After the release of hostage Susanne Osthoff — and her return to Iraq after the Germans negotiated for her freedom — the market has suddenly turned brisk for German hostages:
A former German ambassador to Washington and four members of his family were reported missing and apparently kidnapped Wednesday while vacationing in a remote part of Yemen. It was the latest in a string of tourist abductions in the Arabian desert.
Juergen Chrobog, ambassador from 1995 to 2001, his wife and three adult sons were declared missing by the German Foreign Ministry. In Yemen, government officials said the family had been taken hostage by tribesmen who regularly seize Western tourists as bargaining chips in dealings with the government, according to news service reports from Sanaa, the capital.
Great move, Germany. I think you’re about to learn a hard lesson in market economics as well as the folly in negotiating with terrorists.