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Articles: Freed US journalist 'manipulated'

Posted by admin on Sunday, April 02, 2006 - 08:01 AM

The US journalist released after being held hostage in Iraq for three months has distanced herself from comments published straight after her release.

Jill Carroll appeared happy on arrival at the Ramstein base

Jill Carroll said she was forced to make a "propaganda video" on her last night in captivity. Speaking at a US base in Germany, Ms Carroll also said she did not speak freely in an Iraqi TV interview, which she was told would never be broadcast. She called her captors "criminals, at best" saying she was often threatened. In a statement read to the media by the editor of the Christian Science Monitor, the US newspaper she reported for before her capture, Ms Carroll said she no longer stood by remarks she made on her release.

The people who kidnapped me and murdered Alan Enwiya are criminals, at best

Jill Carroll

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. "They told me I would be released if I co-operated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed." 'Fear of retribution' Ms Carroll was kidnapped and her translator was killed in west Baghdad on 7 January. She was freed on 30 March and was dropped off at the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

She appeared on Baghdad TV wearing a headscarf

In her statement on Saturday she accused the group of breaking an agreement not to broadcast an interview recorded after her release. "The party had promised me the interview would never be aired on television, and broke their word," she said. "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." In the interview, Ms Carroll, 28, had said her captors treated her "very well" and did not hit her. In Germany, however, the freelance reporter was much more direct. "The people who kidnapped me and murdered Alan Enwiya are criminals, at best," the statement read. "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."

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