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U.S. wants kidnaped american journalist killed

War On Truth | 18.01.2006 02:01

Iraq is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists and the place where the most are kidnapped. 77 journalists and media assistants have been killed there since the fighting began on 22 March 2003 and 31 kidnapped.


US citizen, Jill Carroll who speaks fluent Arabic, was kidnapped on January 7th in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. She is a freelance journalist who has been writing for the Christian Science Monitor. Gunmen ambushed her car and killed her translator after she left the offices of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab leader who failed to show up for a prearranged interview.

Today, her abductors issued a statement saying they will kill her if the United States does not free all Iraqi women prisoners within 72 hours.
Aljazeera aired a brief video showing the captive journalist and said that the kidnappers had identified themselves as members of a previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Brigades of Vengeance".

The trouble is that the U.S. government does care if she gets killed and are more than happy if more and more journalist are discouraged to report from Iraq. The U.S. military have been responsible for many of the deaths of journalists in Iraq, including bombing the Aljazeera offices and the hotel in which many foreign journalist were staying during the fall of Baghdad. Jill's captors will not find the U.S. responsive to their demands and have clearly picked the wrong person. Jill has not been a supporter of the U.S. occupation and while the U.S. authorities will give lip service to attempts to secure her safe release they would infact be far happier to have her dead and have one less rouge journalist attempting to open peoples eyes to the truth on the ground in Iraq.

Carroll's former employers The Jordan Times published a Sunday editorial, stating: "The kidnappers who abducted her could not have chosen a more wrong target. True, Jill is a US citizen. But she is also more critical of US policies towards the Middle East than many Arabs… Jill has been from day one opposed to the war, to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. "

Aljazeera also reaffirmed its rejection of all forms of violence against journalists and demanded Caroll's immediate release.

Jill's father issued the following statement:

"Jill is an innocent journalist and we respectfully ask that you please show her mercy and allow her to return home to her mother, sister and family. Jill is a kind person whose love for Iraq and the Iraqi people are evident in her articles. She has been welcomed into the homes of many Iraqis and shown every courtesy. From that experience, she understands the hardships and suffering that the Iraqi people face every day. Jill is a friend and sister to many Iraqis and has been dedicated to bringing the truth of the Iraq war to the world.

"We appeal for the speedy and safe return of our beloved daughter and sister."

– Jim, Mary Beth, and Katie Carroll

The Monitor then released this statement:

"Jill Carroll's colleagues at The Christian Science Monitor and journalists around the world appeal to her captors to release her immediately and without harm. They have seized an innocent person who is a great admirer of the Iraqi people. She is a professional journalist whose only goal has been to report truthfully about Iraq and to promote understanding. As an intelligent, dedicated, open-minded reporter, she has earned the respect of her Arab and Western peers. Since arriving in Iraq in 2003, Jill has always been treated as a guest by Iraqis and has sought to reflect their views and their hearts to the world. She has doggedly pursued stories for a variety of news organizations from several different countries. She began to file stories to The Monitor early last year.

"Jill is in our prayers."
– Richard Bergenheim, Editor

There has been a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq over the past few months after a lull during most of 2005. Four Christian peace activists, a Briton, an American and two Canadians are still thought to be being held captive - or else they are already dead.

Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 of them.

Jill is one of an increasingly unusual breed of journalist. Most foreign reporters largely in Iraq now restrict themselves to armored cars shuttling around the American-controlled Green Zone. They cover American officials and the isolated authorities of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

This, emphatically, has not been the case with Ms. Carroll's coverage:
Unlike most Western reporters in Baghdad, Carroll spoke Arabic well enough to easily talk to ordinary Iraqi people and interview Iraqi officials.

"In this poorly understood region, where so much is at stake, important stories are lost everyday because the foreign press corps doesn't speak Arabic," Carroll once wrote. "Journalism is a public service and readers are best-served if I and the people I am writing about speak the same language."

It remains an amazing fact that an American occupation which began largely without Arabic-speakers... has since been covered mainly by reporters who can't communicate directly with the people they're covering.

Her last report was published on Thursday, the day before her translator was shot and she was abducted. Her final report of 2005 noted that things were deteriorating badly in Baghdad:
"Iraqis are saying that 'The purple finger isn't paying off,' in reference to the indelible ink left on a voter's finger."

Google cache of prophetic articles on Jill's Blog  http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:atvSYzbaphUJ:ladyofarabia.blogspot.com/+blog+%22lady+of+arabia%22&hl=en

Even more prophetic, Jill article on kidnapping in Iraq  http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0422/p06s01-woiq.htm


77 journalists have been killed since March 2003 while doing their job.

