And that is very good news for a change:
BAGHDAD, March 30 — 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.
“I was never hurt, ever hit,” she told a Washington Post reporter. “I was kept in a safe place and treated very well.”
Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor, arrived safely at the party headquarters just after 1 p.m.
“Unknown people,” released Carroll to the Iraqi Islamic Party’s branch office in Amariyah in the western part of the city, Tariq al-Hashimi, the party’s secretary general, said in a telephone conversation at 12:30 p.m. local time. The party then transported her by armed convoy to its headquarters in the Yarmouk district.
“She is OK. She is safe. She is more or less scared,” Hashimi said. “I told her calm down and we would take care of her.”
Thanks to all who kept her in their thoughts and prayers. Why, I bet even Rush Limbaugh might be happy about her release, considering he claimed her capture proved that journalism is more dangerous than mining. Let’s hope so.
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My diary Thu Mar 30th, 2006 at 04:57:58 AM PST has been deleted to make room in the recommended diaries.
E&P - Two Months After Abduction:Little News, But Hope Remains
WASHINGTON (CNN) — American hostage Jill Carroll, the freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad in January, has been released unharmed, U.S. law enforcement officials and The Christian Science Monitor said Thursday.
“This is a wonderful day,” said David Cook, Washington bureau chief of the Monitor, the paper for which the reporter was freelancing.
Carroll, 28, called her father, Jim, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to let him know she was safe, the officials and newspaper said.
The Christian Science Monitor – Jill Carroll Update
Jill Carroll on video in captivitySee my previous diary —
Jill Carroll Abducted Free Lance Journalist – Christian Science Monitor
Mon Jan 9th, 2006 at 02:38:42 PM PST
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Sorry Oui
Didn’t know you had a diary on this.
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Published in a space of 3 minutes – no problem whatsoever.
Oui has too many diaries up anyway.
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There is no such thing as too many diaries from you, Oui! :<)
This is wonderful news. I hope they get her home with her family asap!
CNN broadcast an inteview she did post-release with an arabic language station where she made the point that her kidnappers treated her well. Humanizing the evil muslim horde is probably a no-no, I smell a right-wing smear campaign against Carroll coming from Limbaugh, Hannity and their ilk.
I’ve already run into sites that claim her abduction was a hoax.
Pretty sad.
treating her well is all relative, though. They did, after all, kidnap her.
and who exactly does what to whom and why is not a subject on which everyone agrees.
For that matter so are some events that do not occur in Iraq.
You can find people who have differing opinions about everything from “abductions” and mosque bombings and other events in Iraq, to the Moussaui trial, to the case of Jose Padilla, to the 911 events, to the recent kerfluffle over Abdul Rahman, to the beheading of Nick Berg to the gripping story of Jessica Lynch.
Generally, most mainstream Americans have a high level of confidence in Washington’s press releases on these and all other topics, but there are some who maybe have a lower level of confidence in the official US version of events. This kind of thing, though, is generally confined to obstructionists and rejectionists and tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists who do not really support the war on terror.
And of course for that 20-30 or whatever % who believe God speaks through Bush, it is more of a matter of faith, where facts are not the important factor.
“translator”, killed on the spot her kidnappers and buried on the spot by the press.
Riverbend remembered him so exquisitely:
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Sat Jan 14th, 2006 at 07:58:36 AM PST
May I do a little diary pimping here today? Oh Please… for I do not think many read this blog …
Since I do not know how to make the link or the box think, please forgive me if I do it straight … from Baghdad Burning:
LONDON (AFP) March 27 — An anonymous Iraqi woman was nominated as a contender for a major literary award for her Internet blog-based account of the Iraq war and its deadly impact on ordinary Iraqi people.
“Baghdad Burning” by the university graduate, who uses the pen name Riverbend, is longlisted for the 30,000-pound (52,000-dollar, 44,000-euro) Samuel Johnson prize — the world’s richest for a piece of non-fiction.
She is up against 18 other books out of 168 entries. Among fellow nominees are established names including Alan Bennett and his offering “Untold Stories“.
● Baghdad Burning Girl Blog from Iraq ◊ by Riverbend
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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and I’m very glad to hear that she was treated well — or at least as well as a kidnap victim could be.
But this brings up an interesting question, then: Why kidnap her? What did her abductors hope to obtain? Certainly they knew that the occupation forces wouldn’t release anybody in request to a ransom demand for a journalist.
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Bergenheim said that neither the Monitor nor Carroll’s family was involved in negotiations for her release. Her captors, calling themselves the Revenge Brigades, had demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 and said Carroll would be killed if that didn’t happen. The deadline passed without word of her safety.
“Neither we, nor the family, nor anyone that we know of were involved with negotiations. This really was a bolt out of the blue,” Bergenheim told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
A scene soon to be repeated ...Her twin sister, Katie Carroll, described in the Monitor the wake up call she got at about 5:45 a.m. Thursday.
“Katie, it’s me,” said the voice on the other end of the line. “I’m free.” Then she burst into tears and I did, too, Katie Carroll said.
January 18 – Iraq’s ministry of justice has told the BBC that six of the eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq are to be released early.
● ‘Wonderful day’: Journalist Carroll freed in Iraq
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — U.S. Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Body Armor ≈
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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BERLIN (ABC/AP) 30 minutes ago — Journalist Jill Carroll arrived in Germany on Saturday, the first stop as she headed home to the United States from Iraq where she was kidnapped and spent 82 days in captivity.
A military transport plane brought Carroll from Balad Air Base near Baghdad to Ramstein Air Base in western Germany.
Carroll was riding in the cockpit as the U.S. Air Force C17 Globemaster came to a stop. She cast a bemused look at the line of television cameras waiting on the tarmac. She got off the plane smiling and wearing jeans, a gray sweater, and a desert camouflage jacket.
Col. Kurt Lohide, commander of the 435th Air Base Wing, greeted her briefly before escorting her into an Air Force van.
“Welcome to Ramstein,” he said he told her.
“I’m happy to be here,” was her answer.
Jill Carroll was scheduled to leave Frankfurt at 10:25 a.m. local time on a Lufthansa flight bound for Boston, with a stopover in Washington, officials at Ramstein said.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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