Someone, it is not clear who,
dropped Jill Carroll off on Thursday morning outside the Baghdad office of the Iraqi
Islamic Party, a moderate Sunni group.
In an interview with Baghdad television filmed at the party
headquarters after her release, she said her captors had treated her
well.
"Very good treatment, very good treatment. I was kept in a very good,
small safe place, a safe room. Nice furniture. They gave me clothing,
plenty of food. I was allowed to take showers, go to the bathroom when I
wanted. Very good. Never hit me, never even threatened to hit me," she
said.
In the video, Carroll is wearing a Muslim headscarf and appears
animated, happy and healthy. She says she does not know where she was held
and had been largely isolated from news of the outside world.
President Bush said he was "grateful" for Carroll's release. He said he
is glad she is alive, speaking to reporters in Cancun, Mexico, where he is
attending a two-day summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
Speaking in Berlin, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Carroll's
release is a "great delight and great relief."
"This is something that people have across the world worked for and
prayed for, and I think we are all very pleased and happy to hear of her
release," she said.
Carroll is reported to now be with friends and U.S. officials in the
Green Zone. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad says she has spoken to her
family by telephone.
"As I said, she is in great spirit. I did spend some time with her. She
is anxious to get home, and we will do all that we can to help her get home as
quickly as possible," he said.
Ambassador Khalilzad thanked the Iraqi leaders who worked for Jill
Carroll's freedom, and he thanked the Iraqi Islamic Party for its help
after her release.
The party's leader, Tariq Al-Hashemi, told reporters that party members
were astonished when the kidnapped journalist showed up at their office.
"What happened today is that this lady arrived at
the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic party without any advance notice
," he said. "Our
employees and brothers were surprised, that a woman is knocking on the
door wearing Islamic attire. They thought she was a sister from the
party's women's office until she revealed her identity."
He says she was holding a letter, written in Arabic, asking for the
party's help in returning her to U.S. authorities.
Jill Carroll is a freelance reporter who was
working for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper when she was abducted
by a carload of gunmen in
early January. Her interpreter, Allan Enwiyeh, was killed. Carroll spent
82 days as a hostage, and there has been no public word from her captors
since a videotape broadcast in early February, in which they threatened to
kill her before the end of the month.
The newspaper's editor, Richard Bergenheim, said
her colleagues at the paper are overjoyed
that she is free, and cannot wait to see her.
"As you can imagine, this is just one of the most exciting days for all
of us," he said. "We were thrilled to hear that Jill Carroll has been
released and will be back with her family."
The editor read a statement on behalf of the Carroll family.
"Our hearts are full. We are elated by Jill's safe release," he said.
"We would like to thank all of the generous people around the world, who
worked officially or unofficially, especially those who took personal
risks to gain Jill's release."
Ambassador Khalilzad would give few details of the circumstances
surrounding her release. When asked whether a ransom had been paid, he
said nobody from the U.S. embassy had "entered into any arrangements with
anyone."
|