Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Kidnapped journalist, U. Massachusetts alumna Carroll free
By Katie Huston
Massachusetts Daily Collegian (U. Massachusetts)
03/31/2006

(U-WIRE) AMHERST, Mass. — University of Massachusetts alumna Jill Carroll, the American journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq on Jan. 7, was freed Thursday morning after 82 days of captivity.

"I was treated well, but I don't know why I was kidnapped," Carroll said in a brief interview on Baghdad Television yesterday, wearing a green head scarf and a gray Islamic robe.

Carroll was on her way to interview prominent Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi in a dangerous western Baghdad neighborhood, on assignment for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor, when gunmen ambushed her car 300 yards from Dulaimi's office. Her translator Allan Enwiya was shot and killed.

Carroll appeared begging for her freedom on three videos that were broadcast on Arab television, the last of which was released on Feb. 9.

An insurgent group, the Revenge Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened in two videotapes to kill Carroll if all female detainees in Iraq were not released by Feb. 26.

U.S. policymakers refuse to negotiate with terrorists, and the insurgency's demands remained unmet as the deadline passed.

On Feb. 28, Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Carroll was being held by the Islamic Army in Iraq, an insurgent group that freed two captive French journalists in 2004.

Over a month of silence later, Jill's father Jim woke at 6 a.m. Thursday in his North Carolina home to the phone ringing. "Hi, Dad. This is Jill. I'm released," he heard his daughter say.

"It was quite a wakeup call, to say the least," he said. "I was glad to see her on TV this morning. She's apparently in good health and mentally strong and we're all very pleased about that."

Carroll was dropped off near a branch office of the Iraqi Islamic Party at about 12:15 p.m.

She "introduced herself as Jill Carroll ... and gave us a written letter in Arabic that asked the Islamic Party help her," Alaa Maki, a party member, told reporters.

Carroll was taken by armored car to the party headquarters, where she was met by American officials and journalists and given gifts, including a Quran, according to the Associated Press.

"I don't know what happened," Carroll said in the televised interview. "They just came to me early this morning and said, 'OK, we are letting you go now.'"

Carroll emphasized that she was treated well in captivity. "It's important people know that — that I was not harmed," she said. "I was kept in a very good small, safe place. They gave me clothing, plenty of food. I was allowed to take showers, go to the bathroom when I wanted. They never hit me or even threatened to hit me."

She did not know where she was being held. "I once did watch television, but I didn't really know what was going on in the outside world," she said. "One time they brought me a newspaper."

Jill's freedom came only a day after her twin sister Katie made an appeal for her release, calling her sister an "innocent woman." The sisters spoke on the phone Thursday.

"She called me because she remembered my number. I was dreaming that this would be the way I'd find out — that she'd call me in the middle of the night like this," Katie said, according to the Monitor. "She sounded great. I just want to thank everyone who's prayed and given us support through this time, and we're obviously looking forward to some private time with Jill."

"I'm just happy to be free. I want to be with my family," Jill said in the interview.

Jill grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich. and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from UMass Amherst in 1999, where she also worked as news editor of the Daily Collegian.

After graduation, she worked briefly for the Wall Street Journal. When she was laid off in 2002, she moved to Jordan and began working for the Jordan Times.

She immersed herself in the culture and learned Arabic. In an article published last year in the American Journalism Review, Carroll wrote that she wanted "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.

Since she has been in the Middle East, Carroll's work has appeared in many publications, including the Monitor, AJR, U.S. News & World Report, and the Italian News Agency.

UMass journalism professor Norm Sims, who taught Carroll in two classes, said even when she was at UMass she "would take on stories that other people backed away from.

"She was undeterred by complications, very accurate. She could be empathetic with people," he said.

Unlike most Western reporters, who are unable leave the Green Zone in Iraq, Carroll moved through the streets of Baghdad, telling stories that were rarely covered by mainstream media. One article she wrote for the Monitor, titled "Ordinary Iraqis bear brunt of war," told the story of a family that was physically, emotionally and financially devastated by a car bomb 17 months earlier.

"Jill was going out and reporting on the streets and speaking Arabic to people. That's the right thing to do, and it got her abducted," Sims said. "Jill represents the reporting problem that has grown up in this war, where if you do the right thing you put yourself at tremendous risk."

Although Jill is free, Iraq remains the most dangerous place for journalists. As of Jan. 4, more reporters have been killed in the Iraq War than in 22 years of conflict in Vietnam, according to Reporters Without Borders. At least 86 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq and 39 others have been kidnapped since the war started in 2003. Three Iraqi reporters are currently held hostage.

Karen List, another of Carroll's former journalism professors, said Jill's emphasis on the good treatment she received was unsurprising.

"Telling the reporter, 'This is what you need to emphasize,' that is so her," List said.

News of Carroll's release has been met with jubilation, relief, and gratitude.

"Jill is a courageous young journalist who embodies the highest ideals of her profession ... The entire University of Massachusetts community, including the faculty members who taught Jill, and the classmates who studied with her, are thankful for the efforts of all parties who worked so tirelessly to secure her release," said UMass president Jack Wilson.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the U.S. military did not pay a ransom or have any involvement in her release. The Monitor also said it was not aware of any monetary negotiations connected to her freedom.

"We're not shading. We're not hiding. We're just saying what we know. And to our knowledge, no one was paid by anyone," said David Cook, the Monitor's Washington bureau chief.

Instead, Jill's release has been attributed to the global outpouring of support, especially in the Middle East. The Jordan Times ran an editorial on Jan. 16 titled "Our Jill" that praised Carroll's "sincere admiration for Arab culture and utmost respect for the Arab people" and said her kidnappers "could not have chosen a more wrong target." Iraq's state television aired ads in February calling for her release.

A large photo of Carroll was hung outside the city hall in Rome, and Parisians held a rally at the Eiffel Tower for her release a month after she was captured. At UMass, students and faculty attended a rally on Feb. 16.

"This is something that people have across the world worked for and prayed for and I think we are all very pleased and happy to hear of her release," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement yesterday.

It remains to be seen how Carroll will react to the publicity.

"She's in an awkward situation. She went over there to cover this story, and then she became the story," Sims said. "My hope is that she had the opportunity to talk to her captors. I know if she did then she's got a story that can tell us a lot about them. She had the opportunity to talk with people that nobody else can interview."

List agreed that Carroll would not be comfortable with all the focus on her as an individual reporter.

"That really is going to become a big part of her story right now," List said. "My sense is that somehow she will take the spotlight off herself and somehow she'll use this experience to further illuminate what's happening to Iraqi people."

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