Jill Carroll Released

American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted in early January by gunmen in Baghdad, was released to a Sunni Arab political party in the capital Thursday morning after 82 days in captivity.

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[Jersey McJones]

Yeah!!!!

JMJ

[moonbiter]

Excellent. I thought she was a goner.

[Finkelstein]

Gee swell. Pretty white girl goes missing, the nation is captivated to her story, but of hundreds of minorities who wind up missing every year, who cries for them?

Wait - this wasn't Aruba? (seriously good news though)

[Mr. Nice Guy]

I'm shocked that these animals showed this kind of mercy.

Something's up.

[Grant Gould]

Things really are different over there than over here. In the US, releasing somebody to a political party would be a form of torture.

"Mr. Gould, the ransom hasn't come through, so we're handing you over to... the Republicans!" "Noooooo!"

[Alan Colmes]

For once, I feel like the smart one.

[Mark]

Goddamn why did they have to release a journalist?!?!!?

Didn't they have anyone more useful to liberate?

A carpenter, plumber? Christ, I'd sooner see a laywer on the loose!

[Ruthless]

George W. Bush for a third term!
Who's with me?

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Ruthless:

Since a president can serve for 10 years, maybe Boosh can run a special "two-year-term" election. And then Cheney (with an Iron Man chest plate to keep his heart beating) can finish off the term.

[Murray "Superboy" Babitch]

Nice guy, if the Veep is Iron Man, where is Cheney's version of Jim Rhodes? (Of course Halliburton is Stark Industries)

SHRAK!!!! SHRAK!!!

That's the sound of the palm fired disruptor beam for you islamic fascists who never read IM in the 3rd-4th-5th grade.

[Mark]

Was this woman a complete moron?

I'm not sure if it made news in the states but at the beginning of the week an elderly british hostage named Norman Kember was released after four months. It's a lovely ending that he managed to get out but, it does have to be said, he was a complete spaz for being there in the first place. Darwinism would suggest he should have been sent home in a box.

He's kicked up a fuss because he's refusing to thank the armed forces that managed to get him out and our typically sensible tabloid press are treating him like the antichrist.

[Jennifer]

Would you guys be happier if all journalists left Iraq and we got all our Iraq-related news from the American military?

[Mark]

They should both leave. Press and Military.

[Stevo Darkly]

I'm shocked that these animals showed this kind of mercy. Something's up.

"Now that you know the secret of our Super Adventure Club we have no choice but to ... ask you to leave."

[Jennifer]

They should both leave. Press and Military.

And yet you know that's not likely to happen. So for now our only realistic choices are: press and military in Iraq, or military-only in Iraq. And since I doubt you'd be happy about a situation where all we knew about Iraq was what the military chose to tell us, why spew such vitriol toward the journalists?

[VM]

"why spew such vitriol toward the journalists?"

two words:

Bob. Ryan.

heh.

[SR]

Any guess how long before she's accused of being a tool of the terrorists because she's failed to sufficiently denounce them?

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Stevo: I think you hit the nail squarely on the head.

Murray: Cheney's "Jim Rhodes"? That's easy. Alan Keyes.

[Mark]

Oh I was only being stupid Jennifer. I love the press really - Although i'd like to kick a few of them in the nuts.

Actually, military style propoganda would be quite cool. We could watch 8mm vidoes of men using bazookas and then cheering and then cut to clips of 'natives' saying 'You know something. We were wrong, you guys were right, thanks for setting us straight'.

Sometimes I prefer propoganda like that - when they're clearly lying, it's easier to know what's going on.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

SR: Carroll obviously won't criticize the muslimoids because she is clearly an islamofascist apologist.

And since this is a blog, where is the wild, baseless speculation?

I'll offer this: I'm thinking that these animals were paid off. And we will never hear a peep about it. But that money will be used to attack our troops and fund more hostage operations.

[Mark]

Hhhmm,

Perhaps Mr Nice Guy.

Or alternatively, it isn't actually Jill Carroll but a cutting edge Robot with bio organic human enhancements that's been developed by a coalition of middle eastern, Chinese and Russian scientists (project managed by Sean Penn) that's going to blow up in the centre of Washington and release nerve gas taking out the entire American political system.

