Report says ransom money found on Osthoff

Reuters ^ | 1/21/2006 | Reuters staftf

[saveliberty]

I think that many will find a way to rationalize it

[hershey]

Absolutely criminal, traitorous behavior by the MSM. Any journalist panel on C-Span, PBS, or CNN, the spiel is the same: Noble, neutral, really smart elitists. We don't take sides, unless it's against the evil, unfairly strong US. We don't believe evil exists, even when it threatens to behead one of us. Amazing. But if Jill Carroll dies, we know where they'll lay the blame. Hint: It's never their fault.

[SAMS]

I'm shocked and amazed! A german taking a shower??!! Now I've heard everything.

[hershey]

It depends on who takes action against Iran. If the US does it, then the EU can play the GW is a dangerous cowboy nonsense again -- although they'll be happy if the nukes are gone with little collateral damage. If Israel does it, I guess they'll have to blame somebody other than Sharon.

[an amused spectator]

A part of the FR experience (an extremely large part) is the semi real-time interaction with other FReepers. I'm getting so tired with the thread Nannies whose sole duty seems to be to quash personal interaction at FR. I can see pointing out duplicate posts which occur within an hour or less of each other, but after a whole day's lapse? Just how much bandwidth is wasted by those who make these posts which do nothing to enhance the exchange of views or just plain neighborly sharing at FreeRepublic?

I've been here since the beginning, and I'd NEVER point out a "duplicate post" - unless there was some great information on the other thread that the residents of the current thread might be missing.

It's my experience that unless you absolutely live on FR, you may miss an original thread on some current news if you happen to dip into the FR news stream at the wrong time. So I have no problem with duplicate threads.

I think the Nannies are pretty much admitting that they don't have a life. ;-)

[Socratic]

Sometimes the most important details lie within the small print! Thanks. ;0)

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

She should be jailed for defrauding the gov't...

Why? She's simply doing what the German government asked her to do. This is the traditional time-honored method of German appeasement of Muslim terrorists. In order to avoid attack, the Germans find "hostages" who they then use as an excuse to funnel money and release prisoners. They used the same strategy to release members of the Munich Massacre. What makes you think this is any different?

[JennysCool]

Former Iraq Hostage Makes Bizarre TV Appearance - Spiegel

If former hostage Susanne Osthoff had been better advised, she probably would have opted against appearing on German television entirely covered in a black headscarf. The hijab, which left only a pair of slits for her eyes, made the freed hostage look like a disturbing cross between a Chechen Black Widow suicide bomber and a ninja.

...the presenter explained that Osthoff's choice of dress was suposedly intended to preserve her identity --a bizarre thought considering that Osthoff's face has been all over the front-pages since November and most people in Germany must be quite aware of what she looks like. Besides, she didn't wear a headdress in her interview with Arab broacaster Al-Jazeera earlier this week.

The second shock for viewers was the rambling, incoherent nature of Osthoff's answers. Even the heavily edited version (ZDF spokesman: "We wanted to protect Osthoff from herself.") of the original 15-minute interview was barely comprehensible. Questions were left unanswered and at times Osthoff rambled off into non-sequiturs about how badly she had been treated by her landlord back in Germany. When asked how the kidnapping had been carried out, she was evasive, simply responding: "I think these details are not interesting. That doesn't interest anyone. Generally kidnappings are carried out quite violently. People watch a lot of television and realize perhaps that you don't let yourself get abducted voluntarily."

...mass-circulation Bild leading with "Susanne Osthoff: Crazed TV Appearance," complete with a half-page picture of the headscarf-adorning former hostage. The entire second page is taken up with what the paper calls "The Osthoff Mystery," which links her to Saddam Hussein's regime and asks where she got the money to send her daughter to an exclusive boarding school. "The puzzle of Susanne Osthoff will preoccupy us for a long time to come," the paper concludes, ominously.

[JennysCool]

Originally posted by FReeper "frankjr" here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1548885/posts

[Ben Hecks]

This story is oddly similar to that of Renate Wallert, the German woman that was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in Malaysia in 2000 and held in Jolo, Philippines. She was one of 21 hostages freed after ransom money was paid to her captors. In that case, Libya came up with $25 mil and the German government $1 mil. The Philippine official that headed the team that negotiated the release of the hostages wrote a book about the event and commented at length about the strange behavior of Ms. Wallert after she was freed. After reading the story, I wondered if the kidnapping and ransom was merely a way to transfer money to the terrorists - $15 million of the $26 mil total was never unaccounted for.

[OrioleFan]

Obviously a shower didn't make her clean; maybe made her come clean...

[mewzilla]

And, we are now in a similar situation where a young woman who is an Islamic convert is being "held" by those who seek the release of all female Iraqi terrorists. (Of course, our government is not being influenced by this event when it is now "reviewing" the detention these female detainees.)

Re: Jill Carroll. Anyone know why we haven't heard the audio from that videotape?

[Mrs.Nooseman]

Good Morning SL.

This whole story reads of betrayal to her country.The kidnapping was preplanned to get money to the terrorists and she got a fee from said terrorists for going through with the plan.IMO.

I am ticked that the German Government is so gullible and stupid in helping the Terrorists ,instead of fighting against them.

They bought this story hook,line and sinker and they'll pay for it in the end.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

"I wondered if the kidnapping and ransom was merely a way to transfer money to the terrorists"

This is wisdom. Remember Jeffrey Schilling?

[R. Scott]

No – the terrorists are just a nice bunch of misunderstood freedom fighters. They gave the lady a few $ Thousand to help make up for her inconvenience in being held as their guest. She was not complacent in any way. < /mega barfing sarcasm>

[saveliberty]

I think that Charles Krauthammer is right in that they are alarmed that action may have to be taken and that they have to acknowledge that they have been living in denial for at least 2 years re: Iran.

It's not right to put the onus on Israel alone. We have been positioning ourselves to be able to support action.

Also, this nutbag running Iran seems to go back to the bin Laden thinking that there will be some kind of muslim rallying around a holy war.

[saveliberty]

LOL

[Semper Paratus]

now in a similar situation where a young woman who is an Islamic convert is being "held" by those who seek the release of all female Iraqi terrorists

Being a female Islamic convert makes a much sense as dating a Kennedy.

[saveliberty]

Wow

[saveliberty]

Soap is our friend. Perhaps she forgot