Germany paid ransom to free hostage

[nosarcasm]

Dollar bills found in the hostages clothes when she took a shower
in the embassy.

The Focus exclusivly reports that the embassy staff found dollar notes
that were paid for her release in her (Susanne Osthoff) cloth.

Foreign Minister Steinmeyer (SPD) ordered it a top secret.

http://focus.msn.de/hps/fol/newsausgabe/newsausgabe.htm?id=23891


So now it is proven what most had long suspected. They paid
the ransom. Damn cowards.

 

[Annie]

Dollar bills found in the hostages clothes when she took a shower
in the embassy.

The Focus exclusivly reports that the embassy staff found dollar notes
that were paid for her release in her (Susanne Osthoff) cloth.

Foreign Minister Steinmeyer (SPD) ordered it a top secret.

http://focus.msn.de/hps/fol/newsausgabe/newsausgabe.htm?id=23891


So now it is proven what most had long suspected. They paid
the ransom. Damn cowards.

Color me surprised. Not.

 

[Lefty Wilbury]

the story for those who don't speak german. the part in bold is the most relivent part to us in the states

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/22/whostage22.xml

Ransom 'found on freed hostage'
Colin Freeman
(Filed: 22/01/2006)

Part of the ransom money alleged to have been paid by the German government to win the freedom of the Iraq hostage Susanne Osthoff last month was found on her after she was released, it was claimed yesterday.

The German magazine Focus said officials found several thousand dollars in the 43-year-old archaeologist's clothes when she took a shower at the German embassy in Baghdad after being freed on December 18.

The serial numbers on the bills matched those used to pay off her kidnappers, the magazine said.

Some analysts speculated, however, that the money could have been planted on her or given to her by her kidnappers. Ms Osthoff was unavailable for comment.

Speculation about the circumstances of her kidnapping and release has been rife in the German media.

Two days after her release, Germany freed a Hizbollah member jailed for life in 1985 for the murder of an American navy diver. Berlin has denied a connection between the two events.

Ms Osthoff caused a stir when she said in an interview last month that she did not believe that her kidnappers were criminals.