Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

More information is emerging about the ordeal endured by freelance CSM reporter Jill Carroll:

BAGHDAD Jill Carroll's kidnappers reportedly warned her before her release that she might be killed if she cooperated with the Americans or went to the Green Zone, saying it was infiltrated by insurgents.

The freelance writer for The Christian Science Monitor, who was freed by her captors Thursday and dropped off at a branch office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was later escorted to the Green Zone by the U.S. military, the newspaper said Friday.

At first, she was reluctant to go, but a Monitor writer in Baghdad, Scott Peterson, convinced her it was safe, the newspaper said.

The Monitor quoted her family as saying that her kidnappers had warned her against talking to the Americans or going to the Green Zone. They told her it was "infiltrated by the mujahedeen," the newspaper said.

Her captors, calling themselves the Revenge Brigades, had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 and said Carroll would be killed otherwise.

In a video purportedly from her kidnappers that was posted on the Internet, her abductors said Carroll was released because "the American government met some of our demands by releasing some of our women from prison." The video was found on an Islamic Web site where such material has appeared before.

But U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday there was no connection between the recent release of several female Iraqi detainees and Carroll's freedom.

"No U.S. person entered into any arrangements with anyone. By U.S. person I mean the United States mission," he said.

"What we did before had no connection with Jill Carroll," Khalilzad said. "We still have a few female detainees — four — and that's all I can say on that."

The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, also said no money had been exchanged for Carroll's release. "We simply know she was dropped off at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters," he said.

Carroll, who was kidnapped Jan. 7 in Baghdad, said Thursday she was not harmed by her captors and added that she did not know why she was released.

Also on the Internet video, Carroll is shown answering questions, presumably from her captors, and saying that Iraqi insurgents were "only trying to defend their country ... to stop an illegal and dangerous and deadly occupation."

"So I think people need to understand in America how difficult life is here for the normal, average Iraqis ... how terrifying it is for most people to live here every day because of the occupation," she said on the video.

Bergenheim said Friday that Carroll's parents, who spoke to her about the video, told him it was "conducted under duress."

"What emerged was that they actually started filming this tape the night before and then there was a power outage. Jill had been told the questions, asked to translate them from Arabic into English," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"When you're making a video and having to recite certain things with three men with machine guns standing over you, you're probably going to say exactly what you're told to say," Bergenheim added.

After yesterday's Podhoretz comment that Carroll may be a latter-day Patty Hearst, Podhoretz's little acolyte (and the LA Times' newest columnist) Jonah Goldberg is "getting a very bad vibe" by Carroll: "MAYBE IT’S JUST ME... But Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me... But it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors..."

Judd Legum comments: "Apparently, Jonah Goldberg, who has spent the last 82 days in safety, knows what Jill Carroll should be saying better than Jill Carroll herself. And when she doesn’t say it, it means something is very wrong with her."

Morning frat-jock Don Imus's producer Bernard McGuirk said that "She may be carrying Habib's baby," and that "She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the — try and sneak into the Green Zone." [VIDEO].

Is it so absurd to think that maybe someone who had their senses about them and their moral center in good order, would be less thankful about her treatment and more upset that the translator she asked to come with her was murdered while working for her? I understand that the logic of the left cannot escape the orbit of “you wouldn’t understand” identity politics. But come on. Does anyone in their right mind think that Think Progress would be rallying to this woman’s side if she emerged from her captivity saying George W. Bush was right and the people who kidnapped her were terrorist animals? Please. They’d be prattling on about how she lost her mind.

Save it, Jonah. P.R. 101 says apologize to Jill Carroll and her family and get on with your miserable life in the Republican bunker.

In less infuriating news, E&P has a fascinating piece on how the initial 48 hour news blackout on Carroll's abduction may have saved her life, and the story -- and uncropped version -- of the most famous photo of her.

Update: More outrages from the blogosphere, but also a sign of some class. First, though, a roundup of were we've been (some of the comments about Jill are just too disgusting to reprint, so I'll just thank David at ISOU and the folks at Crooks and Liars for doing it, so I don't have to):

Michelle Malkin channels Howard Kurtz, doubts and all, and links to some in the right wing blogosphere who are acting like total, freaking idiots (Debbie Schlussel... who by the way has come up with the so funny it could have been written for SNL caption: "Jill Carroll Hates America . . . & Israel, Too" ... I love the ones you don't even have to parody, because they do all the work themselves...)

...Like this armchair warrior, who thinks that in Carroll's place, he would have thrown off the hijab in favor of "a baseball cap with a flag on it and the words, 'These Colors Don't Run.'" Yes, right. I'm thinking of a different slogan you might have used: "I think I just crapped my pants..."

...or this brilliant mind who surmises that the whole 82-day abduction thing might have been a publicity stunt... after all, Ms. Carroll denounced the Dear Leader ... on tape!!!

