It was bad enough when released German hostage Susanne Osthoff said that her kidnappers in Iraq were "not criminals," but now the woman seems have lost it completely (Former Iraq Hostage Makes Bizarre TV Appearance):
"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.
"On Wednesday night, 10 days after her release from captivity, a televised interview with Osthoff, who had been held in Iraq for three weeks, was broadcast on the German public television channel ZDF. In the interview’s introduction, 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.”
This has gone beyond bizarre.
The suspicion that Osthoff was released in exchange for Hezbollah terrorist Mohammad Ali Hammadi, who was convicted of killing Navy diver Robert Stethem in Beirut during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight, is beginning to look more credible. In fact, it's beginning to look almost as if her kidnapping may have been for just that purpose.
There is certainly something odd about her abduction. Hostages do not usually answer questions about their ordeal by discussing how kidnappings are "generally" carried out; they don't usually volunteer comments like "you don't let yourself get abducted voluntarily"; and they don't often praise their kidnappers and stress that they are "not criminals."
Aside from the larger ramifications for the war on terror, I'm beginning to feel sorry for Osthoff's daughter and family.
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Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.
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