Sweet.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Mark:

Then obviously someone needs to run this broad through a Voight-Kampff test 🙂

[Mark]

Agreed. But don't ask me about my mother. That's just plain rude.

[Handsome Dan]

SR--

'How long'? Obviously you don't read the National Review's 'Corner'; its already starting over there:

"It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days."

[Jon H]

"Murray: Cheney's "Jim Rhodes"? That's easy. Alan Keyes."

No, it was Claude Allen. His fraudulent return scam was an effort to make ends meet, because it costs a lot to maintain that armor.

[Mark]

Holy crap I just listened to Carroll's interview on the Washington Post site.

What a wierdo!

She says she was well treated because they let her take a leak and didn't hit her. WOW! 5star!

If only more people knew....

[SR]

"Obviously you don't read the National Review's 'Corner'"

You see, crap like that is why I stopped reading NRO.

[thoreau]

I don't fault her for her statements. She was a hostage, probably expecting to be brutally beaten, starved, and then killed slowly and painfully on camera. That didn't happen. We tend to judge our experiences in light of our expectations. Seen in that light, it's no surprise that she'd come back and say "Wow, they were surprisingly nice to me!"

She went through hell, but not as much hell as she was expecting. Her appraisal of the situation is bound to be skewed by that. I'm cutting her a hell of a lot of slack.

Let he among you who has been kidnapped by terrorists cast the first stone.

[Apteryx]

"Bob. Ryan."

What, not Shaughnessy?

[theOneState]

Any guess how long before she's accused of being a tool of the terrorists because she's failed to sufficiently denounce them?

Um...she is a tool of the terrorists. They made her one. And that she speaks well of her captors makes her a better tool than any ordinary hostage, doesn't it?

You don't need to be a Corner reader to see that, or to be disappointed that she was released safely. That's inhuman. But you can't say she hasn't made herself a tool.

[Mark]

No sure, I shouldn't judge her and she's been through hell. And yes, I'm a glib, small minded imbecile.

But I still think she's fruit-loops.

[John]

Apteryx,

If terrorists in Iraq kidnapped Shaughessy, I would have to take back some of the nasty things I have said about them, although I am sure he would drive them nuts and they would give him back within hours.

I am glad this woman got out. No one deserves to be kidnapped, but that doesn't make her less of a fruitcake. From reading about her, she seems incredibly nieve about the terrorists over there. Carroll seems to be one of those people who can't grasp the fact that there are a lot of people in the world you don't want to meet and the fact that they are fighting what you consider to be the evil occupation of Iraq doesn't change that fact.

[Akira MacKenzie]

Then obviously someone needs to run this broad through a Voight-Kampff test 🙂

That reminds me, who the hell is leaving the origami unicorns at my front door?

[Mr. Nice Guy]

t:

You are ever the voice of moderation and reason. But this Carroll broad was a muslimoid apologist even before she was captured. She was one of these deluded lefties who think that the bad guys won't hurt them because they are such loving, shiny happy people. And they waste no breath apologizing for the sins of the west (however true some of those assertions may be).

It completely dumbfounds me how the left can be so delusional. They are so stuck in their ideology that they knee-jerk defend a culture that openly and systemically oppresses women, gay people, non-muslims, etc.

[Mark]

It completely dumbfounds me how the left can be so delusional. They are so stuck in their ideology that they knee-jerk defend a culture that openly and systemically oppresses women, gay people, non-muslims, etc

YEAH!

And while were bashing the left, they always turn up at goddamn parties with vegetarian lasagne.

News flash dipshit! This is a barbacue. Bring meat or beer or go home.

[linguist]

I'm shocked that these animals showed this kind of mercy. Something's up.

Well, didn't we give them what they wanted (at least in part)? We released (IIRC) 10 of the 16 women we were holding.

The whole story was odd. The group that kidnapped her were unknowns at the time. And the mere fact that she stayed alive as long as she did seemed to indicate they had no real intentions of killing her. It almost struck me as a small group, perhaps of people whose wives/mothers/sisters were among those detained.

Glad she made it out.

[Steven Crane]

But this Carroll broad...

nope, I have no clue why linguist and smacky ever thought that anyone at H&R was anything but feminist.

