Since Jill Carroll has now issued a statement herself saying her propaganda statement was coerced we are moving this post to the top of this site. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for newer posts. See UPDATE in BOLD FACE on bottom for part of her statement.
Christian Science Monitor correspondent Jill Carroll’s release did have a price — a fee paid in the form of a propaganda statement she was ordered to videotape, her paper reports:
The night before journalist Jill Carroll’s release, her captors said they had one final demand as the price of her freedom: She would have to make a video praising her captors and attacking the United States, according to Jim Carroll.
In a long phone conversation with his daughter on Friday, Mr. Carroll says that Jill was “under her captor’s control.”
Ms. Carroll had been their captive for three months and even the smallest details of her life – what she ate and when, what she wore, when she could speak – were at her captors’ whim. They had murdered her friend and colleague Allan Enwiya, “she had been taught to fear them,” he says. And before making one last video the day before her release, she was told that they had already killed another American hostage.
That video appeared Thursday on a jihadist website that carries videos of beheadings and attacks on American forces. In it, Carroll told her father she felt compelled to make statements strongly critical of President Bush and his policy in Iraq.
Her remarks are now making the rounds of the Internet, attracting heavy criticism from conservative bloggers and commentators.
Indeed, it is a bit easy for someone sitting on his fat butt at a computer in his livingroom or bedroom to blast someone who has made the kind of statement captors have demanded of prisoners in other instances. You can go back to the Vietnam War for other examples of this kind of forced statement.
And, yes indeedy, these statements are used for propaganda purposes. But they mostly deliver a message to the choir or near-choir members — those who already support the captors or are leaning in that direction. They don’t sway most people who see the statements because it’s clear what they are: coerced statements.
In fact, how Carroll responded to it is the way she should have responded to it, the Monitor points out:
In fact, Carroll did what many hostage experts and past captives would have urged her to do: Give the men who held the power of life and death over her what they wanted.
“You’ll pretty much say anything to stay alive because you expect people will understand these aren’t your words,” says Micah Garen, a journalist and author who was held captive by a Shiite militia in southern Iraq for 10 days in August 2004. “Words that are coerced are not worth dying over.”
But here is the problem: most people DO realize those are not her words.
Some who are now going after her for it have other concerns on their plates. Politics today means attack and pigeonholing. To simply step back, take a deep breath and consider an issue — or seek or press for more facts — is perceived as “mushy.”
And, to be fair about it, everyone knows that those who are blasting her for making the statement would have said this if they were in her place:“No way! Then just kill me now. All of my friends, all of my co-workers, the whole world will think this is a spontaneous statement if I say it. In fact, I DARE YOU. Go ahead: saw my head off right now!”
They would have refused to make the statement. Really: trust them, if they suggest it as they sit in their homes risking all as they work on their laptops.
Shortly before her release, her captors – who refer to themselves as the Revenge Brigade – also told her they had infiltrated the US diplomatic compound in Baghdad, and she would be killed if she went there or cooperated with the American authorities. It was a threat she took seriously in her first few hours of freedom.
There are many questions about Carroll’s release, as the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz points out. That’s a separate issue.
So, in essence, there are apparently some who suggest Jill Carroll is a wimp.
And, to be fair, have no doubt: there is no way she could ever be as brave as those who sit on their fannies in their homes at their keyboards not just raising legitimate questions about the release but demonizing her, hurling adjectives at her and politically pigeonholing her.
And, honestly, why shouldn’t she be harshly criticized, politically defined by others and demonized?
After all, she’s a member of that lilly-livered mainstream media that never risked a thing for a story — unlike those of us who have weblogs and have to worry all the time about our servers going down…
LATEST UPDATE: As of Saturday afternoon Carroll has issued a statement confirming that her statement was coerced. CLICK HERE for the full statement. Here is part of it:
During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me they would let me go if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed.
Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not. The people who kidnapped me and murdered Alan Enwiya are criminals, at best. They robbed Alan of his life and devastated his family. They put me, my family and my friends–and all those around the world, who have prayed so fervently for my release–through a horrific experience. I was, and remain, deeply angry with the people who did this.
I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be aired on television, and broke their word. At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear I said I wasn’t threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times.
Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: That I refused to travel and cooperate with the US military and that I refused to discuss my captivity with US officials. Again, neither is true.
I want to be judged as a journalist, not as a hostage. I remain as committed as ever to fairness and accuracy–to discovering the truth–and so I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes.
