The Marmot’s Hole

It seems that the Korean government is not the only one pumping money into Afghanistan’s underground economy. The Germans are at it also (Speigel Online):

The German engineer who was kidnapped in Afghanistan, Rudolf Blechschmidt, has been released, but at a high price: The crisis team was forced to pay ransom money to murderers and release prisoners in exchange.

There are a couple of differences between the cases:

• Blechschmidt was being held by a straight-up criminal gang, rather than the Taliban (although they once threatened to turn him over to the Taliban and seem to like them a lot).
• The Germans plan to go after the kidnappers, who also murdered another German citizen, although they obviously aren’t going to say how to the media.

I certainly hope they get the gang soon or there will be that much more money funding various bad folks in Afghanistan.

BTW, here was a cute part:

Blechschmidt’s guards smoked hashish and told their prisoner stories about a paradise where they would lie around on tables, served by dwarves carrying jugs of fine wine. When Blechschmidt asked the Pashtun men whether the dwarves were also Muslims (because only the faithful are granted entry into paradise), they were silent. The group, Blechschmidt later reported, was “completely fanaticized.”

Personally, I would take the 72 virgins instead.

Hat tip to Korea Economic Reader email service.