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Female detainees set free in Iraq (appeasing Jill Carroll's kidnappers)
BBC ^ | 1/18/06 | BBC

Posted on 01/18/2006 9:07:26 AM PST by jimbo123

Iraq's ministry of justice has told the BBC that six of the eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq have been released early.

The six were freed because there was insufficient evidence to charge them, a justice ministry spokesman said.

The US forces have refused to confirm the releases, but say they would not be based on any operational activities.

The group holding US journalist Jill Carroll has said she will die unless all Iraqi women prisoners are freed.

The status of prisoners held by coalition forces is reviewed twice a week by a committee made up of the justice, human rights and interior ministries, and a representative of the US-led coalition.

The justice ministry spokesman said it was this committee which had studied the cases of the six women and found insufficient evidence against them.

However, the US military stressed that decisions over such matters were a detailed process that were unrelated to any other operational activity.

The demand that all Iraqi female prisoners held by coalition forces should be released was made in a video of Ms Carroll which aired on Arab TV channel al-Jazeera on Tuesday.

Her captors said the 28-year-old journalist would be killed within 72 hours if their demand was not met.

The video showed Ms Carroll apparently speaking to the camera, but did not include her voice.

Al-Jazeera did not say where it got the tape. The station itself has called for her release.

It was the first sighting of Ms Carroll since gunmen abducted her in Baghdad 10 days earlier, fatally wounding her translator during the attack.

Past demands

She is the 31st foreign journalist kidnapped in Iraq since the invasion almost three years ago, according to Reporters Sans Frontieres.

Ms Carroll has been a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, among others.

She had been reporting from the Middle East for Jordanian, Italian and other media organisations for the past three years, the Christian Science Monitor said in a statement.

The Monitor describes itself as a non-religious newspaper.

It is not the first time that the abductors of Western hostages in Iraq have called for the release of women prisoners.

In October 2004, Briton Ken Bigley and two American hostages were beheaded by members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who had demanded female prisoners be freed.

At the time the Bush administration said that only two women were being held in Iraq - Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, nicknamed by the US "Mrs Anthrax" and Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr Germ".

The pair were amongst a group of eight senior aides to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who were released in December 2005.

In November 2004, British aid worker Margaret Hassan was abducted and murdered in Iraq. Before her death she appeared in a similar hostage video calling for foreign troop withdrawals and the release of women prisoners.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fatwahknowsbest; hostages; iraq; iraqiwomen; jillcarroll; journalist; margarethassan; oif
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To: Allegra

STAY SAFE!!!


21 posted on 01/18/2006 9:21:35 AM PST by standingfirm
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To: Allegra

I agree with you....but...meeting the terms of terrorists who kidnap is like leaning into a right cross. The woman may have been a mite careless, but that doesn't mean other people who are being more prudent won't get captured and held for a specific purpose of the terrorists.


22 posted on 01/18/2006 9:22:12 AM PST by RexBeach ("There is no substitute for victory." -Douglas MacArthur)
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To: samtheman

Exactly.
Set 'em free. But tag 'em first. Then follow the birdies to the nest.


23 posted on 01/18/2006 9:22:53 AM PST by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: samtheman
hope they have homing devices implanted up their butts My thoughts too. Hopefully we are following the prisoners after they're released. I'd also like to see the US rescue the hostage however unlikely that may be. Good moral crusher for the terrorists.
24 posted on 01/18/2006 9:22:54 AM PST by mikethevike (We could use a little global warming up here in MN)
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To: samtheman
This , I do not understand...

I always wondered:

Doesn`t the military have homing devices on their soldiers??? Just in case????

It can`t be that expensive????
25 posted on 01/18/2006 9:24:44 AM PST by forYourChildrenVote4Bush (Democrats need to shower)
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To: jimbo123

it won't satisfy them. they'll still kill her because of the two they didn't release. you can't appease these barbarians. if i could work my will into this if they murder this journalist then i would execute the two prisoners i was still holding.


26 posted on 01/18/2006 9:25:39 AM PST by mfnorman
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To: samtheman

That'd make sense... implant them with a tracking microchip, cut 'em lose, and then drop a bomb on the viper's nest.


27 posted on 01/18/2006 9:27:21 AM PST by iPod Shuffle
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To: RexBeach
Probably wouldn't do any good to tell them that if Jill isn't released by midnight, their women are going to be executed.............Naaaa, wouldn't work.

I really don't get why the Christian Science Magazine would send a woman over there anyway knowing how they feel about women. Just plain dumb.

28 posted on 01/18/2006 9:27:45 AM PST by Pure Country
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68

I heard that these females were set to be released.

THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REPORTER.

IF IT HAD TO DO WITH THE REPORTER THEY WOULD HAVE RELEASED THEM ALL.

THIS HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE REPORTER


29 posted on 01/18/2006 9:28:05 AM PST by johnmecainrino
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To: jimbo123
"Her captors said the 28-year-old journalist would be killed within 72 hours if their demand was not met."

Won't be met.

"The video showed Ms Carroll apparently speaking to the camera, but did not include her voice."

I wonder what she was saying ... no voice ... how odd. Typically they'll say what they are told to. It doesn't look good for her.

Are the ones released part of the "peace activists"?
30 posted on 01/18/2006 9:28:30 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people believe in Intelligent Design (God))
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To: Allegra

Are you in Iraq now?

If yes, what's the take on this there?

Are they trying to find her?


31 posted on 01/18/2006 9:29:52 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people believe in Intelligent Design (God))
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To: halfright

They didn't win anything.

The kidnappers wanted all the female hostages released.

The court said there was no evidence against these detainees.

The media is again being derelict in their duty by making fire out of a non story.

The kidnappers demands were for all the hostages to be released and the coalition is refusing to release the two other female suspects that have evidence against them.

Who cares what the arab world thinks anyway.


32 posted on 01/18/2006 9:31:23 AM PST by johnmecainrino
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To: RexBeach
but...meeting the terms of terrorists who kidnap is like leaning into a right cross.

Oh, I wasn't arguing with you there. I am solidly against any negotaitions with terrorists, EVER, period.

The point I was trying to make (and not doing it very well; it's getting late here and the eyelids are getting heavy) is that if people weren't so incredibly stupid, situations like this wouldn't happen so often. She has no business being in that situation to begin with.

It's like those idiots who ran the checkpoint by the airport last year (AFTER their government had given in to the terrorists). A guy lost his life, but it was a phenomenally stupid thing to do. They were lucky to only lose one person in that little escapade.

In other words, I'm going slightly off-point and ranting about stupidity. A pet peeve of mine.

33 posted on 01/18/2006 9:31:35 AM PST by Allegra (Every Day is One of Those Days)
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To: jimbo123
I wonder if the kidnappers will come up with a new set of demands for the release of the "journalist"......$$$.

Just my guess.

34 posted on 01/18/2006 9:31:49 AM PST by rface ("...the most schizoid freeper I've ever seen" - New Bloomfield, Missouri)
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To: halfright; Allegra

This was an "inside" job. They have had her for 10 days. All of the sudden, 72 hours to free the females? They get to appear as changing policy, and do not have to kill a civilian. Win-win for them in the Arab world. So what? As long as the woman is not killed, and no ransom paid; what is the harm to the US? This is an Iraqi/Iraqi thing.


35 posted on 01/18/2006 9:32:12 AM PST by ARealMothersSonForever
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To: johnmecainrino
THIS HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE REPORTER

No appeasement here. Nosiree. None at all...
36 posted on 01/18/2006 9:32:41 AM PST by jimbo123
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To: Allegra
I am solidly against any negotaitions negotiations with terrorists, EVER, period.

Sigh.

Time for bed.

37 posted on 01/18/2006 9:33:03 AM PST by Allegra (Every Day is One of Those Days)
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To: Allegra

re: someone who does boneheaded things like that

The do these boneheaded things because they are of the liberal mindset and simply don't understand or accept that there are people in this world who are evil, not misunderstood or misguided but purely evil, who will not bat an eye at beheading them. It would seem that someone with even casual observational skills would realize that in that part of the world the boneheaded become the beheaded, with concern or respect for whose side they are on.

She and her family are in my heart and in my prayers.


38 posted on 01/18/2006 9:34:17 AM PST by jwpjr
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To: halfright
Amen! Never ever ever ever!

I know there's no chance of it, but if it were up to me I would take the female prisoners they're demanding be released out into a very public place and announce that they will be executed, one by one, every hour. That their only hope to save these women is to release their hostage unharmed.

I know I will be flamed, but the way we've been doing it apparently isn't working for whatever reason. Time to step it up a notch or two. Sadly, that's all these animals understand. You can't hope to deal with effectively when you try to do so under your code of honor.
39 posted on 01/18/2006 9:39:04 AM PST by jwpjr
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To: nmh
Are you in Iraq now?

If yes, what's the take on this there?

Yes, but I'm not privy to whatever efforts are being made to recover her. I hope she gets out safely and I hope other people here learn from this if they're so inclined to do something so idiotic.

40 posted on 01/18/2006 9:42:29 AM PST by Allegra (Every Day is One of Those Days)
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