Journalist Carroll asked to be shot

Herald Sun ^ | 14 August 2006

[piasa]

Depending on the group, muslim terrorists can exhibit a weird illogical mixture of "southern charm" etiquette and thuggishness when female "enemy" captives are involved. They may open doors for you if etiquette calls for it but don't be surprised if the door they graciously open for a lady leads to a courtyard with a chopping block.

(Remember those women missionaries arrested by the Taliban before the war in Afghanistan? )

In battle the muslim male is expected to kill their male enemies but it is acceptable to enslave the women of the enemy, or even marry those women if you can successfully convert them. When you've been taught, however indirectly, to think of women as inferior and as property, it's difficult to think of them as if they are as much your enemy as the man you just killed. A woman is a woman regardless of where she hails from, just so much property with opinions that never matter. So you tend to treat a female hostage as you would a captured enemy weapon, or as newly gained territory, rather than as an enemy or a potential threat. She is just something to be kept in good condition to be used as needed, but not neccessarily something to hate - unless some imam or council specifically directs that she needs to be punished for some infraction and needs to be killed instead of owned.

[Hildy]

I call myself a rational human being by giving people the benefit of the doubt after they've been kidnapped and held at gunpoint and before I know the whole story. I would hope that's what good Christian people do as well. Excuse me if I erred.

[Hildy]

It's unbelievable that some people here would go to a place where just because this woman is anti-war she was either IN ON THE KIDNAPPING, or she in some way deserved it. It's appalling and the part of FR that makes me cringe.

[af_vet_1981]

I call myself a rational human being by giving people the benefit of the doubt after they've been kidnapped and held at gunpoint and before I know the whole story. I would hope that's what good Christian people do as well. Excuse me if I erred.

Your apology in this case is accepted.

[H.Akston]

Maybe Condi should do a show.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Something is missing from this story. It just doesn't seem accurate. Like the story board was set up and they sat around and said things like: tell them we let you watch television; and don't forget to tell them how you played with the children; and tell them we were harsh interrogators; and tell them we did feed you well; and remember to mention your new scarf and name; and pretend we tried to convert you . . . no one knows you're already a convert, do they?

Too choppy a story. Something doesn't add up.

Anyone else have the same observation?

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Thanx for the support!!!! I can't believe I'm getting flamed!!!!! Got any extra asbestos with you? Mines getting thin!!

[mrs tiggywinkle]

Your insinuation was snarky and thoughtless.

[don'tspeak4me]

"Inhuman bastards....making a defenseless woman watch Oprah. That's gotta be a war crime."

OMG! That is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time!!!!!!

[FierceKulak]

I won't judge because she went through alot, but it seems like she might have Stockholm syndrome here.

[Thombo2]

"What doesn't add up?"Sex?

[Dan(9698)]

So everyone in Iraq is an evil murderer and there is not way someone could abduct someone and let them live?

So... What is your definition of "evil murderer"?

It must not be these guys because they sent the Iraqi translator to heaven when they killed him, so they are benevolent murderers.

[Steel Wolf]

These kidnappers grabbed other hostages?!? Source?

I have a source, which is my experience dealing with them while in Baghdad and Balad. The kidnap-for-ransom cells in Iraq are almost exclusively Sunni extremist and repeat offenders. They will typically kidnap the children, adult or otherwise, of wealthy Iraqi businessmen, and hold them until suitably paid.

The Iraqi's tend to come up with the money pretty fast, because long delays translate into horrific torture for the prisoners. I've got a pretty strong stomach, and I still find some of the debriefings hard to read.

Western hostages are rarely physically abused on the same level that Iraqi hostages are. The kidnappers apparently realize that non-Iraqi hostages, while lucrative, are a delicate matter. Straight brutality can be counterproductive when negotiating with Westerners. (With Iraqi prisoners, sending a video of a naked prisoner being beaten, shocked, mutilated and burnt directly to Mom and Dad seems the preferred way to remind them that they're late on the ransom payment.)

Jill Carroll may have been kidnapped by people who suddenly decided to take up kidnap-for-ransoming, but that's about as likely as your dentist taking up carjacking. Any of the criminal / extremist gangs I've seen do this repeatedly and exclusively, often as a fundraising tool for larger organizations.

Also, she seems to have been treated with great leniency, in comparison with other Western hostages. I'm going to withhold forming an opinion until I read her entire story, though.

[Chena]

If my feet are big, yours ought to be in the Smithsonian!

Carroll admits that they tried to convert her to Islam. And THAT damns her in your opinion? And now because she admits they "tried", you think they did because she's alive. Why don't you come out and say it. You apparently would have more respect for her if she had been killed. But the fact that she survived, just irritates the hell out of you.

You're pretty quick to jump to conclusions about this woman's mindset. That tells more about you than it does about her.

[Tall_Texan]

I'd want to be shot too if all I had to entertain me is 24/7 Al Jazeera.

[Hildy]

MY COMMENTS were thoughtless...now, that's a laugh.

[Hildy]

I really don't think you caught what I was saying....

[Steel Wolf]

Too choppy a story. Something doesn't add up. Anyone else have the same observation?

To put it mildly, yes, but I want to see the full text of her story before jumping to conclusions.

[LowOiL]

I bet you call yourself a Christian.

This man does...Mattew 3-9

He said to them in reply, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

4 For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'

5 But you say, 'Whoever says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is dedicated to God,"

6 need not honor his father.' You have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7 Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said:

8 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'"

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Jesus was a man, not a woman and Christianity has been feminized by hypocrites...

[Hildy]

What on EARTH are you trying to say...just say it.