BERLIN - Germany will not be intimidated and is not open to terrorist âblackmailâ, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in delivering her new governmentâs statement of policy to the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.A crisis over the abduction of a German aid worker by terrorists in Iraq overshadowed the first major speech by the new chancellor, the first woman to head a German government. âWe are not open to blackmail,â Merkel said to applause from across the Bundestag. âWe cannot relent in the fight against international terrorism. It targets that which is important to us and forms the core of our civilization,â she said. âIt targets our entire value system. It targets freedom, tolerance and respect for human dignity, democracy and the rule of law. If we were to surrender these values we would surrender ourselves,â Merkel told the Bundestag in her first major speech.
No new details regarding efforts to free aid worker and archaeologist Susanne Osthoff were made public Wednesday by the crisis team working to secure the release of her and her driver. Osthoff, a 43-year-old archaeologist by training who had worked in Iraq for years and has long been active in the aid sector, was abducted along with her driver on Friday or Saturday. Kai Hirschmann of the Institute for Research into Terrorism in Essen drew a link between the installation of Merkelâs broadly-based government in Berlin and the abduction. He said the terrorists, whom he linked to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the self-styled head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, wanted to send a message to the new German government not to cooperate with the United States or with the government in Baghdad.
| Maybe that's true, maybe not. So Angela, what are you going to do besides talk? |