[John]

Oh come on Mark, can't you throw a few garden burgers on the grill for me? Vegitarian is pig latin for "Pain in the Ass".

[Drew W]

It's good to see Jill Carroll released. I'm sure that after the doctors check her out, she'll be up and smashing imperialism in no time.

My impressions of her were that she was the kind of cute, Lisa Loeb-ish woman a guy would be thrilled to meet at a party, but about 60 seconds into the conversation would realize that she's a BDS-plagued moonbat whom he'd have no chance of sleeping with anyway, even if he pretended to agree with her.

Presumably she de-emphasized her feminism in front of her captors by wearing a hijab, just as Canadian "peace activist" James Loney de-emphasized his homosexuality by wearing that "Iron Sheik Rules!" t-shirt.

[mk]

My impressions of her were that she was the kind of cute
This month in MAXIM - "How to hook-up with just released girls for hot after kidnapping sex"

[Deacon Blues]

I think this says it all.
Concurrent with the release from capture today of Jill Carroll, an American reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who was captured in Baghdad on January 7, 2006, her captors, the Revenge Brigade issued on March 30, 2006, an 8:50 minute video interview with Ms. Carroll. Both the questions asked by the interviewer and Jill Carroll?s responses are in the English language, as she is asked of her conditions during her captivity and her opinions on the American-led War in Iraq and the mujahideen. Her answers are lauding towards the mujahideen, stating that she was treated as a guest and they are clever and very familiar with the Iraqi terrain, as opposed to the American Army that could not locate her with all the technology and manpower at their disposal.

Concerning her release, the interview asks Ms. Carroll how she feels that she will be granted freedom, while women are continuing to be held in Abu Ghraib. Though she is relieved that she is being released, she states that she feels guilt, and her condition juxtaposed with that of the women in prison shows the dichotomy in terms of human respect shown by the mujahideen and American Army. She asks President Bush to cease the war and end the aggression upon the Iraqi people who are continuously living in abject condition.

Near the close of the interview, a statement is read in Arabic announcing Jill Carroll?s release, and noting that the Americans forces and CIA did not assist in her freedom. It was the American government agreeing to some of their conditions that brokered her release. The mujahid states: ?Jill Carol, go back in peace to your family and to your country, to tell them and to the American people what you saw and heard during these three months. You are a witness of the events here and we have full confidence in you that you will tell the truth without any falsification.?

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Let he among you who has been kidnapped by terrorists cast the first stone.

The constitution and country were kidnapped by a terrorist with the middle name "Baines". His successors have shown no compassion to the victims since. We all hope that one day, they will let us go.

[SR]

"I think this says it all."

I don't know. If I'd seen my translator murdered in front of me and I was being interviewed by a guy with an AK-47, I'd probably give some "Insurgent audiences are the greatest audiences in the world!"-type answers too.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm just happy for the girl--I figured she was a goner.

My, we're quite jaded around here, aren't we?

[Murray "Superboy" Babitch]

Akira Mackenzie:

"It's too bad she won't live.....but then again who does?"

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, just what is Edward James Olmos trying to tell us, anyway? First replicants, now Cylons.

[Les]

I'm a little confused. I'm reading things about her being a "leftist" a "muslimoid apologist" (isn't it rather leftist to see all members of a group as the same, instead of as individuals, which is what they are?). An interview with her by her captors and the murderers of her translator, which can hardly be seen as an honest or reliable interview, is posted as evidence of her compassion for the insurgents.

All I've found so far about her is that she always wanted to be a journalist and was willing to go places other journalists weren't in order to interview the civilians caught in the middle. Is that crazy or is that courageous or a little of both? If it's a little of both, why not mention the courage? It's interesting how much more critical some people are of the press than of their government.

If someone here could provide a link to where she expresses sympathy for the insurgents or some kind of "leftist" ideology, it would help me understand some of the vitriol posted here.

[Pro Libertate]

Who cares if she is a leftist? She's one of our own, and while I may be annoyed by leftwing types, I don't want them harmed, either.

I doubt most of the terrorists and insurgents give a crap about left and right. "American" is probably their big gripe. I'm just guessing here, I may be wrong. Heck, "European-Related Christian or Jewish Person" is probably enough. Hasn't there been a Canadian hostage in all of this? If so, I doubt the West's internal politics matter much.

