Happy Ending: American Hostage Journalist Jill Carroll Released

Even in a cruel world where terrorism automatically breeds grief stricken fatalism, there can be a happy ending: The Christian Science Monitor’s Iraq correspondent Jill Carroll has been released:

American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted in early January by gunmen in Baghdad, was released to a Sunni Arab political party in the capital Thursday morning after 82 days in captivity.

“I was treated very well. That’s important for people to know,” she said in an interview with an Arabic-speaking questioner at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party. “They never hit me, they never even threatened to hit me. I’m just happy to be free, and I want to be with my family.”

The Washington Post piece goes on to note the happy scene:
Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor, was brought to party headquarters just after 1 p.m. local time (5 a.m. EST) and was able to borrow a phone from a party member and speak with her parents and her twin sister. She also spoke with a Washington Post reporter, who drove to the office and met with her.

While Carroll was inside the party compound, U.S. military vehicles arrived, some remaining outside to provide security, others entering the main gate. She later departed with U.S. Embassy personnel.
On The Christian Science Monitor’s update page on Carroll’s plight today was a happy day as they were able to post this:

Responding to the news of Carroll’s release, Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim said, “this is an exciting day, we couldn’t be happier. We are so pleased she’ll be back with her family. The prayers of people all over the world have been answered.

The AP gives more details about her initial comment:

“I was treated well, but I don’t know why I was kidnapped,” Carroll said in a brief interview on Baghdad television.

Even though the group threatened twice to kill her in videotapes, Carroll said, “They never hit me. They never said they would hit me.”

She was wearing a light green Islamic headscarf, a gray Arabic robe and looked well.

“Obviously, I want to be with my family,” she could be heard to say under the Arabic voiceover.

“I’m just happy to be free. I want to be with my family.

Another story reports that a friend of hers knew she’d be one of the few who would be able to emerge from what seemed to be an irrevocable death sentence unscathed:

David Hutchinson, 55, said he and his family have been closely following Carroll’s story since she was kidnapped in a bloody ambush that killed her translator. The Hutchinsons are very fond of Carroll, whom they watched grow up.

“She and her sister both were terrific sort of big sisters, just role models,” he said.

A friend of Hutchinson called him at 6:30 a.m. after hearing the news on the radio. Hutchinson immediately switched on a television, and the entire family cried together at the good news.

He said that he knew all along that Carroll would be successful in eventually convincing her captors to release her.

“We always believed that she’d figure out a way to get herself free,” he said.

“She’s just really smart and really dedicated. Everything I know about Iraq, I learned about reading everything she wrote,” said Hutchinson, who would correspond via e-mail with Carroll when she was living in Iraq.

The New York Times adds this:

She appeared strong and confident and waited patiently for the interviewer to ask his questions before answering, sometimes asking for clarification. She said that she did not know where she had been held, adding that her room had a window but that it was obscured, and that she had been allowed to walk to a shower nearby. She had been able to watch television once and had seen a newspaper once, she said, but was not aware if there were any negotiations.

“All I can say right now is I am very happy,” Ms. Carroll said. “I am happy to be free and I want to be with my family.”

Ms. Carroll was dropped off today at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a predominantly Sunni group, in western Baghdad.

Dr. Tariq Al-Hashemi, the party’s general secretary, said in a news conference that Ms. Carroll walked in to the office dressed in Islamic garb and handed officials there a paper written in Arabic.

“The message said, ‘This is the kidnapped American journalist and we ask you to take her to an official party,’ ” Mr. Al-Hashemi said.

Mr. Al-Hashemi said that Ms. Carroll had interviewed party leaders before, but that he had no idea why she was delivered to their office. He said his group had joined in the condemnation of the kidnapping.

The Times also reports the Monitor’s editor as saying there were absolutely no negotiations for her release and no contact with her captors.

And so a saga ends, with some things to think about:

• It underscores again the fact that although the mainstream media is often under fire, its reporters are the ones who in Iraq are literally putting their necks on the line. (Writing a blog in an office and analyzing news reports is a tiny bit more secure).

• She clearly was someone who knew the language and the culture, something not all reporters master quite as successfully. Being a person considered to be of good will in Iraq can matter little (remember Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl).
• There had been enormous condemnation due to her capture from all quarters in Iraq and all over the world.
• Her capture was a mistake: it became clear that she had a track record for knowing the culture and language, trying to understand the dynamics in detail (versus accepting any preconceived perspective), had widespread support and was also a woman. Her execution would have been more than a triple whammy blow in terms of worldwide condemnation.
• As horrific as videos of captured hostages always are, some of the videos of Carroll in captivity seemed to backfire even more because it unjderscored the nature of terrorists who seize hostages and threaten to murder them: they’re bullies operating under the guise of politics on an international scale.

And Carroll? After her ordeal she’ll write a story, be sure to get a book deal that will be turned into a movie and likely get a staff job on a newspaper and put her paid-by-the-piece correspondent days behind her. And who could be more deserving and equipped given her reported track record on preparing for a news beat and her ordeal?

Here’s a timeline on Carroll’s saga.