Now, I ask for the time to heal. This has been a taxing 12 weeks for me and my family. Please allow us some quiet time alone, together.
UPDATE:
— Crooks & Liars is also disgusted by some of the commentary on Carroll. The quote John Amato includes from one of Carroll’s critics is truly stunning. Read it yourself (we will pass on posting it or linking to it here).
—A Blog For All:
It isn’t hard to understand why Carroll made those tapes. She was coerced. The problem isn’t Jill Carroll, but the coerced propaganda coup that will make things more difficult for the US, Iraqis, and coalition forces. I also fear that this will make things more difficult for journalists operating in Iraq who are not necessarily embedded with coalition forces. I figure that we’ll get to hear more about her ordeal in the coming weeks, which should help shed light on what had happened.
MORE ADDITIONAL VIEWS: Since some readers have asked for a larger sampling of views we offer this.
—Ed Morrissey (a leading conservative blogger):
Not long ago, the US acknowledged that even its POWs had to make these kinds of bargains with captors to avoid torture and murder. Many brave men died at the hands of the North Vietnamese trying valiantly to remain defiant through years of captivity because of the prevailing orders at the time that forbade American servicemen from acting in their own defense, losses that inspire us to acts of courage but also in the end did nothing to prevent the enemy from using POWs as propaganda tools. By the time of the Gulf War, the American public had developed the sophistication to understand that programmatic answers videotaped by agents of tyranny meant nothing.
I wonder why we forgot it in this instance. Jill Carroll will have plenty of time to tell us her story, but I think we would all benefit by taking a deep breath and holding our fire until she’s safely home and in a clearer mental state. The Christian Science Monitor’s explanation makes sense; if it’s untrue, we’ll know soon enough, but for the moment I think we can all give Carroll the benefit of the doubt.
–Allah Pundit, guest blogging on Michelle Malkin’s site:”In fairness to Carroll, a lot of people would say a lot of things they didn’t mean in those circumstances. Let’s see whether she defends it now. Assuming, that is, that anyone in the media bothers to ask her.”
—Liberal Oasis:
And LO doesn’t want to single out certain hostages and imply that they deserve more attention that others, when in fact every hostage situation is equally disturbing, regardless of the captive’s background.
But the insidious reaction among certain conservatives to the release of Jill Carroll, seemingly trying to undermine her journalistic reputation, is worth noting. Because Carroll is the kind of war correspondent the Right claims to want.
She was under the control of people who have not hesitated to cut the heads off of people in the past. You can not sit here and tell me that these hate mongers on the right would not do the same if in Jill’s position. They would bow down and kiss the asses of their captures while burning the American flag if it was a choice between life and death.
I still have a problem understanding how the right can sit there and say this garbage yet they have no problem defending torture. Hell they could take this and turn it into a great defense for torture. “Look Jill Carroll cracked and said what they wanted to hear just from capture, imagine what some cutting and slicing would do”. Instead they jump on their attack of Carroll and her statement she made while in captivity.
I’ll say it again: this woman is not a soldier, and she was under no obligation whatsoever to hesitate for a nanosecond when asked to participate in producing a propaganda video if she thought that doing so would help win her freedom or, in the alternative, that hesitating might put her in danger.
That said, the videos (well, I guess one video and one web-based segment) are now out there, and they are clearly pieces of propaganda value. Once she’s had a chance to catch her breath and be with her family, she does need to tell us if those are words she would have chosen or not. Because the words are out there now, and they will be used by the enemy. Whether she wants to claim them or not is her choice, but she can’t just leave them bouncing around out there without some clarification.
—Orrin Judd in a post titled “Did She Have a Dentists Appointment She Had To Get To?” writes:”May as well just come right out and say she was a willing participant.”
—Digby:
Jill Carroll has more testosterone in her little finger than all these bedwetters put together. I’m sorry that she has not given the 101st one-handed keyboarders the picture of blood and horror they need to get satisfaction from their safe little offices, but I think it’s highly unlikely these bedwetters would have handled themselves with such fortitude in those circumstances. They are after all, the same brave soldiers who believe the shoe bomber is a greater threat to the nation than having thousands of ICBM’s pointed at every major American city.
If all of these Islamist groups that privately hate America, openly endorse terrorists, and oppose our efforts in Iraq are so overjoyed about Jill Carroll’s release, that should tell you something. As in, she ain’t on America’s side.
What is it about Carroll, in particular, that brings out all this effort and elation by extremist Muslims who wouldn’t lift a finger for any of the American contractors or soldiers held hostage? Ask yourself that. The answer is quite obvious. Jill Carroll’s extremist buddies tell us everything we need to know about her.
