by Natasha Tynes | Aug 9, 2006 | Jill Carroll
This morning a spokesperson for the US military announced that four people that were connected to the kidnapping of my good friend Jill were arrested in Iraq. Here is a piece of the AP story:
Marines have arrested four Iraqi men in connection with the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, who was freed last March after 82 days in captivity, a U.S. spokesman said Wednesday. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the four, who were not identified, were arrested in Anbar province west of Baghdad but he did not say when.
Richard Bergenheim, the editor for Jill’s paper, The Christian Science Monitor, issued a statement:
Jill Carroll and her Monitor colleagues are very grateful for all of the efforts the US government made to secure Jill’s freedom after she was held against her will for 82 days. Like reporters everywhere, we are reassured to hear that several of those believed to have held Jill have been apprehended. The daily threat of kidnapping in Iraq remains acute for all. Everything possible needs to be done to relieve Iraqis and others of this scourge.
I’m glad that those that put my friend through this terrible ordeal and murdered her translator Alan are finally going to be brought to justice. For those following all this, make sure to take a look at Jill’s story told in her own words when it is published in a series of articles in the Monitor starting this Sunday.
by Natasha Tynes | Aug 8, 2006 | Jill Carroll
My good friend Jill Carroll. who was kidnapped in Iraq last January for 82 days, will detail her ordeal in an 11-part series that is scheduled to appear next week. The series will appear in The Christan Science Monitor (on-line as well — with video). According to The Boston Herald:
The 27,500-word series will be the first public accounting by Carroll since her release. It will detail what she did during captivity, the Monitor’s efforts to free her and the "lessons learned," according to Dave Cook, the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. "This is clearly one of the most widely anticipated and in-depth series that we have run," Cook said.
"In the Monitor’s 98-year history, we’ve never had anyone held captive as long as Jill, and an immense and intense effort went into winning her freedom. We’re extremely grateful that she returned alive and was able to tell her own story."
The series will be a first-person account by Carroll with "contextual narrative" by Peter Grier, a senior writer in the Monitor’s Washington bureau who has spent a lot of time interviewing Carroll. The editing process for the series was an extensive one, Cook said, as Carroll feared that divulging certain details about her captors could result in retaliation. "Jill has taken great care to make sure that nothing she says will harm her colleagues in Baghdad who are still there reporting," Cook said. "We took the concerns seriously." Clips from a videotaped interview of Carroll will be included with the story on the newspaper’s Web site.
Source: [Boston Herald]
Click here to see the ad that the Monitor is running to advertise the series. For those that have been following her ordeal make sure to check out the series that will start next Monday.
UPDATE: The US military is reporting today that they’ve made four arrests in connection with Jill’s kidnapping. Some details are available here and there’s more in a new post here.
by Natasha Tynes | Aug 6, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, The Disturbing, The Mideast
So while the situation in the middle east rages, going from bad to worse as the violence spirals on by the day, honor crimes in Jordan do not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. Now how depressing is that!
The criminal prosecutor on Saturday charged a 19-year-old youth with the premeditated murder of his sister, official sources said. The victim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was shot six times at the family home at around midnight on Thursday, the source told The Jordan Times. The suspect allegedly shot his sister in front of his parents and siblings following and argument concerning her alleged "immoral behavior," the source added.
"The suspect then headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in and handed the pistol allegedly used in the murder to officers on duty," said the source, adding that the youth claimed to have killed his sister for reasons of family honor. Source: [The Jordan Times]
Can things get any worse, really! When will people in this region have peace and enjoy basic human rights!
by Natasha Tynes | Aug 5, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, The Mideast
The Washington Post ran a feature in today’s paper about the situation Iraqis are facing in Jordan entitled Living in Jordan, Longing for Iraq. According to the article:
Iraqis are everywhere in the streets and in the coffee shops. Their distinctive dialect pops up in conversations from the Mecca Mall, a downtown shopping bonanza, to the lobbies of five-star hotels where business executives gather to chat.
The gist of the story is that Iraqis in Jordan are not happy for a number of reasons, one being the fact that they feel that they are constantly being subjected to blame.
Iraqis here are blamed for inflation and climbing real estate prices and for the terrorist bombings that killed and wounded scores at three hotels in November. "I don’t feel alive," said Mustafa Alwan, a 29-year-old Iraqi who came to Amman about a year ago. "The present is barely livable, and the future is dark."
Read the whole article here.
by Natasha Tynes | Aug 2, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, Media watch, The Mideast
Dear All,
We would like to announce our resignation from Fox News in Amman. Although we never actually worked for your organization, we helped for the past three years in facilitating your work in the Middle East. We base our decision on moral issues. We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that. Not only are you an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism. You have crossed all borders and red lines.
An Arab mother cries over the death of her child very much like an American and Israeli mother. Arab blood is not cheap, and we are not barbarians. You ought to be more responsible and have more decency when you take one side against the other. You have a role to play and a responsibility to shoulder for the sake of your very naive viewers. Throughout the three years we worked with you, and helped you, we thought you would develop a degree of respect [for] people in this part of the world. But the disdain and blatant one-sided coverage of all Mideast conflicts only highlights your total lack of humanity and bias toward Israel.
Your lack of professionalism has made you a [source] of ridicule throughout the world. Your inexperienced anchors with their racist comments are not only a shameful scar on the American Media, they simply represent state run Television networks in countries you despise in the Middle East. Finally, our decision again is based on moral and professional basis and from now on we will no longer help in any Fox related matters.
Serene Sabbagh
Jomana Karadsheh
Via: [Angry Arab]
Wow! These two journalists are making a very forceful statement. I doubt this will have any actual impact on Fox’s coverage but one can hope.
UPDATE: The media professional web resource Media Bistro has picked up the story, reporting that:
"Sabbagh appeared on FNC, including The O’Reilly Factor, last November after the Jordanian hotel blasts. This April blog entry on FOXNews.com identifies Karadsheh as a "Jordanian producer for Fox." Update: 6:56pm: "Karadsheh has been Fox’s producer inside the Saddam trial," a tipster adds. Karadsheh has also worked for CNN, as recently as last week in Baghdad."
Click here for more.
My good friend Jill Carroll. who was kidnapped in Iraq last January for 82 days, will detail her ordeal in an 11-part series that is scheduled to appear next week. The series will appear in The Christan Science Monitor (on-line as well — with video). According to The Boston Herald: