by Natasha Tynes | Feb 1, 2006 | Jill Carroll
It has been two days since the release of the most recent heart-wrenching video, in which my dear friend Jill is weeping and begging for her life! Ah! I guess hope is what keeping us going. Knowing that she is still alive is enough consolation to make me keep the faith. In the mean time, the following article provides some analysis of the latest video. Here are some excerpts:
To him [a member of the Washington Post’s Iraqi staff], Jill Carroll’s white head scarf conveyed specific meaning: "He could tell by watching the video that basically she was still with the Sunnis because Shiites would never have put a white scarf on her," Spinner related. She [Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner] noted as well that "Jill and I both wore headscarves, two-piece things that you don’t really have to hook–it’s difficult to get your scarf to look exactly how an Iraqi woman wears her scarf if you haven’t done it since you were an adolescent. So you can cheat and use these two-piece things that you just flip over your head."
But her Iraqi colleague noted that the way the scarf was tied in the latest Carroll video was "a well-known way that women scarf themselves in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad."
Source: [Editor and Publisher]
In other developments, The Jordan Times, where Jill worked for a year, ran an editorial expressing anguish following the release of the latest video:
Jill Carroll worked at The Jordan Times for one year and she certainly never appeared as someone who would cry easily. On the contrary, her inner strength was always immediately apparent to everyone crossing path with her. But last night we saw her in tears. And this filled us with anguish and anger at the same time. To her captors, we want to say: Every tear you make Jill shed is fresh shame that you bring on all Iraqis, Arabs and Muslims. By kidnapping her, you silenced one of the few pro-Arab and pro-Iraqi voices in the international press. By continuing to hold her, you are harming the Arab and Iraqi cause.
And in other media developments, Aljazeera’s general manager, Wadah Khanfar called upon Jill’s abductors to release her saying that detaining her was "unethical" and that she should be released immediately.
UPDATE: The front page of Baghdad’s New Sabah newspaper carried a public service announcement Wednesday with a picture of Jill urging her captors to free her. The headline read: "She loves Iraq. Now she needs your help." The paper also ran an editorial in which they asked for her release. Here are some excerpts:
American freelance journalist Jill Carroll, who used the name Zainab in Iraq, has been held by kidnappers since Jan. 7. Jill loves Iraq and Iraqis. She is known for her independent thinking … Everyone who has a conscience, and a faith in God and the law, cannot find any way to justify this horrible act. Her kidnapping, and ending her freedom, cannot lead to [bowing to the demands of] the leaders of the Revenge Brigades who ordered this act …
We as Iraqis join with Dr. Adnan al-Dulaimi in calling for Carroll’s release from captivity. We are sad and anguished at the attacks on the press, acts that express bitter facts and a black page in our history, and shame everyone who stands by and justifies such dirty acts. We address this, our open message, to the Revenge Brigades, to release ‘Zainab,’ Jill Carroll, in the name of God, and in the name of Iraqi honor, and in the name of Arabic and Islamic gallantry. Let her do her job or let her go to her frightened family.
Also, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has commented on efforts to free Jill. "Everything is being done to work with those who might have influence, and there are an awful lot of people who are calling for her release," she told reporters Tuesday.
UPDATE 2: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a new appeal today (in Arabic) to Middle Eastern media outlets calling for the Jill’s release. According to CAIR, the appeal was sent out to the group’s extensive media contact database throughout the Arab world. The appeal repeated the Washington-based group’s previous statement that no cause is served by targeting journalists that are trying to relate the human suffering caused by war.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 30, 2006 | Jill Carroll
Al-Jazeera aired a new videotape Monday of kidnapped U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, showing her wearing a veil and weeping as she purportedly appealed for the release of women Iraqi prisoners. The video is dated Saturday, two days after the U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees but said it had nothing to do with the kidnappers’ demands to do so.
The video had no sound, but the Al-Jazeera newscaster said Carroll appealed to the U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry to release all women in their prisons and that this "would help in winning her release." The military had said before the release that it was holding nine Iraqi women, and it was not known when the others might be let go.
