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Jill Carroll

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File:Jill-Carroll.png
Jill Carroll appeared in a video released by the terrorist group Brigades of Vengeance

Jill C. Carroll (b. 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad on January 7, 2006 by members of the Iraqi insurgency. Carroll was released by her captors unharmed on March 30, 2006.[1]

Carroll was reporting in Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor. She has also worked as a commentator for news networks such as MSNBC. She has been in Iraq since October 2003. Before covering the Middle East, Carroll was a reporter in Washington, D.C., for the Wall Street Journal and States News Service.

Carroll graduated from Huron High School in Ann Arbor in 1995. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor's degree in Journalism in 1999.

Abduction

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On January 7, Carroll, along with an interpreter and driver, traveled to the Adel district of Baghdad to interview Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni politician and leader of the Iraqi People's Conference. After discovering that al-Dulaimi was not at his office, they left and soon after were ambushed by masked gunmen. The driver managed to escape, but Carroll was kidnapped and her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, 32, was shot dead and his body abandoned nearby by the kidnappers during the abduction. Carroll's driver, quoted in a story posted on the Monitor's website, said gunmen jumped in front of the car, pulled him from it, and drove off with their two captives all within 15 seconds.

Enwiyah, also known as Alan John Ghazi, was a well-known music retailer in Baghdad. [2]

According to the watchdog group Reporters without Borders, Carroll was the 31st foreign journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq since the Iraq War began in March 2003.

"We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim said last week.

"I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world," Mary Beth Carroll told CNN's American Morning on January 19.

In the efforts to locate and rescue Carroll, U.S. forces initially raided a mosque in the west of the capital after a tip that "activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside," triggering angry protests from Sunni Muslim citizens.

Video

On January 17, Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera aired a silent 20-second video-tape that showed Carroll, and indicated that, in an accompanying message, an as-yet unidentified group was giving the United States 72 hours to release all female prisoners in Iraq. If that demand is not met, the group says it will kill Carroll.

The silent video shows Carroll speaking in front of a white background.

The Qatar-based station said the kidnappers identified themselves as members of a previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Brigades of Vengeance" (or "Revenge Brigade", as they were described on NPR's All Things Considered).

Adnan al-Dulaimi

Adnan al-Dulaimi gave a press conference on January 20 and gave the following statements.

"This act has hurt me and makes me sad because the journalist was trying to meet me when she was kidnapped. After she left my office because she was unable to meet me, she was kidnapped 300 meters from my office."

"We are against violence by any group, and we call the government and U.S. forces to stop raiding houses, arresting women. I call upon the kidnappers to immediately release this reporter who came here to cover Iraq's news and defending our rights."

Suspects still at large

It was reported that on January 24, Iraqi authorities arrested three individuals in the Adel neighborhood of Baghdad believed to be involved in Jill's kidnapping and the murder of her interpreter. That report proved to be inaccurate.

Iraqi prisoners released

On January 27, five female Iraqi prisoners were released from U.S. custody. The U.S. military stated that the prisoner release was already planned and had nothing to do with Carroll's kidnapper's initial demand to kill her within 72 hours unless all female detainees in Iraqi prisons were released.

Second video

On January 30, a second video appeared on Al Jazeera showing Carroll wearing a headscarf and crying. The footage was timestamped with a date of January 28 and also featured the logo of the Brigades of Vengeance Islamic militant group. Although the initial airing of the video did not include audio, Carroll is said to repeat earlier pleas to release all female hostages under American custody.

Third video

On February 9, a third video appeared on private Kuwaiti TV channel Alrai TV. The 22-second video showed Carroll sitting in a chair behind a large floral pattern, in full islamic dress. She's pleading for supporters to do whatever it takes to release her. Unlike the previous two videos, both audio and video is included. Carroll mentions that the date of the tape is February 2.

In the tape, she mentions letters that she has written as evidence for the authenticity of the tape. A letter accompanied the tape that was written by Carroll, but no previous letters have been found. The contents of the letter has not been disclosed.

The following is a transcript from the video:

"Today is Thursday, February 6-[corrects herself]-February 2, 2006. I'm with the mujahideen. I sent you a letter written by my hand that you wanted more evidence so we're sending you this new letter now just to prove that I am with the mujahideen.
I'm here, I'm fine. Please, just do whatever they want, give them whatever they want as quickly as possible. There is very short time; please do it fast. That's all."

