ZDF TV interview on Thursday.
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| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #8 The Germans and the Russians can help find them. But I don't think this time they will be authorized to negotiate a trade. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-22 22:35 |
| #7 Whores aren't picky if they see the green. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-22 13:26 |
| #6 The Russians are trying to help Israel? The Russians sell Nuclear stuff to Iran. Then they sell launching to Israel for sattellite to spy on the Iranians. Business aside it can be hard to figger. |
| Posted by: J. D. Lux 2006-07-22 13:18 |
| #5 Crosspatch, The Russians probably don't want their fingerprints to be found on the Iraqi WMD burried by Syria (w/ Russian help) in the Bekaa Valley... That would be very, ah, embarrassing. |
| Posted by: gb506 2006-07-22 09:45 |
| #4 "Er, no. The point here is to get the soldiers back WITHOUT freeing oodles of bloodthirsty Paleos. Thanks Germany, thanks Russia, we'll work this out the old-fashioned way...brute force." Agreed!! |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2006-07-22 08:26 |
| #3 //German and Russian intelligence services are using contacts to Middle East extremists in a bid to win the freedom of three Israeli soldiers being held by militants// Why doesn't this surprise me? |
| Posted by: Thoth 2006-07-22 03:03 |
| #2 If the Russians are helping then I would take that as a sign that they might be concerned that this whole thing is going in a direction that might not be in Russian long-term interests. Getting those two soldiers back to Israel is probably the keystone to any kind of cooling off of this before some serious fighting goes on. I doubt there is much they can do, though. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2006-07-22 02:29 |
| #1 The Russians are trying to help Israel? If the Russians offered to help me I'd run very fast in the opposite direction. |
| Posted by: Aztaroth 2006-07-22 00:51 |