Mujahedeen Jill Carroll?
A lot of people are expressing skepticism about her captivity and release, and not just bloggers.
ABC notes:
ABC News has found a video on an insurgent Web site showing U.S. reporter Jill Carroll before she was released by her captors in Iraq. The circumstances surrounding the video are unclear and it is equally unclear whether Carroll was under duress during the taping.
The tape appears to have been made earlier today, before Carroll's captors released her, but the time of the taping has not yet been confirmed by ABC News.
Carroll, 28, had been held for three months by an Islamic jihadist group that refers to itself as the Revenge Brigade. The group had demanded that the United States release all Iraqi women from its prisons in exchange for Carroll's release.
In the video uncovered by ABC News, Carroll is shown being interviewed by an unknown person and refers to her imminent release.Howard Kurtz:
I must say, though, that I found her first interview yesterday rather odd. Carroll seemed bent on giving her captors a positive review, going on about how well they treated her, how they gave her food and let her go to the bathroom. And they never threatened to hit her. Of course, as we all saw in those chilling videos, they did threaten to kill her. And they shot her Iraqi translator to death.
Why make a terrorist group who put her family and friends through a terrible three-month ordeal sound like they were running a low-budget motel chain?
Now perhaps this is unfair, for there is much we do not know. We don't know why Carroll was kidnapped and why she was abruptly released. She says she doesn't either, but surely she must have gotten some clues about her abductors' outlook and tactics during her 82-day captivity. Maybe she was just shell-shocked right after being let go. Maybe she won't feel comfortable speaking out until she's back on American soil. But this is what people are buzzing about.It could also be the Stockholm Syndrome. But it certainly raises some questions.
