WAR: U.S. Reporter Jill Carroll Freed

American reporter Jill Carroll was set free Thursday March 30, nearly 3 month after she had been kidnapped. She was last seen in a videotape broadcast Feb. 9 by the private Kuwaiti television station Al-Rai. The deadline her captors had given passed on Feb 26 with no word about her welfare.



Great news. Jill Carroll is the fourth Western hostage to be freed in eight days. Two German and two Kenyan engineers are among those still held.

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Al Jazeera Airs New Jill Carroll Hostage Tape
TERRORISM: Jill Carroll's Deadline Passes



[edit on 30-3-2006 by Riwka]
mod edit, spelling

[edit on 30-3-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

To see some good news come out of Iraq was a nice way to start the day. Glad to she the girl is O.K.

That's good news. I must wonder why they are not killing their hostages anymore. Are they getting ransoms paid, or are they not wanting to kill innocent folk?

Yes





- Yesterday, her twin sister, Katie Carroll, had issued an appeal for her sister's release. (more)



It must have been horrible for the family. During the whole time, they had no information at all.

(Video via CNN)

Honestly I never thought she'd come out of this alive. Sort of how after a few hours, it's nearly certain a 'lost' child isn't going to be found alive.

I'm intensely curious about the hows and whys. I read somewhere that there was some covert negociation going on. I wonder if it's true, and is so, what deal was made?

This case is somehow strange.

The four western hostages last week have been freed by a combined forces unit. Jill Carroll has been released.

I am happy she is free and doing good after that long time.
I think people all over the world had included the girl in their prayers.

It's good news that she has been released. Especially when other hostages have died.

I don't know how much American Muslims helped her cause, but I'd like to think this has played a part in her freedom:

During the three months that she was held hostage, Muslims - with their words and their actions - organized for her freedom and condemned the kidnapping as un-Islamic. Some even worked their political and religious contacts inside Iraq. American Muslims have called for the freeing of hostages before. But this time, they went all out.

"We decided, `enough is enough,'" Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, said Thursday. "We had to go the extra mile."

It's unclear whether pressure from American Muslims - or other Muslim groups around the world - played a role in Carroll's release Thursday. But Walid and others say they hope their efforts showed the public that Muslims abhor terrorism and kidnapping.

www.kansascity.com...

Very happy news indeed.

But I somewhat confused as to why she says she didn't know why she had been kidnapped when we saw her crying on tape for the video camera..?

Crying because she was scared I can see. But now to be saying that she was treated good and never threatened?

The NBC Nightly News (network) made a point too of saying there are still 83 people being held hostage in Iraq at this time.

Normaly I don't care about anyone except my self (and two others), but I have been actualy hoping she'd come out alive, and relatively undamaged.

So this is a pleasant piece of news to read.



Ok, totally off topic, but she looks prettier in the hujab(SP?). the head scarf thing IMO.

Aye, she does look quite pretty with it. She looks pretty without it as well though. It's good she got through the ordeal really.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
It's good news that she has been released. Especially when other hostages have died.

I don't know how much American Muslims helped her cause, but I'd like to think this has played a part in her freedom:

I'd also like to think that they played a signifcant role in her release. In fact, they did play a big role. I hope they and we realize that fact, and continue to work together to resolve future differences.

Originally posted by Riwka
This case is somehow strange.

The four western hostages last week have been freed by a combined forces unit. Jill Carroll has been released.

I am happy she is free and doing good after that long time.
I think people all over the world had included the girl in their prayers.

She was in my prayers Riwka. They may have released her because they feared they were being closed in on after the last four were freed?


Here she is changing her story from the first reports. She's in Germany now and expected to be in Boston late Sunday morning.

Carroll: Statements Made Under Threat

Protected by the U.S. military and far from the country where she had been held 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 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."

...

"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."

Was she playing it safe till she left the country? But what about those left behind? Will there be retribution aimed at them? I know she's a young girl but did she not know about them? To put out this statement now seems inflammatory.

I wonder how much she really knows about Arab culture? It seems that revenge is very much a part of it. Or will the kidnappers be thinking, "Ah what a clever girl"?


Carroll: "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,"






[edit on 1-4-2006 by psyopswatcher]

I don't think her statements were meant as inflammatory so much as they were meant as cathartic. She did say that she abhors murderers and kidnappers, and she was clear to include the Revenge Brigade in that category.

Hopefully, she was able to give the coalition some leads that will help them to track the kidnappers down.

I'm not privy to any inside information or anything like that... I know the main gist of the story and that's it. I couldn't care much less about the incident... I'm glad she's alive but it's just like every other story coming out of that God-forsaken country.

But I just get a WEIRD feeling from the whole thing. Something stinks about it but I can't put my finger on it. More of an intuition thing.