...and then there are blogers like Macsmind, whose tin foil hat view of Jill Carroll's capitivity in stems from a video taken by Carroll's captors long before her release (as described in the story at the top) and obviously intended for propaganda use, and they now believe she was never a hostage in the first place, or was released months ago, I suppose as some sort of terrorist double agent... Sorry, but do these ... people ... know the basics of how hostage taking works? Coercion and forced confession or denunciation of one's government are fairly standard, no? Maybe these jokers should watch a little less "24" and a lot more History Channel...

Remember the Australian hostage, Doug Wood (a U.S. contractor) who was freed by Iraqi forces last year? Wood also was forced to make videos denouncing U.S. and Australian policy in Iraq, later apologized for the recordings, which were ... wait for it ... made under duress.

And who can forget the final video statement of WSJ bureau chief Daniel Pearl, who was forced to make statements about his religion (Judaism) and against the war before he was brutally killed and beheaded (one of the most disturbing pieces of video I've ever seen, second only to the Daniel Pearl beheading -- both of which I watched in their entirety in a newsroom, to my eternal regret...)

Ditto for hostage Margaret Hassan, who issued a painful, tearful plea for her life and for Britain to pull its troops out of Iraq before she was killed by her captives.

In all of these hostage-takings, the videos -- not the hostage -- are the product -- whether the propaganda speeches the victims are forced to recite, or the beheading videos used to amp up the jihadists. (In the case of the Carroll videos, they seem to be part of some sort of Sunni insurgent P.R. strategy, which in the end could be why she wasn't killed... there certainly was a P.R. strategy on the other side -- which included showing Carroll in the hijab, looking pious, and holding off on the news of her abduction to try and sway her captives to let her go...) If the right wingers -- who have wrapped their lives around the notion of terrorists hiding around every corner and whose almost paranoid need to hear approval for President Bush pouring forth from every available mouth is becoming ... well... just wierd at this point -- don't get this basic point, then there's no help out there for them. They have totally lost the plot. (Cue the ALL CAPS, unhinged emails accusing me of Siding With The Terrorists Because I Hate America and President Bush... Moonbat, Islamofascists blah blah blah...)

Of course, you've also got the kinder, gentler, less eye bulgy but somehow equally creepy, "give Jill a chance to find her own voice with which to denounce the terrorists and praise the Dear Leader in the manner to which he has become accustomed" crowd, too ... it seems they, along with the eye bulgers, want to see Ms. Carroll make yet another hostage video, only this one's for them...

So then just when you thought they had let all the crazies out of Bellvue, some sanity emerges. First, a blogger named Xrlq:

Oh my God, can you believe the crazy stuff Jill Carroll said on video while still in the custody of the guys who had murdered her translator and publicly threatened to murder her (but not to hit her, which apparently is all that matters)? The nerve of that woman! The world must know immediately what an America-hating traitor she is. After all, we never said all that crazy stuff the last time we got kidnapped by terrorists for three months, so how can she?

>March 31, 2006
Blaming the Rape Victim: Jill Carroll

... It's disturbing that so many are willing to begin naysaying the character of one who has been victimized for the past three months. Debbie Schlussel's post here, especially (Hat tip: Allah).

What would you say to your captors after months as a prisoner? You'd tell them exactly what they want to hear. Remember, the only video we have of Jill Carroll are two segments taped while she was still a prisoner--under a considerable amount of duress. The second video we have is one taped in the offices of The Islamic Party of Iraq--the political front for the same terrorists who had victimized her!

Well said. It's also becoming increasingly disturbing to witness the almost mindless rage of many on the right, who have this knee-jerk, vicious reaction to anyone, even a hostage, for god's sake, who doesn't constantly mouth a programmed screed of platitudes about "the terrorists!" and swear undying loyalty to George W. Bush. What is it that they want from Jill Carroll? If she's not in the cult, then she really wasn't abducted? She's "one of them?" Commenters and even bloggers on some of these sites are actually saying this stuff... and none has produced a scintilla of evidence, despite Ms. Carroll's long record of published journalism, that proves she somehow "hates America."

Realtiy check. Ms. Carroll has been through hell. And she, along with 86 other journalists still held captive in Iraq, have exhibited more bravery by going into the war zone to get vital information to the public, than the armchair Jack Bauers tapping away at their keyboards could ever pretend to. I'd like to see Debbie Schlussel do something braver than tease her hair before she criticizes what Jill Carroll did to survive, and how she's coping now.

By the way, in his column, Kurtz did manage to make two important points:

... As my colleagues in Baghdad point out, when that interview was taped, Carroll was still in the custody of a Sunni political party with ties to the insurgency. It may have just made sense for her to be especially cautious. And they tell me that Carroll did cry -- off camera -- when the subject of her murdered translator came up. Still, people are buzzing because her taped remarks have been played over and over again on television. I hope she'll be able to share a fuller account of her ordeal soon.

Despite the happy ending, Carroll's kidnapping has driven home how dangerous Iraq remains for Western journalists, who admit it's getting increasingly difficult to do their jobs, even as they challenge the administration's claims that they are excessively focused on violence and negative news.

...Not to mention the tin foil hatters and amateur Jack Bauers in the blogosphere...

Previous:

• Attack the hostage
• Jill Carroll free at last