Source: [AP]
This time the kidnappers have decided to make the video more dramatic by showing her in hijab and weeping! What more do they need?!? Haven’t their demands been met?!? I’m not sure I will be able to watch this video this time. The knot in my stomach is more than I can bear.
UPDATE: CNN is reporting that an Iraqi justice ministry official believes the remaining four female detainees could be released soon:
Bosho Ibrahim Ali, a deputy justice minister, told CNN the remaining four female prisoners might be released with another group at another time. Ali said he had started his effort to free the female detainees for humanitarian reasons before Carroll’s abduction.
UPDATE 2:Following the release of this new video, Christian Science Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim released a statement:
Anyone with a heart will feel distressed that an innocent woman like Jill Carroll would be treated in the manner shown in the latest video aired by Al Jazeera. We add our voice to those of Arabs around the world, and especially to those in Iraq, who have condemned this act of kidnapping. We ask that she be returned to the protection of her family immediately.
UPDATE 3:The United States also released a statement saying it would not give in to the kidnappers’ demands:
"We will not make concessions to terrorist demands," US military spokesman in Iraq Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said. He said US forces were continuing to work with Iraqi authorities "to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 29, 2006 | Jill Carroll
Adnan al-Dulaimi, the Sunni political leader who Jill was supposed to interview on the day of her kidnapping, has issued another plea for her release. Like many others, al-Dulaimi made a link between the kidnappers’ demands and the recent release of female Iraqi detainees.
"I renew my appeal to the captors of the American journalist to free her immediately following the release of the Iraqi detainees, as they no longer have any argument [to hold her]," al-Dulaimi told Agence France-Presse.
Source: [CSM]
Meanwhile, the United Nations news agency, IRIN, ran a feature about the mixed motivations behind kidnappings in Iraq .
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 27, 2006 | Jill Carroll
The Jordanian daily Al-Ghad must be commended for its extensive coverage of Jill’s ordeal. In addition to the moving editorial written by Al-Ghad’s editor-in-chief, Ayman Al-Safadi (who hired Jill when he was chief editor of The Jordan Times), the daily has made sure to cover developments in Jill’s story on an almost daily basis. Al-Ghad reports (in Arabic) today that a group of 37 Jordanian and other Arab intellectuals, politicians and journalists have signed a statement calling for Jill’s release. Here is an excerpt:
What the Iraqi people need today are free and independent voices, separate from political and ideological propaganda, to expose the dimensions of this suffering and shed light on the reality. These voices must also be allowed to convey the true picture of the Iraqi people who seek freedom, independence, and the rebuilding of their country. In these crucial and dangerous times, we are shocked by the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, the American journalist, whose freedom was taken the 7th of January, despite the fact that she is well known for her independent, authentic, and objective reports — and her sympathy with the causes and daily suffering of the Iraqi people.
Consideration of her release should not be related to her nationality, but rather, to her role, message, and reports that testify to her credibility, independence, and honesty. The kidnapping of Carroll then is a kidnapping of one of the witnesses of the human suffering of the Iraqi people.
You can read the full statement in English here and in Arabic here. It is worth noting that those signing the statement include a notable number of Al-Ghad journalists. Also, the very first name on the statement is that of Ayman Al-Safadi. Mr. Al-Safadi has been continuously calling for Jill’s release, appearing on both Arabic and American TV channels to appeal to her captors. Al-Safadi first hired Jill to work in Jordan, thus facilitating her arrival in the Middle East. Kudos to him for his efforts to secure Jill’s freedom.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 26, 2006 | Jill Carroll
Well, the hottest news of the day, aside from Hamas major victory in the Palestinian elections, is the fact that the US has released five female detainees in Iraq. Here is an excerpt from a Reuters article:
The five, among at least eight women held by U.S. forces in Iraq, were freed along with 414 other detainees, a U.S. military spokesman said. "The case of the women detainees is a legal case and it has nothing to do with the case of the American journalist," said a Justice Ministry official, who declined to be named.
