Posted on 08/13/2006 5:09:50 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
CERTAIN she would be murdered by the men who kidnapped her on a Baghdad street and fatally shot her translator, American journalist Jill Carroll begged her captors at one point to use a gun to end her life rather than a knife.
"Promise me you will use this gun to kill me by your own hand. I don't want that knife, I don't want the knife, use the gun," Carroll remembered crying hysterically to the Iraqi man who was watching her with a 9mm pistol at his side.
For the first time since she returned to the United States in April, Carroll has described her chilling, 82-day experience as a hostage in Iraq.
The Christian Science Monitor, the newspaper for which Carroll reported from Baghdad and now works as an editor in Boston, published the first installment of her 11-part series overnight on the newspaper's website.
Carroll, who was snatched on January 7 after trying to interview a Sunni politician, described how a sunny Saturday morning turned deadly as a group of men pointed their pistols at her and gunned down her friend and translator Alan Enwiya.
The men surrounded the 28-year-old reporter, shouted "Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!" and sped away on Baghdad's main road, according to the account.
Carroll wrote she was later grilled about how many American reporters lived in Baghdad and accused of working with US intelligence agents.
When Carroll asked her captors to shoot her instead of killing her with a knife, she said she had been held for six weeks.
"They'd given me a new hijab (headscarf), a new name (Aisha), and tried to convert me to Islam," she wrote.
As days turned to months, Carroll, who speaks Arabic and moved to Iraq to fulfill a dream of being a foreign correspondent, said she was interrogated, but, at times, was given a remote control to a television set where she watched the The Oprah Winfrey Show.
She said her captors also let her play with their children.
At one point, she said they served her from a platter of chicken and rice "that would have been fit for an honoured guest".
"We have no problem with you. Our problem is with your government," her captors told her as they prepared to release tapes of the journalist wearing a headscarf and weeping.
When Carroll first returned to the United States, she described her captivity as a horrific ordeal in a cave-like room sealed off from the world. She said she was threatened many times by her captors, whom she described as "criminals at best".
Just before her release, Carroll said she was forced by her captors to make a video in which she denounced the US presence in Iraq and praised the militants fighting American forces there. Carroll later disavowed those comments.
Carroll's parents and twin sister kept a public face on her ordeal through frequent, emotional appeals for her release on US and Arabic television.
On Thursday, the US military said it arrested four Iraqis suspected of being involved in Carroll's abduction.
When people misunderstood Jesus He often made no effort to explain Himself. Quite to the contrary, He often purposely let His hearers misconstrue His words (John 2:18-22). Jesus let people walk away in unbelief without running after them. The Bible does not record Him as saying, "I’m sorry, did you misunderstand me?"
So, you're Jesus?
How do you know the shivers crowd here on FR are wrong?
To forgive is truly divine.
I'm confused now...who is supposed to forgive whom?
Or, maybe he doesn't know how to express himself ~ so he should try again.
If you have a problem understanding Mattew 15:3-9, say so. We will learn together.
I'm trying to figure out why after many centuries of dealing with pirates we end up thinking they should all act the same.
I'm Jewish..so if you want to continue our conversation, stop quoting your version of the Bible. This isn't a Revival Meeting...it's a political forum.
She worked for the CSM, right?!
No, there's the "People of the Book" exception. The requirement in that case is for the subject to pay a special tax.
LOL, you the one that threw out the "I bet you call yourself a Christian" in the third post to this article. Take you own words. But I am game for a discussion in what ever part of the Bible you want to recognize. Old Testament fine with you, or just certain books, please list the books you have no problem with. Then we can deal. I actually prefer the OT because it drives home the point of how people today are far nicer than Jesus/Bible portrays.
:)
Tolerance for the opinion of others (if they are allowed to have one), and total neglect of charity and humility.
Oh. And the high horse. I almost forgot the high horse.
You'd best run to the shower now, and not wait a moment, because they've already got you all hot ~ and begging out of it because they are not citing your scripture (but their own) won't work.
I always send the missionaries away. Last thing I'd ever do is invite them to 'splain!!
Anyway, ROTFLMAOPMP.
Party pooper... LOL
Try Depends, my friend.
I actually like that idea ;'}
hmmm...no pic
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