Russian, German Intelligence Services to Rescue Kidnapped Israeli
Solders
By MosNews
07/21/06 "Moscow
News" -- -- Russian and German intelligence
services are using contacts to Middle East extremists in a bid to
win the freedom of three Israeli soldiers being held by militants, a
report said Friday.
According to the DPA news agency, the German Federal Intelligence
Agency (BND) — in tandem with Russian intelligence — is seeking to
activate long-standing links to both Hamas and Hezbollah, said the
Berlin Zeitung newspaper quoting unnamed officials.
Hamas is holding an Israeli soldier in Gaza and Lebanese-based
Hezbollah has two Israeli soldiers it captured on a raid earlier
this month. Israel has launched major military operations into both
Gaza and Lebanon in a bid to free its soldiers and destroy Hezbollah
and Hamas’ infrastructure.
BND chief Ernst Uhrlau is an experienced negotiator with Mideast
militants.
In January 2004, as the intelligence services coordinator to then
chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, he helped organize a prisoner exchange
between Israel and Hezbollah in which a German Air Force jet flew a
kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli
soldiers from Beirut to an airport in Germany.
A second Luftwaffe jet brought more than 30 of the over 400
prisoners to be released by Israel to Cologne for repatriation to
Lebanon and other countries. The remaining prisoners were released
on Israel’s border to Palestinian territories.
A similar swap was arranged between Israel and Hezbollah under
chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1996 in which Israel released prisoners
for the return of bodies of its soldiers.
Uhrlau’s continued role in such deals was apparently spotlighted by
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor. “It is now time
for the same functionaries from Germany to get active again,” said
Palmor in a German ZDF TV interview on Thursday.
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
