http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070216-125807-1615r
Report: German hostages alive in Iraq BERLIN, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A 60-year-old German woman and her son have been abducted in Iraq since more than two weeks but they are still alive, a German news magazine said. The kidnappers contacted family relatives in Germany through a cellular phone and delivered proof the woman and her son were still alive, German news magazine Der Spiegel said. The kidnappers threatened to kill the woman and her son if Germany does not cease political and economic activities with Iraq. Experts are still unsure whether the kidnapping has a political or a purely ransom-motivated background. The pair has been missing since Feb. 6. On the same day, a German Foreign Ministry crisis group was created to get them released. The woman, who hails from near Berlin, has lived in Iraq for more than 20 years and is married to an Iraqi professor; her son works as a technician in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, it was reported. The abduction comes less than a year after two German engineers, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, were held captive by insurgents for 100 days before they were released after Germany reportedly paid ransoms. The engineers, from the eastern German city of Leipzig, were taken at gunpoint from their workplace by unidentified men on Jan. 24, 2006, in the Sunni triangle in Iraq. Employed by German engineering firm Cryotec, they had joined a work crew at an Iraqi oil plant in the industrial town of Biji. U.S., German and Iraqi intelligence helped to release the men, it was reported afterward. Observers now hope the same channels can be activated to free the latest abductees. +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
