Posted on 02/09/2006 1:02:50 PM PST by SmithL
U.S. journalist Jill Carroll has appeared in a video aired on a private Kuwaiti TV channel appealing for her supporters to do whatever her Iraqi kidnappers want to secure her release.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Zainab. Well, isn't that cute.
I initially thought that she was just young and dumb (and the product of lefty MA parents), and had blundered into her situation by trusting the wrong folks. I knew that she wore Islamic garb and had contacts with some rather dubious people, but there are plausible explanations for that.
The fact that the "deadline" is being extended and extended - as has happened in the case of virtually all of the complicit female "hostages" - and now the demands are getting vaguer and vaguer is making me rethink the whole situation, however.
Personally, I don't think the women were released for this reason - I had read something some time before about a plan to release certain people who had been determined not to be a threat - but I hope we don't do anything else in the future that even makes it look as if we are giving in to these (very possibly spurious) threats.
I haven't seen Viking Kitties yet, but I have been called a "Jackass" and "disgraceful" for saying what I said. I guess if one can't argue their point, use nasty name calling instead.
Amen!
That is 100 percent K-R-A-P. The responsibility always rests with the criminal, never with the victim. Was she foolish? Maybe. That shouldn't reduce our sympathy for Jill Carroll in any way. It should increase it.
Hmmmmmm... to be crazy would preclude that they don't have the capacity to realize the mussies are crazy. We may be on to something.
Why is the belief "justifiable"?
I think you are half right. I am convinced she is a hostage but only for money. If she were a hostage for a political cause she would already be dead. I have no doubt there are negotiations with family or with the newspaper for the price of her release. Actually, in the past year virtually all kidnappings in Iraq have been about money.
Really she was a human shield for Saddam?
Bottom line: she is not embedded with US troops, so therefore she is undermining the war effort and getting US troops killed.
I have no sympathy for journalists, none, zip , nada. They have no business in US war zone, save for press briefings presented by military spokesmen.
There have been many many kidnappings of foreign nationals (and wealthy Iraqis) in Iraq in the past year and not one of them has been killed because demands weren't met. Money is the driving factor and the hostage takers usually have inflated ideas about how much money Americans have. They'll demand millions and then spend months negotiating it down to 1 or 2 hundred thousand as they realize the price is too high. They often throw these people on video with some political demand while they continue to negotiate the ransom. For every high profile one like her there are 10 that don't merit being shown on TV, and most of them are men. You should not draw any conclusions from the fact she is still alive other than that the hostage takers don't plan to kill her for political gain. Terrorist kidnappings and televised executions seem to have lost their appeal among terrorist groups.
What you say is true, she certainly doesn't look very scared in the latest video. I do pray they don't kill her as they are beasts.
Again, I agree with you. After doing a little Googling, I found this:
"The irony of Carrolls kidnapping is that it has been journalists like herself who have taken great risks to immerse themselves in the real Iraq to get the real stories. Stories not about the war itself, but about the wars impact on average Iraqis. Journalists are here to tell the world about the occupation, so kidnapping a journalist is going to hide the truth, said Muthana Harith al-Dari on Wednesday. Dari, a leader of Iraqs Muslim Scholars Associations, an umbrella group for a number of leading Sunni clerics, issued a plea to the kidnappers to let Carroll free. She is considered one of the best journalists who stood against the American occupation of Iraq and she focused her articles on telling the world about the Iraqi peoples suffering. http://www.italknews.com/view_story.php?menu=&submenu=World&sid=1223
Sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned.
Good catch there. Thanks.
It's possible.
Excellent find.
"You can assume that we all are ignorant about the fact that you volunteered to be a "human shield" for Saddam's pre-war facilities, including weapons depots..."
Would like to see a link for that posted here.
Whatever happened to those 4 "Christian Peace Activists" that were kidnapped, what - months ago? I never heard an update.
Something's up here: Is it possible, that Carroll was involved in her own kidnapping?
Will ditto that because it is what my husband and I have both said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.