[Deacon Blues]

My point was, willing or not, this naive woman became a tool for the terrorists. Personally I'm very glad she is OK and very sorry her driver was murdered.

[Isaac Bartram]

Hasn't there been a Canadian hostage in all of this?

Two of the three "Christian Peacemakers" just freed were Canadians (actually I think one is an Indian who lives in Canada).

Not only that, there's been a French hostage and don't we just know what a bunch of Saddam-luvin' bastards those frogs are!

And quite frankly, yes, good news here. And I can see where we maybe should discount some of her statements, considering the circumstances.

[SR]

"Yes, just what is Edward James Olmos trying to tell us, anyway?"

He's trying to slowly enlighten humanity about our skinjobbed robot overlords so we're ready for the ultimate revelation -- Chuck Norris is an android!

[Pro Libertate]

That's not true, SR! Take back your damned lies!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

[Kahn]

I'm shocked that these animals showed this kind of mercy.

Something's up.

Either this is a different "they" and never intended to kill her, as somebody said above.

Or else it's the "they" that's put the beheading tapes out, and they've changed tactics a little. Even "they" were smart enough to figure out they've been giving themselves bad publicity and building resistance against themselves, by beheading people the way they were.

[not so Mr. Nice Guy]

Kahn: Please tell me you're joking.

Les: If Carroll comes out and sets the record straight, then I'll eat my words.

But the bad guys didn't let that woman go out of the goodness of their hearts. Period. They most probably got paid off. And, like I said, that money will be used for the murder of more civilians. Western civilians are in rather short suppy over there, but these animals have no problem murdering their own.

[The Berg Tape Is A Fake]

Or else it's the "they" that's put the beheading tapes out, and they've changed tactics a little. Even "they" were smart enough to figure out they've been giving themselves bad publicity and building resistance against themselves, by beheading people the way they were.

It would be nice to have some real statistics on how many total civilian hostages have been taken by insurgents, how many military prisoners have been taken by insurgents, how many have been killed, how many have been relesaed and how many are still being held.

When we do thds on things like Gitmo here, the Jacksonians point out that all these people are getting beheaded over there. My reaction is always like: maybe so, maybe not. I wish I had a better handle on the big picture when it comes to foreigners taken prisoner / hostage in Iraq.

[Les]

Mr. Nice Guy, if you could just provide a link to where she's on record as being an apologist for the insurgents, then I'll know there's a record to be set straight.

And what, exactly, is a "muslimoid?"

[Kahn]

Kahn: Please tell me you're joking.

Why do you think I am? Back when they were cutting people's heads offon video and sending it out, I have clear recollections of news reports that even the Muslim world was getting disgusted with it.

[Les]

In today's Washington Post:

"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."

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

[Les]

And in the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/earlyWO0331a.html

CAIRO - 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."

[Deto Veto]

Stockholm syndrome my ass. She's always wanted to be a muslim let her be one. She should stay in Iraq in her hooded garb she loves so much.

She also must be the best actress on the planet, if the interview she gave (which supposedly she believed wouldnt be aired yet had a camera and microphone there) showed how calm she was.

Obviously she was let go dure to some sort of payoff, and I bet anything that Jill Carroll the Attention Hog will have to write a book of lies.

Send her to bottom of popular news pile and tell real stories about people who really matter.

[Ari]

Obviously she was let go dure to some sort of payoff, and I bet anything that Jill Carroll the Attention Hog will have to write a book of lies.

Send her to bottom of popular news pile and tell real stories about people who really matter.

Attention hog? Are you on the same planet as the rest of us? She was threatened into making that video and has retracted it. She's strongly anti-terrorism, and has the real life experience to back this up.

I for one am relieved she is safe and coming home. I never expected this blessed outcome. And the wingnuts are all over her because she did survive to refute the words terrorists put into her mouth.

[Les]

I imagine you could show people like Deto videos of her captives with machine guns pointed at her with signs saying "We will kill you" and it still wouldn't be enough. He's made up his mind how it was. It must have been that way.

Even though she says she was forced to say what she said...

http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/early_world040106.htm

...even though she says she does not believe the things she was forced to say, that will never be enough for folks like Deto, most of whom probably still believe Hussein was involved in 9/11. What can you do?