Is Germany Funding the Terrorists—Again?

Susanne Osthoff, the German nutcase and convert to Islam who got herself kidnapped in Iraq and who was probably ransomed by the Germans (who generally prefers bribery to bravery these days), now plans to return to Iraq again. No doubt she hopes to raise further funds for her Sunni friends by getting herself kidnapped again. In fact, she actually regards this type of fundraising activity as entirely legitimate. TigerHawk cites at least some fulminations from sensible Germans:

German newspapers have been full of letters complaining about how much she has cost the taxpayer. Peter Scholl-Latour, the country’s leading Middle East expert, complained: “She is absolutely irresponsible — she is just kicking the Government on the shins.”

But TigerHawk draws a different conclusion:

Mein herren, if you paid a ransom to secure Frau Osthoff's release, you have kicked American soldiers in the shins, and it is Iraq that is footing the bill.

Read the rest here and here.

BTW, TigerHawk is escalating matters by adding Osthoff as a new nominee to Little Green Footballs' list of candidates for that site's 2005 Fiskie (Idiotarian) Awards. Check out the current roster here. Mary Mapes ("fake but accurate") will be a serious condender here, but Wonker, as well as Charles Johnson (the Little Green Football himself) plan to bet on Cindy "Mother" Sheehan.

BTW II, for the uninitiated, an idiotarian is generally defined as "an advocate of what are deemed to be irrationalist and subjectivist values that have very little reference to the workings of the real world." In our point of view, idiotarians are invariably on the leftist fringe, but it's not out of the question that some creatures of the far right could inhabit the idiotarian fringe as well. For more elucidation, check this out.