—The Mahablog’s “April Fools” post has an extensive roundup and also suggests what the real sticking point with Carroll’s critics is:
No matter how vile and mean and ignorant righties can seem to be, they can still surprise me and get even more vile and mean and ignorant….What set of the feeding frenzy was a video she made while still a hostage in which she criticized George Bush….Even worse, in the eyes of righties, she was quoted as saying after her release that her captors hadn’t hit her and that she was “kept in a safe place and treated very well.â€?
–Conservative blogger Dr. Sanity shows why she has that name:
Jill Carroll was under duress.
Thus, I think we must not judge Jill Carroll for anything she may have said to her captors in any videotape she made with them before her release. We should be patient and allow her time to heal from the psychological trauma she may have suffered. We should understand that anyone undergoing this kind of ordeal is not to be expected to stand up to the threat of death or torture. She has neither the training nor the need to do so. There are no secrets she could have betrayed; and she is not a soldier and has nothing but her own life to protect and defend.
I’m not sure how I would behave under similar circumstances. I know that I would be willing to say anything necessary to stay alive. I hope I would be able to stand up to my captors and not do anything of which I might later be ashamed….We should leave her alone to heal. I wish her well.
—Hootsbuddy’s Place:”Within hours of her release Jill Carroll was the subject of sneering, rabid, unconscionable rhetoric simply because of what she was wearing and her carefully-worded remarks about her ordeal. This column [the Monitor piece quoted above} drives home the simple point that the main job of a hostage is to remain alive.”
—Meryl Yourish:”How about waiting for the facts to come in before accusing the woman of being a traitor to her country? I really hate it when bloggers do this…For God’s sake, the woman was kidnapped at gunpoint, saw her translator shot, and spent 82 days in captivity in fear for her life. You can’t wait one effing day to see if maybe, just maybe, she was making the latest video under duress?”
—Texas Truth:
I am sorry. Sorry to all of those who look at this woman as lucky. Sorry to all of those who look at her as fortunate. Sorry to those who think she had a strong constitution to survive such an ordeal. Have we all been duped? I think so!
My father used to have a saying, “That boy ain’t right.” I amend his statement to be That girl ain’t right. Was the kidnapping a put-up? Was it planned? Did she actively take part? I think the answer to all three questions is a resounding YES!
—Gina Cobb:’
So maybe Jill Carroll will come through with moral clarity about the terrorists who held her, given a little time and distance or a lot of time and distance. That will be seen.
By the same token, anyone who believes in the truth of any statements made by Jill Carroll at the behest of the terrorists, or considers them relevant to any public policy debate, is (a) foolish, (b) pro-terrorist, (c) anti-American, or (d) all of the above. For now though, let Carroll enjoy her freedom again and save your anger for the terrorists who committed the barbaric crime of kidnapping Jill Carroll, killing another person in the ambush, and threatening for three months to kill Jill Carroll.
—In Search of Utopia:”Whatever… These people are beyond being idiots. Cut the woman some slack. If anyone should be accussed of being a Bukkake recipient, it is these morons from the Right, who have taken so many facials from Karl Rove and the Bush Administration, that they should be elegible for the Porn Actors pension fund.”
–Conservative blogger Dr. Rusty Shackleford, a specialist in issues involving terrorist hostages (he covers the issue constantly and takes the issue of freeing hostages beyond blogging) is not pleased with some of the stuff he’s reading:
It’s disturbing that so many are willing to begin naysaying the character of one who has been victimized for the past three months…What would you say to your captors after months as a prisoner? You’d tell them exactly what they want to hear. Remember, the only video we have of Jill Carroll are two segments taped while she was still a prisoner–under a considerable amount of duress. The second video we have is one taped in the offices of The Islamic Party of Iraq–the political front for the same terrorists who had victimized her!..So, let’s reserve judgement on this one until she is free to speak her mind without fear of retribution.
—Incomprehensible Demoralization:”Apparently the sight of a western woman in a hijab is just too much for some people. The swiftboating of Jill Carroll has kicked off in earnest. And it’s disgusting. I don’t know how far I will get on this post before I become too infuriated to write.”
TMV NOTE: We do not usually say “conservative blogger” when we quote in roundups. In this case, we wanted to make sure we underscored the fact that NOT all conservative bloggers are blasting Jill Carroll.
You can also join the discussion of this post on the site The Gather.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.