December 28, 2005

New identification dummy for German housewives of both sexes


Germany in December: Candlelight vigils for a cartoon character crone

Summary of the Osthoff case: Hezbollah member Mohammed Ali Hamadi has returned to Lebanon after being secretly released in Germany, where he was serving a life sentence.

Hamadi was sentenced in 1989 for possession of explosives, hijacking a U.S. commercial passenger airliner in Athens to Beirut - TWA flight 847 - on 14 June 1985, beating and holding passengers aboard that flight, and torturing and finally murdering Robert Dean Stethem, a US Navy diver, execution-style.

A German hostage in Iraq, 43-year old archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, was freed only days later. German authorities had already tried to use Hamadi as a bargaining chip in the late 1980s to secure the release of German hostages in Lebanon.

Honi soit qui mal y pense?

Debkafile, who are usually well informed, report that Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkel’s new head of the BND, Germany’s equivalent of the CIA, is revealed as the man behind Berlin’s secret decision to trade Osthoff for Hamadi. A US extradition warrant was on file in Berlin, which was supposed to take effect if the Hammadi were ever released. Hamadi was flown to Beirut, Osthoff was released by her Iraqi kidnappers.

Then it turned out that her chauffeur, who was allegedly "captured" with her, has been part of the deal.

Who would have thought so.

Osthoff, who has a 12-year-old daughter who lives in a German boarding school from the (failed) marriage with a Muslim (some sources say Jordanian, some Iraqi) has still not returned to Germany and announced that she will go back to Iraq, not quite surprisingly to the chagrin of the German authorities who have announced that they will stop funding her projects in Iraq. Her first, and so far only, interview she gave the Arab Nazi TV station Al Jazeera, covered with a headscarf when the female interviewer was uncovered. It is notable, that her allegedly fluent Arab failed her and she had to perform the rest of the interview in English. At this point, let me remind you of Osthoff's earlier brazen self-assessment, gladly lapped up my the German media (Märkische Allgemeine newspaper, translation by me):

"I am on first name terms with the insurgents [sic!]" she told those sceptics who warned her to travel to a region haunted by terror and military operations.

And what if might falls in the hands of the dreaded terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarkawi, who was said to stay in the Ninive province, to which Mossul belongs? "I'll talk myself out of it", she laughed self-confidently, alluding to her perfect command of Arabic and power of conviction. She seemed to be obsessed with the idea of contributing to the conservation of the “stunning cultural heritage of Iraq”.


Osthoff has split our nation in two.

The majority, so it seems, is plainly miffed because of a grotesque waste of tax money, which shows a remarkable degree of common sense, something Germans can usually not boast all that much.

The rest is a deplorable, gross display of self-hate and lack of discernment. Get kicked in the groin and love it if it's only by somebody who hates you enough.

Some think she is the best since Lawrence of Arabia, which would speak for itself, even if it weren't for the entire, ridiculously fawning article (in the leftwing Tagesspiegel): "Who is considered a hero or a heroine here? Only if the person matches the lifestyle of the majority and adhers to the traditions of the Christian Occident?" Well, yes, I'd say that would be a pretty good start for the definition of a hero/heroine in my book. I can't muster up much admiration for a convert to a death cult hell-bent on destroying MY Christian, Occidental values. But that is only me, of course.

Others relate to her on a crone-to-crone basis, like Claudia Roth in the commerce daily Handlesblatt, *chairperson* of the Greens, the crone to end all crones, somebody who would have been laughed out of any serious political environment in any country that has not yet become the sad travesty of a democracy and Queen of Corny-isms: "In our democracy it is considered good and right that free and independent decisions exist." And to hell with the consequences, right?

The blog of the oh-so-liberal (in the European, not in the American meaning of the word) ZEIT suggests, I am afraid seriously, that we go on supporting her with our tax-Euros: "If the Federal Government now wants to keep Frau Osthoff from going on, this will imply definitely fear of terrorists. If Berlin really intends to indicate determination [not to give in to terrorism] they ought to support Osthoff's project even more financially now, even better, increase it. And yes, negotiate again should the lady [sic!], because of her willingness to take risks, be kidnapped again."

Sure we need some more excuses to release more murderous terrorist scum?

A rare voice of reason and valuable information comes from the conservative FAZ and reminds us, that Osthoff had ties to the Saddam regime and that she hadn't performed anything notable since 2003 and that her projects before that have been insignificant at best, shady at worst. Her ties to several Arab tribes are revealed as well. Who, asks the FAZ, pays for her daughter's boarding school. Surely not Osthoff herself, who is notoriously strapped for cash.

Only in Germany an irresponsible mother, a person who supported a criminal regime, somebody who values a fascist death cult over her own culture, would find not just sympathy and understanding, but gain cult status. Princess "Di" is dead. German housewives of both sexes need a new identification dummy to lead their lifes by proxy.

And only in Germany a murderer of, among others, an innocent American will be released and an alleged friend and ally snubbed to do what? To free a cartoon character crone who was in all probability never even captured.

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