Saturday, January 7, 2006

The strange case of German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff

Dvicker2 recently posted at his Dialog International blog on the story of Susanne Osthoff, the German archaeologist who was recently kidnapped in Iraq and then later freed: Susanne Osthoff's Choice 12/28/05.  His post and the related links give a picture of what a puzzling character she is. Formerly married to an Iraqi, who is also the father of her 12-year-old daughter, Osthoff seems to have been obssessed with preserving, promoting and exploring the archaeological heritage of Iraq, even at great risk to herself.  She is a convert to Islam.

But strange characters often make good stories, and Osthoff is one of those.  Before the German government succeeded in freeing here - based on the latest press reports, ransomed her - Der Spiegel featured her in a cover story: Der Preis des Lebens 49/05.12.05. (Accessing it online costs 1€.)

Even though she had been directly threatened by a terrorist group that had already made one attempted to kidnap her, supposedly Al Qaeda in Iraq,she insisted on taking a risky trip to Arbil in northern Iraq against the advice of German embassy officials, who had strongly and repeatedly urged her to get out of the country.  She was kidnapped en route.

After she was freed, though, she insisted she was going back into Iraq.  Like I said, strange character often makes interesting stories. These two articles provide more background on that:

Former Hostage Wants to Return to Iraq Der Spiegel Online 12/27/05

German Papers: Susanne Osthoff and Her Discontents Der Spiegel Online 12/28/05

Now, in a development that goes well with the new JFK the-Commies-did-it assassination conspiracy theory in the German news recently due to an ARD documentary, it emerges that Osthoff was allegedly working for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's version of theCIA/FBI: Susanne Osthoff war „gelegentlich“ für den BND tätig: Deutsche Archäologin hatte bis Mai 2005 Kontakte zum Bundesnachrichtendienst – Geringfügige Geldzahlungen Die Welt 07.01.06 and Osthoff soll für BND gearbeitet haben Süddeutsche Zeitung 07.01.06.

Die Welt reports:

Die im Irak vorübergehend entführte Archäologin Susanne Osthoff war nach Informationen der WELT in früherer Zeit gelegentlich für den Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) tätig. Die unregelmäßige Zusammenarbeit sei im Mai 2005 seitens des BND gestoppt worden, als es Hinweise auf eine Bedrohung der Deutschen durch den Terroristen Zarkawi gab, heißt es in gut informierten Kreisen. Zuvor habe Osthoff BND-Mitarbeitern im Irak gelegentlich über ihre Einschätzung der Situation berichtet. Die 43jährige soll aber zu keinem Zeitpunkt „systematische“ Mitarbeiterin des BND gewesen sein. Sie habe jedoch den nachrichtendienstlichen Hintergrund ihrer Gesprächspartner gekannt. Osthoff soll für ihre Informationen mitunter kleine Geldbeträge bekommen haben. Die Gesamtsumme dürfte 3000 Euro kaum überschritten haben.

What that says is that Osthoff was being paid by the BND to give them information on people with whom she spoke in Iraq. The BND cut off this activity in May 2005 after Osthoff was threatened by terrorist lealder Zarkawi's group.  But the sources claim that Osthoff was never working "systematically" for the BND.  They only paid her for pieces of information, and the total amount she was paid was no more than 3,000 €, or roughly $4,000. I don't know if "systematically" has some special meaning in the BND context, but the information in Die Welt's article makes it clear that their sources are saying it's not a Valerie Plame type case, where she was operating as a full-fledged undercover operative and BND agent.

Osthoff gave a long interview to Stern magazine this past week: "Die Deutschen hassen mich"  Stern Online 04.01.06.  In that interview, she denied the Aljazeera report that she had said she was going to return to Iraq. She also claimed that the German ForeignOffice had requested her to go back to Iraq, a claim the Foreign Office denied.

The full Stern text of the interview is apparently unavailable online as of this writing.  But the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that in the Stern interview, she denies that she took payments from the BND.  But then she also says that the BND helped look after her daughter in Germany, including giving her toys for her birthday.

A strange but weirdly fascinating story!

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