Two other journalists are still missing :

Frédéric Nérac
of ITV News (UK), since 22 March 2003

Isam Hadi Muhsin Al-Shumary
Suedostmedia, 15 August 2004

These are the names and affiliations of those journalists who died in the line of duty in Iraq starting as early as the first days of war:

Terry Lloyd, 22 March 2003, ITV News correspondent; disappeared in southern Iraq and was declared dead a day later.

Paul Moran, 22 March 2003, freelance Australian cameraman; killed when an apparent human bomber detonated a car at a military checkpoint in north-eastern Iraq.

Gaby Rado, 30 March 2003, correspondent for Britain's Channel 4 TV; fell to his death from the roof of his hotel in the town of Sulaymania in northern Iraq.

Kaveh Golestan, 2 April 2003, Iranian freelance cameraman on an assignment for the BBC; killed after stepping on a landmine in northern Iraq.

Michael Kelly, 3 April 2003, US journalist and Washington Post columnist; killed while travelling with the US army's 3rd infantry division in Iraq.

Kamaran Abd al-Razaq Muhammad, 6 April 2003, translator working for BBC; killed in northern Iraq in a "friendly fire" incident.

David Bloom, 6 April 2003, NBC journalist; died due to illness.

Julio Anguita Parrado, 7 April 2003, New York correspondent for El Mundo daily Spanish newspaper; killed in a missile attack while accompanying the US army's 3rd infantry division south of Baghdad.

Christian Liebig, 7 April 2003, reporter of German weekly magazine, Focus; killed in a missile attack while accompanying the US army's 3rd infantry division south of Baghdad.

Tariq Ayoub, 8 April 2003, Aljazeera TV channel correspondent; killed in a US air strike at Aljazeera office in Baghdad.

Taras Protsyuk, 8 April 2003, Reuters cameraman; killed when a US tank opened fire on Palestine hotel.

Jose Couso, 8 April 2003, cameraman for Spain's Telecinco TV; killed when a US tank opened fire on Palestine hotel.

Mario Podesta, 15 April 2003, correspondent for Argentina's America TV; died in a car crash while travelling from the Jordanian border to Baghdad.

Veronica Cabrera, 15 April 2003, freelance camerawoman for Argentina's America TV; died in a car crash while travelling from the Jordanian border to Baghdad.

Elizabeth Neuffer, 9 May 2003, foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe; killed in a car accident in Iraq.

Walid Khalifa Hassan Al-Dulami, 9 May 2003, translator accompanying foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe in Iraq; killed in a car accident.

Richard Wild, 5 July 2003, British freelance cameraman; gunned down in central Baghdad.

Jeremy Little, 6 July 2003, Austrian journalist with NBC News and embedded with the US 3rd infantry division; died of post-operative complications, days after being injured in a grenade attack.

Mazin Dana, 18 August 2003, a Palestinian cameraman with Reuters; shot dead by US soldiers while filming outside Baghdad's Abu Gharaib prison.

Mark Fineman, 23 September 2003, Los Angeles Times correspondent in Baghdad; died as a result of an apparent heart attack while waiting for an interview in the office of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC).

Ahmad Shawkat, 28 October 2003, editor of the Iraqi weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction); killed by unknown gunmen in the city of Mosul.

Duraid Isa Muhammad, 27 January 2004, producer and translator for CNN; killed in an ambush carried out by unknown assailants outside Baghdad.

Ali Abdul Aziz, 18 March 2004, cameraman for Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel; shot dead by US troops in central Baghdad.

Ali al-Khatib, 18 March 2004, al-Arabiya TV channel journalist in Iraq; shot dead by US troops in central Baghdad.


Here is a full list:

