Posted on 03/30/2006 9:34:11 AM PST by Arabs only 600 years behind us
A US reporter held hostage in Iraq for more than two months has been freed. Jill Carroll, who works for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor, was abducted by unknown gunmen in west Baghdad on 7 January.
She told Iraqi television she had been treated well and was looking forward to being reunited with her family.
The US ambassador to Iraq said no ransom was paid by the US embassy. Ms Carroll's release came a week after three other Westerners were freed.
[The kidnappers] just came to me and said: 'We're letting you go'
Jill Carroll
"I'm just happy to be free. I just want to be with my family," Ms Carroll said in a brief interview in English shown on Baghdad television.
"I don't know why I was kidnapped," said the 28-year-old journalist, who was wearing a headscarf.
Ms Carroll said she had been only allowed to move between her room and the bathroom.
'Safe place'
However, she stressed that her captors treated her "very well".
"They never hit me. I was kept in a safe place with nice furniture, plenty of food. I was allowed to take showers," she said.
She appears in good health and great spirits
Zalmay Khalilzad US ambassador to Iraq
Ms Carroll's family said in a statement that they were elated.
The editor of the Christian Science Monitor, Richard Bergenheim, said all the newspaper's staff were "thrilled" at the news.
US President George Bush responded to the news of Ms Carroll's release with the words: "Thank God."
He added: "I'm really grateful she was released and thank those who worked hard for her release."
Embassy informed
Recalling the circumstances of her release, Ms Carroll said her captors "just came to me and said: 'We're letting you go'".
Iraqi police said Ms Carroll had been dropped off at the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party in western Baghdad and was in good health.
The fate of about 90 foreign hostages remains unknown
US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters he was informed about the release at about 1300 local time and went to meet her.
"She is safe, she is free and she appears in good health and great spirits," Mr Khalilzad said after the meeting.
He added that none of the hostage takers had been captured and that no ransom was paid by the US embassy.
Mr Bergenheim said it appeared that US troops played no part in Ms Carroll's release.
An Iraqi government source quoted by Reuters news agency said that Ms Carroll was being cared for in Baghdad's heavily guarded government compound, the Green Zone.
Demands
Ms Carroll was kidnapped in Baghdad's western Adil district while going to interview the senior Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi. Her interpreter was killed.
Her captors, who called themselves the Revenge Brigades, had demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq.
They had threatened to execute her if their demands were not met by a 26 February deadline.
At least 230 foreigners, and thousands of Iraqis, have been taken hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
About 50 of the foreigners have been killed by their captors and the whereabouts of another 90, including six Americans, remain unknown.
While she claims that she was kept in "Club Jihad" type conditions her companion was murdered. Is she an accomplice after the fact?
Her sister calling her an "innocent person" to the "captors" PO's me because it deliberately distinguishes her from the bulk of Anericans in Iraq, specifically our GI's.....the sometimes-trump card for arabs....."innocents" or "perpetrators".
Jill "Zaineb" (daughter of Mohammed) Carroll is a fraud.
do her and her sisters facial features make you think they are arabs?
she stressed that her captors treated her "very well". - oh ok, no harm no foul....
Your source for this is?
So, I went to your link, and could not find anything that matched your post. What is your source?
I went through some of the older threads from three months ago when all this came out...at least half of the links in the threads are dead. The stories are too old or have been moved. If I can find it again, I'll post it here. You are always welcome to read through the older threads yourself. (There are a lot.)
That's OK. I don't get information from random blogs.
From what I have read, there is no evidence whatever that she ever converted to Islam. She did use the name you gave while in Iraq, when pretending not to be an American. Not an uncommon name for women there.
Essentially, people are condemning her without adequate information. I suggest we all wait to hear what she has to say once she gets back home. I'm sure there will be plenty.
She worked for the Jordanian Times while living in Amman before she went to Iraq. It was believed at this time she became Zaineb (or Zainab).
Additionally, it's not her 'secret' conversion that makes me angry. Frankly, I could care less if she converted or not. It's her anti-military stance in her articles that really gets me.
But if she did not convert, why is she in full Muslim female costume with her hair entirely covered in the release pictures?
"But if she did not convert, why is she in full Muslim female costume with her hair entirely covered in the release pictures?"
Because that's how they released her, and because she was videotaped in Iraqi hands. The next time you see her on television, she will be outside of Iraq and will be dressed in Western clothing.
While working in Iraq, she wore the clothing of an Iraqi woman so she could move about freely. I'd do the same if I were a woman trying to be a journalist in Iraq.
Again, wait...
Many women in Iraq do not wear the full Islamic get up, including Iraqi women. Some Western female reporters seem to cover their hair (you know how Muslim men get about hair!), but they don't go the whole 9 yards, literally, considering the fabric involved.
Jill Carroll was doing this before she was kidnapped and she had also changed her name. She was actually not "working" as a reporter, but IIRC had come to work with a volunteer organization of some kind and was filing stories with the Monitor because she had been a journalist somewhere for a couple of years before she got laid off, back in the States.
Supposedly, her translator was a Christian Iraqi, btw. I don't know if this is true, but it would certainly explain why he was expendable. Both the left and Islam know you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.
I read a bunch of what she wrote! Thats plenty enough info for me.
Well it reeks as she was taken by Sunnis and released to a Sunni party headquarters where they did the propaganda dance together.
I've seen a brief clip of her and I don't like so far what I've heard. She's only emphasizing how she was treated.
What about the man who was her interpreter? He paid for this kidnapping picnic she's been on with his life.
And she doesn't have a word to say about it?
I already donated to the interpreter's widow via an American Iraqi website for Allan Enwiyah who also leaves children behind. He was known for his kindness and love of music including Pink Floyd.
Allan Enwiyah is the one who deserves to be known today in all these stories.
And he's being ignored for paying with his life to help this woman.
I'm waiting to see more of her complete remarks but it smells.... bad.
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