U.S. releases Iraqi women prisoners

Seattle Times ^ | 1/26/06 | Sameer N. Yacoub

[B Knotts]

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees today, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life, but an official said the release was coincidental.

The women were freed from U.S. custody and delivered to the home of a senior Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad, where they were returned to their families, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. They were later driven away in taxis.

Armed men who abducted Jill Carroll on Jan. 7 in Baghdad have threatened to kill the freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor unless all Iraqi women prisoners were freed.

David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor, said: "We've seen the reports. We're waiting to see if there are hopeful developments in Iraq."

He declined further comment.

[B Knotts]

Didn't see this posted.

[billorites]

No connection to the kidnapped journalist of course.

[Numbers Guy]

You're think highly educated reporters would be more capable of understanding the difference between the word "five" and the word "all".

[rattrap]

Wouldn't this be classified under "negotiating with terrorists"? I thought we didn't do that.

[ZULU]

Five is a sop, a token, a hope they will settle for something and let the poor woman go.

There is only one way to stop these savages from continuing to capture, torture and murder innocent people this way.

Let them know that if they kill the journalist, we will pull ten of their buddies out at random and hang them. And then do it if they kill her. The next time we pull out twenty of their buddies. Keep upping the anty and the message will get through. There own people will stop them. They don't want to committ suicide unless they are taking a lot of "infidels" with them.

The other thing we can do is find out exactly who in that Al Quaida Front organization Al Jezeera received the tapes.
Then break every bone in his body until he tells us who delivered them.

But we won't do that. We're too civilized. Which is why we are fighting these beasts at a serious disadvantage.

Genghis Khan would do what I just suggested, but might have started with hanging fifty instead of ten enemy prisoners.

[iPod Shuffle]

We're not negotiating directly with the terrorists, we're negotiating with "Sunni politicians" who are acting as intermediaries.

This isn't new. Most of the hostage "rescues" we've seen reproted are basically a result of captors walking away afrer a deal was cut.

[TheCrusader]

"Wouldn't this be classified under "negotiating with terrorists"? I thought we didn't do that."

I'm happy for the female hostage, here's hoping she'll use her journalist skills to reveal just how treacherous and inhuman these islamic terrorists are. As for the 'negotiating' with terrorists, I'm sure the five women prisoners being released are all of inconsequential value to the coalition. Prisoner exchanges aren't the same thing as negotiating political settlements.

[sarasota]

Has she been released and I missed it?

[TheCrusader]

"Has she been released and I missed it?"

I don't think she's been released just yet; but it's a safe bet that the five Iraqi female prisoners aren't being released because Rumsfeld woke up feeling charitable and wanted to do his good deed for the day.

[TBP]

Another victory for terrorism.

[TChris]

I don't mean for this to be a horrible accusation, but wasn't there some question of whether the hostage has been complicit in the crime? In light of the fact that she lives in Iraq, it seems she may be a terrorist sympathizer in her writing and may have cooperated in order to get the female detainees released.

Anybody have more info on this, or is it a flimsy speculation?

I worry and pray for her nonetheless, since terrorists will just as soon use and kill a sympathetic supporter as an "infidel" if it suits their purposes.