28.11.2005 - Akeel Abdul Rwdha, AL-Iraqia

07.11.2005 - Ahmed Hussein Al Maliki, Tall Afar

19.10.2005 - Mohamed Haroun, Union of Iraqi Journalists general secretary

21.09.2005 - Firas Al-Maadhidi, Al-Safir

20.09.05 - Hind Ismail, Al-Safir

19.09.2005 - Fakher Haydar Al-Tamimi, New York Times

27.08.2005 - Rafed Al Rubaii, Al Irakiya

02.08.05 - Steven Vincent, freelance journalist

22.06.2005 - Yasser Al Salihy, Knight Ridder

03.07.2005 - Maha Ibrahim, Baghdad TV

01.07.2005 - Khaled Sabih al Attar, al-Iraqia

28.06.2005 - Wael Al Bakri, Al Charkiyah

22.06.05 - Jassim Al Qais, Al Siyada

15.05.2005 - Najem Abed Khodair, Al-Madaa and Tariq al-Shaab

15.05.2005 - Ahmad Adam, Al-Madaa and Sabah

23.04.2005 - Saleh Ibrahim, Associated Press

15.04.2005 - Shamal Abdallah Assad, Kirkuk TV, Kurdsat

14.04.2005 - Ali Abrahim Aissa, Al-Hurriya TV

14.04.2005 - Fadel Hazem Fadel, Al-Hurriya TV

01.04.2005 - Ahmed Jabbar Hashim, Al Sabah

14.03.2005 - Houssam Hilal Sarsam, Kurdistan-TV

10.03.2005 - Laik Ibrahim, Kurdistan-TV

25.02.2005 - Raeda Mohammed Wageh Wazzan, Iraqiya

09.02.2005 - Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Al-Hurra TV

01.11.2004 - Dhia Najim, Reuters

27.10.2004 - Liqaa Abdul-Razzaq, Al-Sharqiya

14.10.2004 - Karam Hussein, European Pressphoto Agency

14.10.2004 - Dina Mohamad Hassan, Al Hurriya Television

7.10.2004 - Ahmad Jassem, Nivive television

12.09.2004 - Mazen al-Tomaizi, Al-Arabiya

26.08.2004 - Enzo Baldoni, Diario della settimana

15.08.2004 - Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, ZDF

15.08.2004 - Hossam Ali, freelance

03.06.2004 - Sahar Saad Eddine Nouami, Al-Mizan, Al-Khaima, Al-Hayat Al-Gadida

27.05.2004 - Kotaro Ogawa, Nikkan Gendai

27.05.2004 - Shinsuke Hashida, Nikkan Gendai

07.05.2004 - Mounir Bouamrane, TVP

07.05.2004 - Waldemar Milewicz, TVP

19.04.2004 - Assad Kadhim, Al-Iraqiya TV

26.03.2004 - Bourhan Mohammad al-Louhaybi , ABC News

18.03.2004 - Ali Abdel Aziz, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Ali Al-Khatib, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Nadia Nasrat, Diyala Television

28.10.2003 - Ahmed Shawkat, Bila Ittijah

17.08.2003 - Mazen Dana, Reuters

02.07.2003 - Ahmad Karim, Kurdistan Satellite TV

07.04.2003 - Julio Anguita Parrado, El Mundo

07.04.2003 - Christian Liebig, Focus

08.04.2003 - Tarek Ayoub, Al Jazeera

08.04.2003 - Taras Protsyuk, Reuters

08.04.2003 - José Couso, Tele 5

04.04.2003 - Michael Kelly , Washington Post

02.04.2003 - Kaveh Golestan , BBC

23.03.2003 - Terry Lloyd, ITV News

22.03.2003 - Paul Moran, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Luaay Salam Radeef, Al-Baghdadia Cameraman

Allan Enwiyah, American journalist Jill Carroll’s interpreter

21.09.05 - Ahlam Youssef , Al-Iraqiya TV

17.09.2005 - Sabah Mohssin, Al-Iraqiya

28.08.2005 - Waleed Khaled, Reuters TV

23.07.2005 - Adnan Al Bayati, Rai, Mediaset, TG3 and Panorama

02.09.2004 - Ismaïl Taher Mohsin, Associated Press

25.08.2004 - Jamal Tawfiq Salmane, Gazeta Wyborcza

29.05.2004 - Mahmoud Ismael Daood, bodyguard, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

29.05.2004 - Samia Abdeljabar, driver, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

27.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

25.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

21.05.2004 - Rachid Hamid Wali, cameraman assistant, Al-Jazira

29.04.2004 - Hussein Saleh, driver, Al-Iraquiya TV

26.03.2004 - Omar Hashim Kamal, translator, Time

18.03.2004 - Majid Rachid, technician, Diyala Television

18.03.2004 - Mohamad Ahmad, security agent, Diyala Television

27.01.2004 - Duraid Isa Mohammed, producer and translator, CNN

27.01.2004 - Yasser Khatab, driver, CNN

07.07.2003 - Jeremy Little, sound engineer, NBC

06.04.2003 - Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, translator, BBC

22.03.2003 - Hussein Othman, translator, ITV News

See also
 http://search.csmonitor.com/2006/0113/carroll_update.html
 http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Etude_Irak_Eng_PDF.pdf

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