Statements made on Jill Carroll's behalf

Statement by Mary Beth Carroll

January 19, 2006

"My daughter, Jill Carroll, was taken hostage on Saturday, January 7th, in Baghdad, where she works as a reporter.

Jill's fairness in reporting and her genuine concern for the Iraqi people made her the invited and welcomed guest of many Iraqi friends.

A video just released gives us hope that Jill is alive, but has also shaken us about her fate. So I, her father, and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the suffering of Iraqis to the world. Jill has always shown the highest respect for the Iraqi people and their customs.

We hope that her captors will show Jill the same respect in return. Taking vengeance on my innocent daughter who loves Iraq and its people will not create justice.

To her captors, I say that Jill's welfare depends upon you. And so we call upon you to ensure that Jill is returned safely home to her family who needs her and loves her. Jill's father, sister, and I ask and encourage the persons holding our daughter to work with Jill to find a way to contact us with the honorable intent of discussing her release."

January 20, 2006

"I want to speak directly to the men holding my daughter Jill because they also may be fathers like me.

My daughter is powerless and does not have the ability to release anyone. She is a reporter and an innocent person.

Do not sacrifice an innocent soul. Instead, use Jill's abilities as a reporter. Allow her to be your voice to the world. Her life as a reporter would better serve your purpose than her death.

As a father, I appeal to you to release my daughter for the betterment of your cause. I ask the men holding my daughter to work with her to initiate a dialogue with me."

Jim Carroll appeared on two Arab-language television networks, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya on Jan. 20, 2006.

You can publish this as a statement on my behalf condemning this act, although it's going to expose me to danger, but if you think it's going to help, I don't mind publishing it. We refute this act. It's absolutely condemned.

I promise you again, I'll do my best to release this journalist. Kidnapping her is an act against the Iraqi people. Nobody accepts this at all."

– Adnan al-Dulaimi, Iraqi Accordance Front, by telephone in Kuwait, Jan. 18

The Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brothers, Mohamed Mahdi Akef, calls on the kidnappers of the American journalist Jill Carroll to release her immediately, so as to close the door in front of those who are conspiring against the Iraqi resistance, aiming at distorting its image in front of the world and showing it [the Iraqi resistance] as merely terrorist operations that deserve American aggression.

[The Supreme Guide] stresses that the means of resistance should remain noble. The efforts of all factions should be focused on working to liberate Iraq from the tyrannical occupation which took the lives and humiliated hundreds of thousands.

The Supreme Guide calls on all Iraqi factions to protect civilian lives, Iraqis or not, and especially the lives of reporters and media workers who came to expose the crimes of occupation."

– Mohamed Mahdi Akef, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Cairo, Jan. 18

We condemn, denounce, and censure all acts that expose innocent citizens' lives to danger.... If it is against journalists, then it's a double mistake because journalism is for the sake of everybody. So attacking the journalists, whether by threatening, kidnapping, or killing them, is going to conceal the truth....

Regarding the recent kidnapping of the American journalist ... if it was done by some anti-occupation forces, then this is a message from us to make them understand the situation and release her in order to allow her to go back to work and participate in uncovering the real reasons for the American occupation in Iraq and the violations against its people."

– Muthana Harith al-Dari, Muslim Scholars Association, an umbrella group for leading Sunni clerics in Iraq. A statement made on Jan. 18 to Al Sharqiya television in Iraq.