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Iraq

U.S. journalist free after 82 days in Iraq

Early morning calls to family spread the good news. She says her captors never threatened to hurt her.

By wire services
Published March 31, 2006

BAGHDAD - American reporter Jill Carroll's three-month hostage ordeal ended about 12:15 p.m. local time Thursday, when she was left on a Baghdad street in front of a Sunni political party office. Afterward, she appeared composed and eager to talk about her 82 days held captive in a tiny room.

"It's important people know that I was not harmed," she said.

Wearing a green Islamic head scarf and a gray robe, Carroll was dropped off near the Iraqi Islamic Party's branch office in the western part of Baghdad.

Party officials did not immediately recognize the 28-year-old freelance journalist, who was snatched off the streets of Baghdad on Jan. 7 in a bloody ambush that killed her translator.

"When she knocked on the door, we thought she was one of the sisters of our political party," said Tariq al-Hashimi, the party's secretary general.

Carroll, who had been working for the Christian Science Monitor, handed officials 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,"' he said.

Hashimi said that Carroll had interviewed party leaders before but that he had no idea why she was delivered to their office. He had been among several prominent Iraqi politicians who had made repeated appeals for her freedom.

The party took her to its headquarters in the Yarmouk district. Before the U.S. military could transfer her to the American Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone, she called her family.

Carroll's father, Jim, at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., said he was asleep when the phone rang about 6 a.m. EST. "Hi, Dad. This is Jill. I'm released," the voice on the other end said.

"Obviously we are thrilled and relieved that she has been released," he said.

Near Chicago, the reporter's mother, Mary Beth Carroll, said she was trying to figure out travel plans so she could hug her daughter again. "We're thrilled," she said.

Carroll's release came a day after her twin, Katie, pleaded on Arab television for her freedom. On Thursday, the sisters also spoke by phone.

"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."

David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor, said he learned of Carroll's release on his way into work when he received a call from her father at 6:10 a.m.

"When I saw it, I thought some reporter must be bothering Jim. Because I'm the one who's supposed to chase the reporters away," Cook said. "And then he told me what was happening, and it was wonderful. It was just stunning."

Carroll seemed well and animated and spoke in a strong voice. She said she spent her days sitting in a small room with one window, made opaque by curtains and frosted glass. Although her captors issued televised threats to kill Carroll if American forces did not release female prisoners, she said, "They never said they would hit me, never threatened me in any way."

U.S. officials freed five of the nine prisoners around the time of the threat, but they said that their release was unrelated to the demand. Officials at the Ministry of Justice said five female detainees remain in Iraq.

During her captivity, Carroll said, she was allowed on only one occasion to read a newspaper and watch television, and she was largely unaware of what was happening in the outside world.

"They didn't tell me what was going on. They would come, bring me my food, it was fine," Carroll said. "I would sit in the room. If I had to take a shower, I would walk 2 feet to the next door, take a shower, go to the bathroom and come back."

Carroll said she did not know who her kidnappers were, where she was held or why she was set free. Shortly before she was released, the journalist said, "They just came to me and said, "Okay, we're letting you go now.' That's all."

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said there was no ransom paid by the American Embassy, but his remarks left open the question of whether "arrangements" were made by others. None of the kidnappers were captured, he said.

The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, said no money had been exchanged for Carroll's release.

Hashimi also denied knowledge of a ransom payoff or his party's involvement in negotiating Carroll's release.

President Bush said he rejoiced at the news. "I'm just really grateful she was released," he said.

Carroll's statement that the captors never threatened her was a marked contrast to earlier videotapes released by the kidnappers to Arab television stations.

In a video televised Jan. 17 on the Al-Jazeera satellite network, Carroll's captors threatened to kill her in 72 hours unless all female prisoners in American detention facilities in Iraq were released. She was shown crying in a second video on Jan. 30.

Carroll was last seen in a Feb. 9 video broadcast on a Kuwaiti television station. In a calm voice she asked her supporters to do whatever was necessary to gain her release and her captors gave a Feb. 26 deadline for their demands to be met.

Information from the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Knight Ridder and Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified March 31, 2006, 01:10:06]