Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

MSNBC.com

Report: Carroll video was filmed under duress
Reporter said positive things about militant captors to win her freedom

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 7:24 p.m. ET March 31, 2006


Video of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll the night before her release is now being characterized by her employer The Christian Science Monitor as propaganda she was forced to take part in as the price for her freedom.

In the video, which first appeared Thursday on a jihadist Web site, Carroll praises her captors for treating her well and attacks U.S. policies in Iraq. On Friday, The Christian Science Monitor, quoting Carroll's father, Jim Carroll, reported that the video was made while she was still "under her captors' control."

Jill Carroll, a 28-year-old freelancer for the Monitor, was a hostage for 82 days before her release on Thursday. She is reportedly in seclusion in Baghdad now, and expected to travel back to the United States in a few days.

Carroll, who was seized Jan. 7 in western Baghdad by gunmen who killed her Iraqi translator, is ��emotionally fragile�� after her captivity, Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim said Friday.

The CSM issued the report after Jim Carroll had a long telephone conversation with his daughter on Friday.

The report says that contrary to comments she made in the video about lenient treatment by the kidnappers, who refer to themselves as the Revenge Brigade, Carroll lived in fear of the kidnappers who had killed her colleague Allen Anwiya, and that even the smallest details of her life — what she ate and when, what she wore, when she could speak — were at her captors' whim. Before making the video before her release, she was reportedly told that they had already killed another American hostage.

In the video, Carroll appeared in a traditional Arab head-covering and said she had never been threatened or abused by her captors — comments that bewildered many viewers and drew harsh criticism from conservative bloggers and commentators.

Before her release, the Monitor reported, Carroll's captors promised her freedom in exchange for cooperating in the making of the video, but she told her father she didn't believe them, because she had been promised freedom several times before.

��Decompressing�� after captivity
In the morning, after the video was finished, she was released in a Baghdad neighborhood and pointed to the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which then contacted the U.S. government, the report says.

Carroll was at first reluctant to go with an American military escort to the fortified Green Zone, headquarters of the U.S. military, her newspaper said.

Her kidnappers said the Green Zone had been infiltrated by Islamic militants and Carroll might be killed if she cooperated with the Americans, the Monitor said in a report, quoting the journalist's family.

A Baghdad correspondent for the newspaper, Scott Peterson, convinced Carroll it was safe and persuaded her over the telephone that it was the best course of action, the report said.

Since she was freed, Carroll has met with friends in Baghdad and undergone medical checks, said the Monitor's Washington bureau chief, David Cook.

He said Carroll would go see her family in the United States and "decompress" before appearing at the newspaper's Boston headquarters for a celebration and a news conference.

"We'll have a better fix on how she's doing when we lay eyes on her, which we hope will not be too much longer," Cook told Reuters.

The Monitor, along with Iraqi and U.S. officials, has denied any negotiations took place to secure her release, a week after three Western Christian peace activists were rescued by U.S. special forces.


The kidnappers had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 or Carroll would be killed.

U.S. officials did release some female detainees at the time, but said it had nothing to do with the kidnappers' demands. On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States is still holding four women.

Video: Bush needs to ��wake up��
Most of the video released on Thursday consisted of an interview with Carroll, who answered questions about the state of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion three years ago. She defended the Iraqi people and talked of the hardships they face.

��People don��t have electricity. They don��t have water,�� she said. ��Children don��t have safe streets to walk in. Women and children are always in danger.��

She said Americans don��t have a grasp of that reality in Iraq.

��Tens of thousands ... have lost their lives here because of the occupation,�� she said. ��I think Americans need to think about that and realize day-to-day how difficult life is here.��

Carroll appeared tense at times in the video. She said her captors, whom she called the mujahedeen, had treated her very well — ��like a guest�� — and that she thought the ��mujahedeen are the ones who will win in the end in this war.��

��No matter what Americans try to say is happening here or try to do with all their weapons, they aren��t going to be able to stay here, they��re not going to be able to stop the mujahedeen,�� she said. ��That��s for sure.��

Her captors ��obviously wanted maximum propaganda value in the US,�� Carroll told the Monitor. ��After listening to them for three months she already knew exactly what they wanted her to say, so she gave it to them with appropriate acting to make it look convincing.��

In the video, the journalist calls on President George Bush to send American troops home.

��He knows this war was wrong,�� she said. ��He knows it was illegal from the very beginning. He knows that it was built on a mountain of lies. I think he needs to finally admit to the American people and make the troops go home.

��He needs to wake up,�� she said. ��The people in America need to wake up and tell him what he��s done here is wrong.��

It was not possible to reach Carroll to ask her whether she actually held any of the views expressed.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Liz Colton declined comment on the video, saying all queries regarding Carroll were being handled by her family and the Monitor.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12100278/

[On the other hand]

[ddeubel]

Did she say anything that was false?????????? No. So what is the big deal. Doesn't the truth matter anymore ?

Glad to know there is a person that can make a difference, even out of a terrible and unfortunate situation. Sometimes miracles are only the simple fact of not getting the outcome we secretly had surmised..........

Let the pundits and patriarchs rattle on about Stockholm and even Helsinki. At the end of the day her words are truth........

[BigBlackEquus]

Imagine how well that country would be coming along now if "insurgents" weren't coming in murdering totally innocent people. Any and all hostilities would have ceased long ago.

Imagine how built-up the country would be by now.

But it can't. Why? Not because of the fault of the US. Because of the "insurgents" who will now get their heads handed to them by the locals.

[Bulsajo]

You talk funny.
Even Condoleeza Rice now admits mistakes were made.
You write as if you believe that the occupation of Iraq and the insurgency are two totally unrelated events.

And that's a pretty unusual viewpoint for a gay black muslim canadian to hold.
Even Derrek, r.i.p., would agree if he were here.

[gdimension]

[gypsyfish]

[ddeubel]

[gypsyfish]

[Summer Wine]

[Summer Wine]

Post discussions of what someone said while in captivity may result in good sales of newspapers.

Though at heart, we all know the limits in our own lives that we will and won't cross.

I personally don't feel it is our or anyone elses right to criticise her comments while in captivity. We weren't there.

[Gopher]

[ddeubel]

Thanks Gopher but I've read all the press on this. I don't disagree that "personally" she disavows the video.

But I think we have to make a distinction about "disavowing" a video and her views in general on Iraq and Bush etc......... Of course she doesn't support those who kidnapped her, put her family through so much torment. On the other hand, her journalism supports a position that war is no good and just self-interest. That the US has not given any "dignity" to the Iraqi on the street.....

I refer to her articles for the christian science monitor. Unfortunately the archive only goes back 5 days. I will try to pull up some articles.
http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/

What is curious were her comments to the Iraqi people through the video she made in Baghdad just after being released. To the Iraqi Islamic party. I'd like to know the background to that......the why???

DD

DD

[Gopher]

I think you can say that she denounced the videotape without implying that she also denounced her demonstrated pro-Muslim and other views.

In any case, that is exactly the kind of thinking that I see above in this thread. It should not have to be an either/or choice. Jill Carroll can denounce the videotape, then, and that does not have to mean that she thinks the war is fine.

[Summer Wine]

Gopher wrote: