The case of German archeologist and former hostage in Iraq Susanne Osthoff continues to grow more bizarre. Perhaps the oddities are in the profession, but she’s clearly gone off the deep end.

If former hostage Susanne Osthoff had been better advised, she probably would have opted against appearing on German television entirely covered in a black headscarf. The hijab, which left only a pair of slits for her eyes, made the freed hostage look like a disturbing cross between a Chechen Black Widow suicide bomber and a ninja.

On Wednesday night, 10 days after her release from captivity, a televised interview with Osthoff, who had been held in Iraq for three weeks, was broadcast on the German public television channel ZDF. In the interview’s introduction, the presenter explained that Osthoff’s choice of dress was suposedly intended to preserve her identity –a bizarre thought considering that Osthoff’s face has been all over the front-pages since November and most people in Germany must be quite aware of what she looks like. Besides, she didn’t wear a headdress in her interview with Arab broacaster Al-Jazeera earlier this week.

The second shock for viewers was the rambling, incoherent nature of Osthoff’s answers. Even the heavily edited version (ZDF spokesman: “We wanted to protect Osthoff from herself.”) of the original 15-minute interview was barely comprehensible. Questions were left unanswered and at times Osthoff rambled off into non-sequiturs about how badly she had been treated by her landlord back in Germany. When asked how the kidnapping had been carried out, she was evasive, simply responding: “I think these details are not interesting. That doesn’t interest anyone. Generally kidnappings are carried out quite violently. People watch a lot of television and realize perhaps that you don’t let yourself get abducted voluntarily.”

So . . . where to start. More appropriately, where do I draw the line to question the mentality of a former hostage when in all likelihood the experience has deeply affected her sanity?

Her choice is dress is beyond bizarre as is her wanting to hide her appearence on television. There are several pictures of her accross the Internet and last I checked a video editor could black out or distort the image of a guest if that was their wish. To wear a head covering such as the one Osthoff did after being held hostage by people she claims were aligned with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is erie.

People are interested in how she was abducted. I daresay even more so than whatever he landlord in Germany has or has not done to her humble abode. She’s already told the world how she was abducted and how she was treated, so why did she duck the question this time around?

I am very tempted to believe this entire kidnapping was nothing more than a hoax. There are two compelling reasons though explaining why this incident was probably not a hoax. First, Osthoff had been escorted to the Green Zone after intelligence found threats against her life by none other than Al Qaida in Iraq. She was released to her own accord. Second, Osthoff has yet to make much of a political statement or made any type of self-promoting stance. The only political statement she has made, if you wish to call it that, is when she told an Al Jazeera audience she was treated well and those who took her hostage released her because she was a woman and a Muslim.

The case is very strange, and something tells me it will continue to grow into a Michael Jackson-esque saga for the next month. Even though Osthoff wanted to hide her identity, she has made herself widely available to the press since she was freed. She’ll likely continue to do so.

Hat tip: LGF

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