by Natasha Tynes | Jan 22, 2006 | Jill Carroll
It’s true, the deadline has passed with no word on Jill’s fate, but I remain very hopeful, as efforts to secure her release continue non-stop.
As the clock keeps ticking, I’m on pins and needles. The wait is really wearing me down both physically and emotionally. I can’t imagine how hard it must be on her family. I’m unable to sleep through the night, waking up every few hours to check my phone for new text messages or missed calls. Jill has become an integral part of my dream life. Fortunately, most of the dreams are positive, with me talking to her face-to-face and discussing her ordeal.
I was glad to see over the weekend that the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) had sent a delegation all the way to Baghdad as part of their efforts to free Jill. I believe this could have a huge impact. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
We
are the only people who have come from outside of Iraq to call for
Jill’s release, and we are very hopeful they will hear our message on
behalf of American Muslims … Harming her will do no good at all. The
only way is to release her.
I’m also encouraged by the sheer volume of good wishes and prayers being put out there for my dear friend. Some of those prayers are coming from Amman, Jordan, where my mom and all her friends are praying for Jill’s release. Everyone that Jill touched remembers her sweetness and open, honest character. Such a mobilization of prayer and good will can only bring positive things. God, please bring her home safely.
UPDATE: The CSM has done a bit of a round-up on things with two items particularly catching my eye. First, the director of London’s Islamic Observation Center, Yasser al-Sirri, called on the group that it appears has Jill, the so-called Brigades of Vengeance, to release her rather than tarnish the image of Islam.
Second, Iraq’s Justice Ministry continues to say that it expects the release of six of the nine Iraqi women prisoners this week, despite Coalition comments to the contrary, saying:
"The Iraqi detainees will be released within a week from today." All that said, the article closes with Reuters disturbing report of U.S. forces blowing off the front door of an Iraqi family and dragging one family member off for questioning.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 20, 2006 | Jill Carroll
The deadline the kidnappers initially gave will expire later today but efforts to save my very dear friend’s life are still ongoing, non-stop. The latest major effort was an appeal by her dad who appeared on the Arab world’s two most watched satellite TV channels: Aljazeera and Al Arabiya. This is what he said:
I want to speak directly to the men holding my daughter Jill because they may also be fathers like me. My daughter does not have the ability to free anyone. She is a reporter and an innocent person. Do not sacrifice an innocent soul … as a father, I appeal to you to release my daughter for the betterment of all of us. And I ask the men holding my daughter to work with Jill to find a way to initiate a dialog with me.
Source: [CNN]
Also Friday, Arab satellite channels aired a news conference held by Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Conference for People of Iraq:
I urge the men who kidnapped this journalist, Jill Carroll, to release her for the sake of God and our country and our religion and our honor. We, in the Conference for People of Iraq, will demand those conditions of releasing the detainees in the Iraqi and American prisons. We will demand this by word, negotiations, and talks with Iraqi and American officials. This act tore me apart and pained me if it wasn’t embarrassing, I would cry. In the name of God, in the name of religion, in the name of any word of sympathy that exists in Iraq, I urge you to release this female journalist.
Source: [Washington Post]
UPDATE: Agence France-Presse (AFP) is reporting that securing Jill’s release is a "top priority," according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan:
AFP: Securing abducted US journalist Jill Carroll’s release from Iraq is a priority for the United States, the White House said Friday, as the deadline loomed on her captors’ threat to execute her. "The safe return of any American hostage is always a top priority, wherever they are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. But he would not say what steps, if any, Washington was taking to secure her release.
UPDATE 2: A demonstration of support for Jill is being held today at the Grand Mosque of Paris by Reporters sans frontières:
With the ultimatum given by the kidnappers of US journalist Jill Carroll due to expire this evening, a demonstration in support of Carroll was held today at the Grand Mosque of Paris by Reporters Without Borders, mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur and former French hostages Florence Aubenas, Roger Auque, Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, Roland Madura and Ivan Cerieix.
Calling for Carroll’s release, the participants pointed that today’s demonstration was being held exactly one year after a similar show of support for Aubenas, who was finally freed and was able to take part today, and they said they hoped that today’s appeal would also be heard by those holding Carroll in Iraq.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 19, 2006 | Jill Carroll
First, this morning Jill’s mother Mary Beth made an appeal for Jill’s release in an interview on CNN, saying "Jill has always shown the highest respect for the Iraqi people and their customs. We hope that her captors will show Jill the same respect in return."
Over the last 24-36 hours, a number of significant Muslim organizations have made appeals for Jill’s release, including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is also sending a delegation to Iraq to help secure her release. This is really great news and very positive. I’m hopeful. The first statement is form the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), one of Iraq’s main Sunni political parties.
The IIP denounces the kidnapping because it is conducted against innocent people, who mostly sympathize with the Iraqis in their miseries. At the same time, the IIP urges the kidnappers to release this female journalist as soon as possible.
This next statment comes from Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front and the man that Jill apparently had an appointment with the day she was kidnapped:
Kidnapping is un-Islamic. Publish this statement on my behalf condemning this act, although it’s going to expose me to danger. We reject this act. It is absolutely condemned. We will do as much as possible to release Jill
The Muslim Brotherhood has also issued a powerful statement saying that Jill — as well as other journalists — should not be targeted:
We call upon the brothers in the Iraqi resistance not to target media workers . This contradicts the principles of our religion and doesn’t help the cause of liberating the country.
Also condemning the kidnapping and threats against Jill was Muthana Harith al-Dari, a leader of Iraq’s Muslim Scholars Association, an umbrella group for a number of leading Sunni clerics, or Ulama. His statement has particular resonance within Iraq. Dari said kidnapping is always wrong and called for Jill’s immediate release:
All kidnappings and assassinations are completely rejected… especially when kidnapping a journalist. Journalists are here to tell the world about the occupation so kidnapping a journalist is going to hide the truth.
UPDATE: A story highlighted here earlier from the BBC appears to be more complex than that article suggested. The BBC apparently got information that a number of female detainees in Iraq were being released. CNN is reporting that "Of the 14,000 people detained by the United States, eight are women, according to the U.S. military. Iraq’s Justice Ministry said six already were scheduled for release in an action unrelated to the abductors’ demands." This latter fact resonates with a statement from the U.S. military in a report just published by Reuters:
The U.S. military does not expect to release Iraqi female detainees in the near future, a move demanded by kidnappers to spare the life of an American journalist, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Campbell said that eight Iraqi women who are being held by the United States in Iraq are going through the normal process of review to see if they will be released or continue to be held.
"There is no expected resolution of their cases in the near future," Campbell told Reuters. "There is no accelerated process with regards to the women and how it relates to the kidnapped journalist in question," he added, responding to questions about the threat by kidnappers to kill U.S. journalist Jill Carroll unless all women held by the U.S. military in Iraq were released.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 18, 2006 | Jill Carroll
The editor-in-chief of the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, Ayman Al-Safadi, wrote a moving piece (in Arabic) about Jill in today’s edition. Mr Al-Safadi was the one who hired Jill to work for the Jordan Times some years ago. Below is my humble translation:
Freedom for Jill Carroll
By Ayman Al-Safadi
She sought to educate her people about the truth of what’s going in the Arab world, which she loved before setting foot in it. She put her life at risk by struggling to convey the voices of Iraqis to American public opinion, which was showered with wrong information about the developments in Iraq. She was rewarded with kidnapping. Jill did not hide in Baghdad’s Green Zone. In her coverage of Iraq, she did not rely on statements made by American and Iraqi officials. She wanted her reports for the reliable Christian Science monitor to reflect the pulse of the Iraqi street. Jill wanted to tell of the suffering of Iraqis and to reflect their ambitions. Her respect for the truth took her to the most dangerous parts of Baghdad. She ended up in al-Anbar, hostage to kidnappers with unknown identity and objectives.
I met Jill in the United States years go when she applied to work for the Jordan Times, the paper for which I was editor-in-chief. She seemed ambitious, excited and anxious to develop her knowledge of the Arab world and its issues. I decided to hire her immediately as Arabs greatly need professional and informed American journalists interested in conveying their point of view to the American reader. Investing in a neutral and professional American journalist is an investment in the needed effort to correct the image of Arabs that is being ruined by either ill-intent or ignorance.
Jill worked in Jordan before she moved to Iraq after the occupation of Baghdad. Her knowledge of the Arab world deepened and her journalistic reports provided an objective and complete coverage of what is happening in Iraq. Jill was the voice of truth. But this voice has been silent for days. What the kidnappers reaped was silencing a pen that was on the side of truth and objectivity and that expressed the ordeal and issues of Iraqis.
The fate of Jill has been unknown. And no one knows who and why she was kidnapped, for she is the one who stood by the Iraqis. What is evident is that Iraq has lost an honest voice biased in favor of the Iraqis’ right to a safe and prosperous life. Anyone who can help free Jill Carroll bears a moral responsibility to do their best to release her from captivity. Nothing justifies hurting an innocent human being who deserves only appreciation from the Iraqis for a role performed with the utmost dedication, honesty and integrity. No cause justifies breaking a pen that inks the truth.
UPDATE: The BBC is reporting that Iraq’s ministry of justice told the BBC that six of eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq were released early. The six were freed because there was insufficient evidence to charge them, according to a justice ministry spokesman. US forces won’t confirm the releases, saying only that they wouldn’t be based on any operational activities.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 18, 2006 | Jill Carroll
Reporters without Borders has appealed to Arab media and Muslim organizations to speak out in support of Jill.
We appeal to the press of the entire world, especially in the Arab countries, to speak out in support of Carroll. The media must not limit themselves to reporting the news, they must themselves call for Carroll’s release. Muslim organisations in the United States must also intervene. Their help is valuable. Real solidarity with Carroll must be urgently demonstrated. People must act as quickly as possible and with the same energy as with previous hostages. Carroll’s US nationality must not be allowed to hold back the show of support.
We remind Carroll’s kidnappers that she is a journalist who has just done her job, which is to describe the conditions in which Iraqis are living. She is not responsible for the US government’s decisions.
I add my emphatic voice to theirs in hopes that more Arab and Muslim organizations appeal for Jill’s release as soon as possible. Both Aljazeera and CAIR have already made appeals. I hope other Arab and Muslim organizations follow suit and quickly.
All posts about Jill found on Mental Mayhem are categorized and can be found here. Those on the newswire — stories from and about Jill — are available here.