February 26 deadline

Kuwaiti television reported February 10 that the kidnappers had communicated to them a deadline set for February 26 for their demands to be met, or Carroll would be killed. [3]

Earlier, people close to the kidnappers told Al Rai TV that Carroll is "in a safe house owned by one of the kidnappers in downtown Baghdad with a group of women."

On February 14, Iraqi TV began airing a Public Service Announcement appealing for her release.

February 26 passes

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr al Zubaidi believed Jill Carroll to still be alive, even as the deadline for her execution has passed, according to ABC News.

Release

On March 30, 2006, Carroll entered the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party offices in western Baghdad around midday and handed office personnel a letter, thought to be from her kidnappers, asking for help, a party official later said. At that time, Carroll said she had just been freed unharmed and was treated humanely during her captivity.

Post-Release Video

Within days of Carroll's release, a video of Carroll slamming the "occupation" of Iraq and praising the insurgents as "good people fighting an honorable fight" appeared on an Islamist website. While counterterrorism expert Laura Mansfield, (who had neither met nor interviewed Carroll), posited on CNN that Carroll's actions "may indicate she was experiencing a touch of Stockholm syndrome,"[4] The Christian Science Monitor, Carroll's paper, reported:

"The night before journalist Jill Carroll's release, her captors said they had one final demand as the price of her freedom: She would have to make a video praising her captors and attacking the United States, according to Jim Carroll.
In a long phone conversation with his daughter on Friday, Mr. Carroll says that Jill was 'under her captor's control.'
Ms. Carroll had been their captive for three months and even the smallest details of her life - what she ate and when, what she wore, when she could speak - were at her captors' whim. They had murdered her friend and colleague Allan Enwiya, "she had been taught to fear them," he says. And before making one last video the day before her release, she was told that they had already killed another American hostage.
That video appeared Thursday on a jihadist website that carries videos of beheadings and attacks on American forces. In it, Carroll told her father she felt compelled to make statements strongly critical of President Bush and his policy in Iraq.
Her remarks are now making the rounds of the Internet, attracting heavy criticism from conservative bloggers and commentators." [5]

Carroll's post-release statement

On April 1, 2006, Carroll released a statement through the Christian Science Monitor's website. In the statement, Carroll states that she participated in the video critical of the United States and praiseworthy of her abductors only because she feared for her life and because her captors said they would let her go if she participated to their satisfaction.[6] Carroll calls her captors "criminals, at best" and says she remains "deeply angry" with them.

International release efforts

Support for Jill Carroll's safe release was international. Efforts included a Baghdad newspaper whose front page read, "She loves Iraq. Now she needs your help."

On February 5, 2006, in Rome a giant poster of Carroll, urging her release, was hung on the city hall building. In previous months, similar efforts were shown by hanging photographs of other kidnapped individuals from the same spot.

In Paris, on February 7, 2006, 30 white balloons were released to mark the 30 days of Carroll's captivity (in actuality 32 days at that point). French actress Juliette Binoche appeared to show her support. Both the Rome and Paris efforts were coordinated by Reporters Without Borders.

On February 27, 2006, 25 organizations belonging to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange called for Carroll's immediate release.[7]

On February 29, 2006, Carroll's twin sister Katie Carroll read a statement on Al Arabiya television asking for her sister to be released.[8][9]

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for Carroll's release in the name of Islam and its message of mercy.

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References

  • "Abductors threaten to kill journalist in Iraq". Reuters. 2006-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • "Abductors threaten to kill American journalist", MSNBC. 2006-01-17. Retrieved 2006-01-17. Updated 2006-01-20
  • Peterson, Scott. "Reporter abducted in Iraq", Christian Science Monitor. 2006-01-10 edition. Retrieved 2006-01-17.
  • "Iraq: Suspects in Carroll kidnapping arrested", Adnkronos International. January 24, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2006.
  • "Five Iraqi women are released from US custody", Christian Science Monitor. 2006-01-27 edition. Retrieved 2006-01-26.
  • "Kidnapped journalist appears in new video", San Jose Mercury News. January 30, 2006. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
  • "Kidnapped U.S. reporter appeals for help", New York Times. February 9, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2006.
  • "Let young writer go, metro Muslims urge", Detroit Free Press 2006-01-19. Retrieved 2006-02-24.
  • "Iraqi Official: Jill Carroll Is Alive", ABC news, February 27, 2006. Retrieved 2006-02-27.
  • Jill Carroll Statement, Christian Science Monitor, April 1, 2006. Retrieved April 1, 2006.


Blogs

  • Mental Mayhem A blog by a friend of Jill's with regular updates. This link directs to the Jill Carroll category.
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