The news of their anticipated release has been circulating for over a week now, and was denied on a number of occasions. But it has finally happened. Whether this is related to Jill’s abduction or not, this is good news, as it might help secure her release. The demands of the kidnappers have largely been met, whether directly or indirectly. They should set Jill free now!
UPDATE: Jill’s release may be imminent, at least according to one Iraqi source quoted in this breaking report from the AP:
A top Iraqi police officer says he thinks kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll will be freed. And he says today’s release of five Iraqi women from U.S. custody could help. U.S. officials have said the release had nothing to do with the demands by Carroll’s kidnappers that the U.S. release Iraqi women.
This is fantastic news, although at this point we are dealing with the speculation of an unnamed source from a newly identified source, Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, the Iraqi interior ministry’s head of intelligence. The U.S. position on this cannot and likely will never change. But the reality this event is creating on the ground could be having a direct impact on Jill’s release. Let’s hope this guy Kamal is right when he says: "Any announcement may not benefit the case because of its sensitivity, but we can say, God willing, that she [Jill] will be released." Word is, this guy said nearly the exact same words several days previous, so we have to take his hopeful thought with a grain of salt, difficult as that may be.
But in a wonderful moment of humanity, Siham Faraj, the mother of Hala Khalid (who was arrested with her brother in late September ’05 during a raid by U.S. forces on their home) said she was anxious to see her daughter and hoped it would mean Jill’s release:
"We are happy and we thank God for this blessing," Faraj told The Associated Press. "I call upon the kidnappers of the American reporter to release her because she is as innocent as Hala … I wish the Americans would stop random arrests. We only want peace in this country."
UPDATE 2: The Christian Science Monitor ran a further, fuller quote from Mrs. Faraj about Jill on Thursday:
"[Jill will] be fine and she will come out very soon because she loves Iraq and she loves Iraqis, so God will never forget her," says Siham Faraj, the mother of Hala Khalid Wahid who was detained by US forces in Iraq four months ago. But she added, "I don’t think Jill Carroll’s situation has anything to do with the release of my daughter, but we definitely feel her pain …
"And to her mother, I say: I know how painful it is when a daughter is detained. But don’t worry, madam. Your daughter is a great woman and she will be fine."
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 25, 2006 | Jill Carroll
According to Al-Ghad daily (in Arabic), a number of Jordanian women’s organizations have condemned the kidnapping of Jill and asked for her release. Among those calling for her release is Dima Tahboub, the wife of my late colleague Tareq Ayyoub who was killed in Iraq in 2003 when he was struck by a US missile in the early days of the war. "Kidnapping journalists hurts the message of humane resistance and makes its message criminal," Dima Tahboub told Alghad.
Both Jill, the late Taerq Ayyoub, and myself were working at The Jordan Times when the Iraq war began. When Tareq was killed, every one at The Jordan Times was shattered. We could not believe that we had lost Tareq forever. I clearly remember Jill’s reaction the day we heard the news of Tareq’s tragic death. She was traumatized by the loss of her colleague in a war that was being waged right next door. She did not say much that day. She was at loss for words.
Three years later Jill finds herself in another terrible ordeal in Iraq. Her life is threatened merely for doing her job as a reporter. Both Tareq and Jill worked for The Jordan Times. Both went to Iraq in pursuit of what they saw as the truth. And both suffered a great deal for seeking their passion and believing in what they did.
To Dima Tahboub, I say, again, I’m so sorry for your loss. Tareq is always in our minds. To Jill, I say, hang in there habeebti. We are all here praying for you, fully supporting your choice to report in Iraq.
It has been two days since the release of the most recent heart-wrenching video, in which my dear friend Jill is weeping and begging for her life! Ah! I guess hope is what keeping us going. Knowing that she is still alive is enough consolation to make me keep the faith. In the mean time, the following article provides some analysis of the latest video. Here are some excerpts:
