Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Jill is still alive. Here is an excerpt:
Kidnapped Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll was still alive and being moved from place to place by her captors. He would say nothing more about the case.
Source: [Aljazeera.net]
For all those who care about Jill, please keep praying and special thanks goes out to WM for providing me with the link.
The Committee to Protect Bloggers is campaigning for Jill. They are asking bloggers to post a link of Jill’s video that is running on Iraqi stations and calling for her release. Here is the post from the Committee to Protect Bloggers.
Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, was kidnapped in Baghdad over two months ago. All indications are that she is still alive. The Monitor has started a campaign, using Iraqi television, to distribute a video asking for Iraqis to help find and free Jill.
Jill is not a blogger but she’s got that spirit. She’s an independent intellect who is fascinated by the world and has a desire to speak what she sees. So let’s not leave it up to the newspapers and television stations. She’s ours as much as theirs.
So, I would like to ask every blogger who gives a damn about individual human life and the individual human voice, to post a link to this video on their blog, to blog about Jill and to pass along our concern to friends, family and other bloggers. Of greatest import are Iraqi blogs and blogs in the Arabic and Muslim worlds that may be read by people in a position to do good for Jill.
The Christian Science Monitor has a moving feature on Allan Enwiyah, Jill’s interpreter who was killed during her kidnapping. Here is an excerpt:
I worked with Allan while on a stint in Iraq in December, just before the national elections. During those weeks, I came to know an easygoing young man who took his job seriously, but who liked to gossip, always good-naturedly, about Iraqi politicians or international stars. He dressed nattily – crisp jeans and a sport shirt or T-shirt that looked more Western than Iraqi. And while he was interested enough in the politics of what then was an Iraq deep in campaign mode, he saved his passion for his young family.
I had known other interpreters during my stints in Iraq who seemed to use the job to escape their families and those duties, but clearly for Allan, the job — as interesting as it was to him — was a means to an end. He was not a daredevil, not even really a newshound. Which somehow makes his death all the more tragic.
Tomorrow, Jill will have been held captive for two whole months. To her kidnappers I say: Please, have some mercy! Set this innocent reporter and wonderful human being free. Enough is enough!
An Iraqi official said Tuesday that a group calling itself the "Islamic Army" is actually holding Jill. The name of this group differs from the name seen in previous tapes released by the kidnappers. In those tapes the kidnappers were identified as the "Revenge Brigades." This might mean that Jill was moved/sold by one group to another or it might not. Sigh! The good news, though, is that it was this same Islamic Army group that freed two French journalists in 2004 after holding them captive for four months. Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr also suggested that the same group kidnapped his sister, who was seized about four days before Jill but then freed a few weeks later. Read the the full story here. Meanwhile, The Jordan Times, where Jill worked for a year, ran yet another moving editorial on Jill’s ordeal, Here is an excerpt:
If our immediate thoughts go to Jill — we know you are and will continue to be strong — and her family, because we were lucky to have her with us from one year and could experience firsthand her professionalism, dedication, brightness, generosity and amazingly good nature, we are certainly not forgetting other colleagues suffering in Iraq.
Following the Iraqi announcement that Jill was alive, Christian Science Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim released a statement:
The Carroll family and The Christian Science Monitor continue to follow developments in Iraq very carefully. We appreciate the wide-ranging efforts being made by Iraqi and US officials to secure Jill’s release. We hope that today’s encouraging statements about Jill’s condition and prospects for safe return are proved correct.
The Feb 26 deadline set by Jill’s kidnappers passed by yesterday with nary a word about Jill. But I believe, at this stage, no news is good news. This morning, some reports from notable sources emerged indicating that Jill is still alive. These statements came from an Iraqi official and US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, with the Iraqi official claiming to know the kidnapper’s name and address:
A top Iraqi official tells ABC News that he believes Jill Carroll is alive and that he believes she will be released, even though the latest deadline for the kidnapped journalist has passed with no news of her fate. Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabur al Zubaidi said he knew who had abducted the 28-year-old freelance journalist. "We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans," Zubaidi said. "I think she is still alive." The minister said the problem was that authorities don’t know where Carroll is being held, and that the original kidnappers may have sold her to a more radical group.
U.S ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told ABC News that he also believed Carroll was alive. "We do believe that she is in fact alive," Khalilzad said on "Good Morning America." "I have discussed the issue with the interior minister. As I said, we will work as hard as we can to get her released. She clearly is in a dangerous situation, but we’re working hard with the Iraqis and others to get her released. That’s what we’re working for."
Source: [ABC News]
From my part, I’m still hopeful. For those reading this, please keep praying!
I was pleased to see that students at the University of Massachusetts, where Jill got her journalism degree, held a rally to support her release. Karen List, one of her old journalism professors, told a crowd of some 100 supporters at the rally that Jill had "a passion for telling the story." Here is the link to the full Associated Press story:
"She makes a lot of us feel better about this business we’re getting into," said Eric Athas, managing editor of the Daily Collegian, the campus newspaper which sponsored the rally. "We look at her and what she was trying to do in Iraq, and it makes us feel good about the profession."
And what her stories accomplished, her supporters say, was showing the struggle of ordinary Iraqis in an honest and straightforward way. "Go back and read her stories," said Amy Sidoti, who was Carroll’s roommate for two years. "That’s what the purpose of her being in Iraq is."
Also, the Christian Science Monitor has a link to the public service video calling for Jill’s release that ran on an Iraqi TV station.
UPDATE: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has announced the launch of a week-long international support campaign for Jill’s release, as well as the release of two kidnapped Iraqi journalists: Rim Zeid and Marwan Khazaal.
"Reporters Without Borders activists will be launching the campaign week today, Tuesday, February 21, by taking a special bus tour in Paris to lobby journalists and other staff members of the city’s main media offices about the plight of the three kidnapped victims," the press release stated.
In several cities, including Washington, London and New York, Reporters Without Borders said they will be handing out badges with the slogan "Free Jill Carroll." Source: [CSM]
RSF also released several audio statements from Jill’s family. The first is from Jill’s father, Jim:
[I want to ] thank all of the world media for their efforts to help free my daughter Jill Carroll. She and thousands of other journalists try to bring truth to the world every day, and it is especially important in Iraq right now. My daughter was called to perform a vital service for Iraq and the rest of the world.
Her stories in the past three years have covered political leaders and events, but also many stories of ordinary people and their struggle to survive. Those stories deserve to be told so that all people understand what is happening in Iraq. Please give your support so that Jill Carroll and Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal, also held in Iraq, will be free to continue their vital work."
The second is from Jill’s sister, Katie:
Jill is the strongest and most caring person I know. I’m proud of her and I hope that young journalists around the world are inspired by her passion. It is my wish that Jill, Reem Zeid, and Marwan Khazaal will soon be able to resume their work in bringing the stories of Iraq to the world.
