A Monitor spokesman says Carroll is meeting with her family "out of the glare of the media spotlight." She has no plans to speak publicly today.
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."
You mean like learning that running around Baghdad with no force protection may not be a particularly good idea?
I've been here over two years and nobody's had to tell me that even once. LOL
MEOW! LOL
Good heavens, I just saw on Fox they have a helicopter following her limo in traffic (Jill Caroll, that is).
BOSTON (AP) - After three months as a hostage in Iraq, Jill Carroll is back on U.S. soil. And her first stop after arriving in Boston today was the office of the newspaper that employed her as a free-lance writer in Iraq, the Christian Science Monitor.
Carroll went from the airport to Boston's Back Bay neighborhood under police escort. She didn't comment at the airport, or on the flight from Germany. And there's no word on her plans from here on.
She has said she wants some quiet time with her family.
Before leaving Germany, Carroll disavowed remarks she made on videotape about the U.S. occupation in Iraq. She says the anti-war statements were made under threats from her captors.
She's already made a complete repudiation of the video remarks. She has condemned her captors as murderers. But you're right-- leave her alone. She's been traumatized enough.
Nope.
Not one *single* time.
[just ad infinitum, ad librium, ad nauseum]....;D
Have you seen any pictures of the wounded Bob Woodruff? There's your answer.
A Monitor spokesman says Carroll is meeting with her family "out of the glare of the media spotlight." She has no plans to speak publicly today.
She was definitely a moron to go prancing around Baghdad. But I was glad to see her in western clothes, smiling, and to hear the recantation. It was those "Christian" "Peace" Activists bashing the ones who rescued them the other week that made me a little jumpy that she was going to do the same thing. I'll cut her a break. For now.
She reminds me of Janeane Garafalo. A girl who could look pretty if she wanted to, but chooses not to,
Well by golly, everybody knows McCain was in Vietnam. He had a daily radio talk show from Hanoi.
Well kind of. The reasons Bagdahd is not so safe to hop around without force protection rather than the fact it is that way.
It is not the presence of American ( and other) forces that make it this way but some really hold the view that this is the reason. I suspect that this gal used to think the former but has had.....what do you call it.....an 'attitude adjustment'.
Well and good, so what are her "real views?"
---Perhaps. Unless your boyfriend was holding the camera.
For Jill Carroll, this is not about war, terrorism, or civilization. This is about her. A 29 yr. old pampered princess who kept her idealism because she never, ever bothered to find out the truth. Not that truth matters...
Jill studied Arabic. How special.
Anyone who doubts the veracity of this story need only make a time line. Jill is pro-Arab, her first phone call was to CNN, she is fit beyond belief(seriously) and she couldn't get her own story straight without the U.S. military.
I would bet my eye teeth that this premiere example of an idiot American girl was seduced by a handsome terrorist.
Just take a close look at this girl, she is the uber wallflower, hence her interest in a cause that would make her "special" just by dint of her skin color.---
I nominate this as the most hateful take on the situation that I've come across to date. Others were more direct, but this has just the right mix of spitefulness and innuendo to really take flight. Congratulations!
Well, yeah, that is one of the reasons it is dangerous here.
I love it when people try to tell me what it's like in Baghdad.
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