Posted on 04/02/2006 10:14:16 AM PDT by TexKat
BOSTON - Jill Carroll, the U.S. journalist held hostage for 82 days in Iraq, returned to the United States on Sunday aboard a commercial flight to Boston.
The 28-year-old was accompanied on the Lufthansa flight by a colleague from her employer, the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor, according to reporters on the plane.
Carroll declined to comment while on the flight. She left the airport in a black limousine escorted by state police. Her destination was unknown.
She was released Thursday after nearly three months in captivity. She was seized Jan. 7 in western Baghdad by gunmen who killed her Iraqi translator while the two were on the way to meet a Sunni Arab official in one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods.
Carroll left the Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany on Saturday after arriving from Balad Air Base in Baghdad. She strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying 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. On Saturday, she said the recording was made under duress.
"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.
"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."
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., who was held prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War, on Sunday said Carroll found herself in "a terrible, terrible position" and said Americans should view her taped statements critical of the U.S. military presence in Iraq in that context.
"We are glad she's home. We understand when you're held a captive in that situation that you do things under duress. God bless her, and we're glad she's home," McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
McCain said he would not take seriously anything Carroll said while she was being held captive.
"I would not take them seriously, I would not any more than we took seriously other tapes and things that were done in other prison situations, including the Vietnam War," McCain said.
Carroll, who has studied Arabic, attracted a huge amount of sympathy during her ordeal, and a wide variety of groups in the Middle East, including the Islamic militant group Hamas, appealed for her release.
Aside from the short interview aired on Iraqi television upon her release, Carroll had otherwise not shown herself in public prior to a brief appearance Saturday.
The kidnappers, calling themselves the Revenge Brigades, had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 or Carroll would be killed. U.S. officials did release some female detainees at the time, but said it had nothing to do with the demands.
In the statement, Carroll also disavowed an interview she gave to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab organization in whose offices she was dropped off upon her release. She said the party had promised her the interview would not be aired "and broke their word."
"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," she said. "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."
The remarks have drawn criticism from conservative bloggers and commentators, but the Monitor said "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."
Carroll has said her kidnappers confined her to a small, soundproof room with frosted, opaque windows.
In her statement Saturday, she condemned her captors, although she did not address the war in Iraq.
"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.
Carroll thanked those who had helped secure her release and said she wanted time to recover.
"This has been a taxing 12 weeks for me and for my family," she said. "Please allow us some quiet time alone, together."
:-)
Thanks for the heads-up.
Sometimes people who aren't very bright get hostile when they're trying to distract people from their lack of intelligence. They aren't sharp enough to realize that anybody with an IQ in three digits can see straight through that.
I have pity on BSD, but he has become tiresome and boring with his insistence on distoring my words. He's nowhere near as good at that as the MSM is and I see through their work all the time.
Thank you for your kind words, though, Dog. ;-)
You just hang on to your little delusion, OK? If it makes you feel better, that's all that matters.
I highly recommend remedial reading classes, though. You need some work on your comprehension skills.
Now, run along and let the grown-ups talk.
Read post #9 and you'll have your answer.
Check out #109, not #9 as indicated in my previous post.
So it seems, was Anderson Cooper of CNN. See his bio at CNN.com:
"Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi. Cooper is based in New York City."
They let her go because she said that she would cut them in on the movie and book deal!
What does that have to do with anything? So everyone who is against this Country, against the war, against this President should have their heads chopped off?
My comment had everything to do with the post I was responding to and nothing to do with your rant. The poster said that "thugs" forced her to make those statements, so I asked what "thugs" forced her to make her previous statements. I don't see where your rant came from...
So everyone who is against this Country, against the war, against this President should have their heads chopped off?
Please show me where I ever said that!!
I distorted nothing allegra. You said quite clearly that a reason bagdahd is unsafe is because of troop presence there.I disagree with that notion on the basis that our presence there is part of the solution rather than part of the problem. The problem being unsafe streets. If we left today,every soldier left today, those streets would not be safer. Indeed they would be less safe than they are today.
If you did not mean such a thing then by all means clear it up with a retraction and explanation. The streets of Iraq have been unsafe for a long time. Unless of course you were a Dan Rather type that would kiss Saddam's butt and only report what he wanted reported. Care do disagree with that statement?
I didn't call you names or insult you. I did compare your position to that of Murtha and Pelosi because your position does mirror theirs. That the streets are unsafe because of our presence. That is what you said and you know it.
You know what I have pitty on Allegra? I have pity on a person that refuses to aknowledge their own position. Mine is clear. Our troops are part of the solution in Bagdahd, not part of the problem. You seem to disagree with my position in that you have said the streets are unsafe ,in part, because of our presence. This leads a person to think that if our presence was not part of the equation then the streets would be safer.
DO you honestly believe such a thing? If not, then how do you square your post where you stated that our presence IS part of the problem?
Allegra if all you have is petty insults then your content is seriously lacking.
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