Talabani Doesn't Believe German Hostage Will Be Killed

Perhaps a case of whistling past the graveyard, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani thinks that German hostage Susanne Osthoff will not be killed. Osthoff is an archaeologist abducted nearly two weeks ago. From United Press International:

"There is no reason or motive for terrorists to kill a German citizen," he said in a television interview Sunday night. "Germany did not have any troops here and did not take part in the war."

"We have tried our best to find out where she is and which group is behind the kidnapping," he told German public TV station ARD, adding that he deemed it helpful for German politicians to continue to speak publicly about the kidnapping.

Unfortunately, terrorists do a lot of things without rational reason or motive, but we can only hope that Talabani is right on this.

Osthoff's kidnapping has been overshadowed in the news by the abductions of the four Christian Peacemaker Teams members.