news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060330/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_carroll_released
AP Few Details Emerge on Carroll's Release By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - Wearing a green Islamic head scarf, American reporter Jill Carroll walked into an Iraqi political party office Thursday, set free nearly three months after being kidnapped in an ambush that killed her translator.
"I was treated well, but I don't know why I was kidnapped," Carroll said on Baghdad television, only weeks after she appeared weeping in a video put out by kidnappers who had threatened to kill her. Her family thanked "the generous people around the world who worked officially or unofficially" to gain her freedom. Her father, Jim, said he was asleep in his North Carolina home when the phone rang at about 6 am "Hi, Dad. I'm released," the voice on the other end said, he told CNN. No details were given about the circumstances surrounding her release. The US ambassador said there was no ransom paid by the American embassy, but his remarks left open the question of whether "arrangements" were made by others.
President Bush said, "I'm just really grateful she's released, and I want to thank those who worked hard to release her and we're glad she's alive." Her translator was killed in the attack about 300 yards from al-Dulaimi's office. The previously unknown Revenge Brigades claimed responsibility. The group threatened twice in videotapes to kill Carroll. They never even threatened to hit me," she said Thursday, wearing a gray Arabic robe. Carroll said she was kept in a furnished room with a window and a shower, but she did not know where she was. It was difficult because I didn't know what would happen to me," she said. She said she was allowed to watch TV once and read a newspaper once. Asked about the circumstances of her release, she said, "I don't know what happened. Falah al-Mohammedawi said Carroll was released near an office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni political organization, in western Baghdad. The party said in a statement that Carroll walked in at 12:15 pm carrying a letter written in Arabic asking the party to help her. Carroll then was transferred to party headquarters, given gifts that included a Quran and was met by fellow journalists and American officials before leaving at about 2:30 pm, the statement said. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met with Carroll and said she was in good spirits and anxious to go home. The Italian news agency ANSA said Carroll underwent a medical checkup at the American hospital in the Green Zone. Khalilzad also said no kidnappers were "yet" in custody, and no one in the US mission was involved in paying a ransom. "No US person entered into any arrangements with anyone. By 'US person' I mean the United States mission," Khalilzad said. The Monitor said it was not aware of any negotiations involving money for Carroll's release. And to our knowledge, no one was paid by anyone," said David Cook, the Monitor's Washington bureau chief. Carroll's family said it would focus on helping her recover. Jim Carroll told the AP at his house in Chapel Hill, NC, he was waiting to learn more about his daughter's plans before making travel arrangements. In a statement issued by the Monitor, the family said, "Our hearts are full ... We would like to thank all of the generous people around the world who worked officially or unofficially -- especially those who took personal risk -- to gain Jill's release." During Carroll's months in captivity, she had appeared in three videos broadcast on Arab television, pleading for her life. On Wednesday, her twin sister, Katie, made an appeal on the Al-Arabiya network, calling her an "innocent woman." "I've been living a nightmare, worrying if she is hurt or ill," she said.
Her twin sister, Katie, issued a plea for her release on Al-Arabiya television late Wednesday. In the American Journalism Review last year, Carroll wrote that she moved to Jordan in late 2002 "to learn as much about the region as possible before the fighting began." "There was bound to be plenty of parachute journalism once the war started, and I didn't want to be a part of that," she wrote. Carroll has had work from Iraq published in the Monitor, AJR, US News & World Report, ANSA and other publications. She has been interviewed often on National Public Radio. ANSA's editor in chief, Pierluigi Magnaschi, wrote Carroll an e-mail, telling her: "Welcome back, Jill. We worried about you and rooted for you for a long time, with all our strength." Magnaschi invited her to Rome saying, "You deserve this stupendous Rome that is blossoming into spring. Carroll is the fourth Western hostage to be freed in eight days. On March 23, US and British soldiers, acting on intelligence gained from a detainee, freed Briton Norman Kember, 74, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, from a house west of Baghdad. The three belonged to the Christian Peacemakers Teams group and had been kidnapped with an American colleague, Tom Fox, 54, on Nov. Fox was killed and his body was dumped in western Baghdad on March 9 Reporters Without Borders said at 86 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq and 39 others have been kidnapped since the war started in 2003.
American reporter Jill Carroll speaks during an interview with APTV after her release, Thursday, March 30, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. Carroll was set free Thursday, police said, nearly three months after she was kidnapped in a bloody ambush that killed her translator. She was later turned over to the Americans and was believed to be in the heavily fortified Green Zone, he said.
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
|
http://csua.com/feed/