Informant38

body and soul
A German woman who has been abducted by gunmen in Iraq has devoted her life to uncovering Iraq's cultural treasures and fiercely criticised Washington for not preventing the looting of its archaeological sites.
The hostage is Susanne Osthoff, a Bavarian archaeologist who spent decades studying and excavating sites in Iraq to uncover the mysteries of ancient Mesopotamia, often referred to as the "cradle of civilisation".
In May 2003, two months after the United States and Britain invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, Osthoff brought reporters to the site of the ancient city of Isin to show them how Iraq's most important sites were being stripped clean by looters.
Osthoff had worked on a German excavation of the 4,000-year-old Isin from the mid 1970s until the late 1980s, when UN sanctions forced most foreign experts out of Iraq.
"In two weeks, they have ruined all the work that was done over 15 years," Osthoff was quoted by the New York Times as saying at the time.
In other media, she voiced disbelief that the US and British invaders had virtually ignored the sites.

TVNZ/Reuters 30.11.05
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Mit dem Appell an die irakischen Entfuhrer von Susanne Osthoff, ihre Geisel freizulassen, wurde Angela Merkel sehr konkret und zeigte sich von einer menschlichen Seite - mehr als die meisten Kanzler vor ihr. In der Sache blieb sie dennoch hart und auf der Linie ihrer Vorganger. Deutschland werde sich nicht erpressen lassen.