Khaled Al Masri - kidnapped by the CIA

In the last weeks we had an example how the so-called "war against terrorism" really works. A case of kidnapping gave a lesson to the German parliament and public. Khaled Al Masri, a German-Lebanese who lives in Neu-Ulm, has been captured by the CIA in Macedonia at the end of 2003. Seemingly, the "anti-terror-specialists" thought he was a member of Al Kaida named the same. Therefor, they took the father of 5 children to a prison in Afghanistan where they examined and tortured him. After the CIA recognised their mistake and the innocence of Al Masri who had went on hungerstrike for 34 days, they let him free in May 2004. After 5 months in prison, Al Masri was set out in a wood in Albania, threatened by his kidnappers not to talk about the case. Did he also get a big amount of money for keeping his mouth shout? And why he is not allowed to enter the border of the US?

The whole case now threw a black shadow over the leading ministers of both the new and the old German government, since we also know of other activities of the American anti-terror-agents in Europe: illegal transports of seemingly suspicious persons throughout the continent to prisons in Eastern Europe and the Near East, the use of inhuman instruments such as torture for getting information (in the US it is called something like "innovative methods of interrogation").

How much did our politicians, as the former ministers Schily and Fischer and their followers Schäuble and Steinmeier, know about these activities? Even if they only knew about it after Al Masri was back in Germany again, we could not here any word of protest and accusation against these activities of the CIA in the last months. Was silence the price for not disturbing the stressed relations to the big brother on the other side of the Atlantic?

Critic against the US stays very calm and reluctant. Everybody is against torture and lawless territories like Guantanamo. The good thing is that this opinion is even widely accepted in the American parliament now, where senator John McCain was succesful in passing an anti-torture law.

Good news: Susanne Osthoff is free!!

Susanne Osthoff - kidnapped in Iraq

She has always been conscious of the risk she had taken. And nevertheless what happened to her seems so senseless. Susanne Osthoff, an archaeologist who did her best to help the Iraqi people since the time of the US-invasion in 2003, was kidnapped together with her driver when they were on their way through the roads of North-Iraq on 25th November. Osthoff, a German citizen, is said to be a friend of the Iraqi people who had converted to Islam and was married to an Iraqi man. She started to visit the country as an archaelogist in the 1990s, loving the tresures of the golden antique history of Mesopotamia, and then built up a deep relationship to the people.

What can be the motives of the abduction of her? Only a message to any foreigners in Iraq that their lives will never be safe as long as there are foreign troops in the country. For the sake of their aim, those nationalists do not make a difference between military occupators and humanitarian and civilian organisations and persons who risk their lives for trying to make a bad situation a little more just and for helping to build up a civil society.

It has been the same case with some kidnapped journalists, as the Italian Giuliana Sgrena, who in their articles took very critical positions against the politics of the USA. Nevertheless, the kidnappers regarded them as enemies of the Iraqi people. Or, more rational, the kidnapped people must not be regarded themselves as enemies, but are primarly seen as psychological weapons against the governments of foreign states who cooperate with the post-Saddam government.
In the case of Susanne Osthoff, the kidnappers demand from the German government to break down all forms of contact and cooperation with Iraq. Certainly a difficult test for the new elected German government. Former chancellor Schröder now appealed in a speech on Al-Dschasira to the kidnappers, to let Susanne Osthoff free.

As never before, the muslim people in Germany (and they are around 4 million) spoke with a united voice during demonstrations and declarations, demanding freedom for Susanne Osthoff. The chairman of the muslim people in Germany, Nadeem Elyas, even suggested himself to be exchanged against Osthoff.
I do not know if these brave statements will help to change the minds of the kidnappers, but they reveal - as similar voices can be heard all over the muslim world - that those radical nationalists only speak for a small minority. If they do not allow any foreign help for the rebuilding of their nation, I do not know how they will ever get out of the trouble the US has bombed them into.