Jill Carroll has released a statement through the Christian Science Monitor, now that she has safely left Iraq and the clutches of her captors, that repudiates the video that the kidnappers forced her to make:

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.

It's worthy to note that she gives effusive thanks to the US military for their efforts before and after her release, a gracious note that the organization for the hostages freed earlier through direct military action could not bring itself to do. As I wrote last night, the explanation given by the CS Monitor and confirmed today by Carroll herself makes perfect sense. Had people thought for a moment before committing their initial responses to their blogs, they would have understood the video and her first statement as nothing more than the ticket for her release.

Had the Iraqi Army released a video like this during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom with Jessica Lynch, all of us would have immediately understood it to be nothing more than a cheap propaganda trick. Why did so many in the blogosphere not understand that the same dynamic was at work with Jill Carroll? Was it the widely-distributed picture of her wearing traditional Muslim garb and severe glasses that made us forget that she had been the victim of a kidnapping and kept under threat of force for almost ninety days? Now that we have a new picture of hers to use, does the initial reaction seem a lot less understandable?

In this event, we gave the terrorists their talking points by jumping to an unfair conclusion. The reaction of people to her statement gave the terrorists credibility that they never would otherwise have had and ensured that their propaganda got the maximum amount of play. The real story is contained in this statement, made when she finally got out of the war zone -- and it will never get the amount of play that her initial report did.

Finally, for those who blamed her for being in Iraq in the first place, let me remind you that we have continually harped on the media for being balcony reporters -- for not getting outside of the Green Zone and trying to get the true stories of Iraq. Well, that's what Jill Carroll tried to do, and she got unlucky enough to get kidnapped for her efforts. We need reporters to take those kind of chances, and we should have been more supportive of her all along. Now that she's home, let's hope we remember that with the next reporter unfortunate enough to find themselves the victim of violence and not victimize them a second time when they cooperate enough to be set free.

UPDATE: Joe Gandelman has been kind enough to make this post his Quote of the Day, although I think I might choose Rick Moran's "Twice A Victim" for that honor. I've perused the sites linking to this post and the Carroll statement at Memeorandum (that absolutely invaluable tool for bloggers); Joe and Rick have a series of excellent posts on this subject, and Rusty has been going wall-to-wall as he does on all hostage stories.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Jumping To Conclusions Is Not Good Exercise:

» Jill Carroll — Speaking Freely from bRight & Early
Jill Carroll, the freelance journalist held in Iraq for three months, has made a statement from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Today's statement is a complete reversal of the things she said immediately following her release — with good reason. Pr... [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 5:51 PM

» Think, type, post, voila! (oops) from Polimom Says
Ya know, the new media has a lot of great things going for it: people can dialogue, network, call out crazies on the opposite side of their personal issue fences - it’s all good. But there’s one heck of a downside: it’s instantaneous.... [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 7:20 PM

» Jill Carroll is Headed Home from Blue Star Chronicles
  As everyone knows, Jill Carroll is on her way home. She has gotten some criticism for statements made immediately after her release.   This was obviously an amateurish attempt at propaganda on the part of the kidnappers.   I also seriously wonder... [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 8:19 PM

» Just One Minute from Macmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense
ccording to ranking contact in Germany today, the last part of her statement is simply not true. She did resist. They reason those facts were "widely reported" is that they came from the source. [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 9:55 PM

» Just One Minute from Macmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense
ccording to ranking contact in Germany today, the last part of her statement is simply not true. She did resist. They reason those facts were "widely reported" is that they came from the source. [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 10:09 PM

» Just One Minute from Macmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense
ccording to ranking contact in Germany today, the last part of her statement is simply not true. She did resist. They reason those facts were "widely reported" is that they came from the source. [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 10:10 PM

» Look Before You Leap from Joust The Facts
Jill Carroll's release is news. It's not often that a female journalist captured in Iraq and threatened with death again and again emerges after three months with her head still attached to her body. I'll sheepishly admit to harboring private [Read More]

Tracked on April 1, 2006 11:16 PM

» Jill Carroll and her Former Hosts Captors from damnum absque injuria
Oh my God, can you believe the crazy stuff Jill Carroll said on video while still in the custody of the guys who had murdered her translator and publicly threatened to murder her (but not to hit her, which apparently is all that matters)? The nerve of... [Read More]

Tracked on April 2, 2006 11:45 AM

» Judge Not lest ye be judged... from In Search Of Utopia
Remember this? Well you would think now that the truth is out about what happened to Jill Carroll, someone owes her an appology... Ya Think? NAW! See that would be the classy thing to do... The right thing. But some... [Read More]

Tracked on April 2, 2006 6:13 PM

» Amen to this from Fish Fear Me
Captain Ed comments on the criticism of Jill Carroll and has the right perspective I think when he notes that Jumping to conclusions is not good exercise. Had people thought for a moment before committing their initial responses to their [Read More]

Tracked on April 2, 2006 8:50 PM

» Premature Articulation: The REAL Jill Carroll for Jimmy Carter Geraghty and Others w/Reading Comprehension Deficiencies from Debbie Schlussel
By Debbie Schlussel Here's a note to you bloggers--especially the suddenly blind conservative ones--who want Jill Carroll to be what she is not. Please read it VERY CAREFULLY and S-L-O-W-L-Y, as some of you seem to have premature articulation and... [Read More]

Tracked on April 2, 2006 11:19 PM

» Amen to this from Fish Fear Me
Captain Ed comments on the criticism of Jill Carroll and has the right perspective I think when he notes that Jumping to conclusions is not good exercise. Had people thought for a moment before committing their initial responses to their [Read More]

Tracked on April 3, 2006 12:08 AM

» Last Week’s News, In Platitudes from Chapomatic
Re the Jill Carroll release: First reports tend to be always wrong and always believed. Hitting the “publish” button before thinking hard can cause troubles. It is useful to understand what’s going on before hitting that button. ... [Read More]

Tracked on April 3, 2006 1:04 AM