Carroll Rejects Statements Made in Iraq

AP via Yahoo ^ | 4/2/06 | MATT MOORE

[ricks_place]

Former hostage Jill Carroll strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying Saturday she had been repeatedly threatened.

In a video, recorded before she was freed and posted by her captors on an Islamist Web site, Carroll spoke out against the U.S. military presence. But Carroll said the recording was made under threat. Her editor has said three men were pointing guns at her at the time.

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed," she said in a statement read by her editor in Boston.

"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."

[AmishDude]

It should be noted what was actually said.

Said by Jill: "I'm happy to be here"

In the statement attributed to Jill, read by the editor:

• "During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed"
• "Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."
• In the statement, Carroll also disavowed an interview she gave to the party shortly after her release. She said the party had promised her the interview would not be aired "and broke their word." [This is the interview we all saw on TV.]
• "At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear, I said I wasn't threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times,"
• "Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: One — that I refused to travel and cooperate with the U.S. military, and two — that I refused to discuss my captivity with U.S. officials. Again, neither statement is true."
• "I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes,"
• "This has been a taxing 12 weeks for me and for my family," she said. "Please allow us some quiet time alone, together."

Attributed to The Monitor: "Carroll did what many hostage experts and past captives would have urged her to do: Give the men who held the power of life and death over her what they wanted."

Spoken by her editor:

• Carroll's parents told him the video was "conducted under duress."
• "When you're making a video and having to recite certain things with three men with machine guns standing over you, you're probably going to say exactly what you're told to say,"
• "her family is just absolutely rejoicing."

[rockabyebaby]

She has yet to make a statement, so far, she has had others make statements for her, like today, someone from CSM made the statement that everyone is talking about, the one about how she's very very angry, etc. imo, this is damage control, this twit has shot off her mouth and now the adults are stepping in to clean up the mess, until I hear the words coming from her mouth, the ones where she herself says she made this statements under duress, I will be highly suspicious of this whole incident. One of her close friends has stated that Jill more than likely will be returning to Iraq, Jill loves it over there, has lived there for 3 years and feels she belongs there, well, I say, turn the freakin' plane around and dump her back in Baghdad!

[TeddyCon]

Mizz Carroll's story has a quite a "No, but really, I do have a lot black friends!Honest." stench to it.

[thegreatbeast]

Let's let her be. She's been traumatized enough by the worst of humanity. I have heard a total repudiation of what she was coerced into saying. I'm happy for the girl.

[nicko]

well, I agree, clbiel, but have you ever gone through any esape/evasion training? My two cents worth- until you've personally had a firearm pointed directly at your head, then it's hard to say what you might do...EE training tells us to stay alive- don't give up information that can damage the mission, but don't die over a name/serial number reply, either...IMHO

[Dashing Dasher]

Smells fishy to me.

[trimom]

I'm with you. She is a civilian and, just like a victim of any crime, the first objective is to survive. Everything else can be repaired later.

[strategofr]

""I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes," she said."

Or, to put it another way, there are some bad apples in every barrel---even among wonderful people like the insurgent freedom fighters.

[strategofr]

"For example, like the soldier who was forced to pose with Hillary Clinton."

What a classic that was!

[HEY4QDEMS]

IMO this whole thing was staged,

Doesn't seem to hard to believe from where I'm sitting. If making a few scripted statements would save my life I'd say them.

Do you really think she arranged for her translator to be killed.

It has been confirmed on FOX that the two interviews that were aired post release were conducted by her captors and by the Sunni party.

In short I believe her.

And Mia Culpa, I had posted earlier that I was tired of her descriptions of her captivity being pleasant as if she was in a five star hotel, but as Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of the story".

[HEY4QDEMS]

But she's a 28 year old (probably leftist) junior level journalist

Being a leftist is quite rare among Christian Scientists.

[pepperdog]

I hope you are right about her having a new found appreciation of America.

What was said an broadcast immediately after her "release" to the Iraqi Sunni's appeared very strange to me. For one thing she kept twirling the ends of the scarf she was wearing, the ends were knotted. She also kept pushing her hand up under the front of the scarf on her forehead as if she was fearful a strand of hair might appear. Furthermore she almost bobbed up and down when agreeing with the man in the tv soundless interview. That excessive agreement motion is something I've noticed in people who are fearful. Think someone stopped by the police (who has maybe had a drink or two) they will be excessively agreeable in hopes of escaping a ticket or some other disagreeable action. IOW I thought her body language was that of someone under exctreme duress.

[HEY4QDEMS]

She has yet to make a statement, so far, she has had others make statements for her

Statement from Jill Carroll

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

I cant wait until this story is exposed as the hoax I believe it is. I think the chances of me hitting tonights florida lotto jackpot is higher than the chances that this story is real.

[OkeyDokeyOkie]

< I believe Jill Carroll and if I had been in the same circumstances, I would likely have said anything to get away from my captors. I have heard callers to various talk radio shows claim they could never be compelled to speak out against America and the war effort and that they would rather die first. >

I kinda have a different take on it. I think, notice I said think, I would be willing to refuse to do as they say to a point, unless I was broken by continuous torture. However, I also think with the threat of beheading with a dull sword, I'd pretty much cave. Threaten to shoot me in the head...I might resolve to just be killed. Beheading is just a different matter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You make some good points. I'm not certain if one's captors are prone to give their captives a choice between blowing their brains out with a bullet or carving their brains out with a knife, but in either instance, the captive would be dead--brave, perhaps, but still dead. Jill Carroll is a reporter, not a soldier who has had the benefit of survival training. It seems to me, at least, that there is a very good possiblity that Carroll may well have kept her wits about her and may have psyched her kidnappers out by convincing them they had been successful Muslim proselytizers and that they she would better serve their evil cause as an anti-American propagandist.

We'll know soon enough if Carroll's story that she was forced to sound like Jihad Jill as a condition of her release is true or not. For now, I am more inclined to take her word than to believe the story put out by her Islamic kidnappers, a group that call themselves "The Revenge Brigades."

[observer5]

"Threaten to shoot me in the head...I might resolve to just be killed. "

Talk is cheap...

[Bassfan]

I don't like the smell of this either, but there is no other way to know the truth than to be patient and wait.

Eventually, she will either confirm her love for America and it's soldiers or she will confirm her love for Arab nations and it's "freedom fighters" (terrorists for you in Rio Linda). Then we will know.

A lib journalist can never hold their tongue for their own good.

[HEY4QDEMS]

The media should retract the whole thing, but they will not.

Just an FYI,
CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX have all so far reported that 'Jill Carroll's previous statements were coerced'.

I don't know if that counts as a retraction but I have to give credit where credit is due.

[muawiyah]

I was just mentioning the fact that in most of the world most people disbelieve any statement made under duress and dismiss it as propaganda except that we have some Freepers who believe propaganda films.

[muawiyah]

If you'd like, we can arrange a demonstration of the process whereby someone holds a gun on some one and then they say whatever it is the guy with the gun wishes them to say.

It's a very real phenomenon, but you sound like you've never participated in an armed robbery, firefight, or "tense situation at a nightclub".