Says Jill Carroll, complimenting her kidnappers, after her release.
ADDED: Let me be clear that I'm not slamming Carroll. She was giving an interview at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baghdad, shortly after her release. She's right to be ultra careful, and she lived through the ordeal, unlike others, so I'd assume she has good sense about how to act.
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She survived. Take a lesson from that, in case you ever find yourself in that situation. It may take a little time to wind down from a mental state that protected her.
"I was kept in a safe place and treated very well."
Well... my first response was to write, "yeah, except where they THREATENED TO KILL HER!!!". But then, what happened to one of my relatives -- a distant cousin of my mother -- in the Philippines came to mind. This relative was kidnapped by what we believe were the Muslim (as opposed to the communist) rebels around a decade or so ago, and he said the same thing: That he was treated rather well, all things considered. He joked that it was sort of a vacation where all he did was watch TV and play cards with his captors. But I knew the context of his story was that 1. He was amazed that such heartless folks could appear so banal and actually be non-abusive, and 2. If anyone even hinted that maybe those folks weren't so bad, he'd thoroughly explain that he knew they'd kill him in an instant without regret if he tried to escape, or if the family didn't even bother to try to negotiate the ransom and would just flat-out refuse to pay. His point in saying that was that yes, he wasn't treated badly at all, but that we shouldn't read too much into the kindness -- which, in reality was just a lack of abuse -- because it was really just a waiting period for them, and that he was really just a pawn, an object on which they didn't have to expend energy being abusive.
My point is this: Let's see what context Ms. Carroll provides later. Right now, it's too early to see whether she's truly sympathetic to her kidnappers, or simply expressing the same surprise that my mom's cousin did. It's possible that she's -- to coin a phrase -- completely been Stockholmed. Or, it's possible that she'll go in the completely opposite direction and say, 'wait a minute, I only said I was treated well. I'm not apologizing for them'.
I think Carroll was still in Baghdad when she made the statement. I'm sure I'd have said the same thing too. Wait 'til you're firmly back home before saying what you really think.
She needs time to decompress. Anything she says about her captors can probably be taken with a grain of salt for awhile -- until she sorts it out herself. Any debriefing will help and I'm sure the gov't or the CSM has gotten (or will get)her some critical incident counseling.
(from the article)In a video aired Jan. 17 on the Al-Jazeera satellite network, Carroll's captors threatened to kill her in 72 hours unless all female prisoners in American detention facilities in Iraq were released. She was shown crying and clad in a black headscarf in a second video aired without sound on Jan. 30 by a group calling itself the Vengeance Brigade.
I would say kipnapping someone, threatening to kill them, and making them cry on a video is by definition not treating them well. Everyone seems inclined to give her a break right now which I'd guess is reasonable. What I am afraid of is that people (not necessarily on this blog)are also giving the kidnappers a break based on her comments, something that is clearly not reasonable.
Well, she has clean looking teeth so we can assume she wasn't made to grovel too much in the dirt at the feet of her captors. Dumbness aside, we can't relate to the ordeal, we simply can't. Perhaps having to live with a vicious mother-in-law comes close, I don't know, or boot camp. I was in boot camp and very intimidated by the DIs, but it's still small potatos compared to her ordeal.
It's true this is probably more fear than belief. She was also dressed more conservatively that when she appeared on her tapes begging for rescue.
What's interesting is that the news presents a rescued kidnapee without context, again implying that these kidnappers are good folks. The one Aussie who spoke out against them and thanked the US was villified in the press.
Let's see, they dressed her in funny clothes, threatened to kill her, and made her cry on video. Wouldn't that be described as torture if it took place at Abu Ghraid.
-good point, Merv
P-A-T-T-Y H-E-A-R-S-T
Peace, Maxine
for heaven's sake
its crystal clear to me she wants to make it known to everyone who is worried about her that, apart from captivity, she was not maltreated, e.g., physically abused.
this statement is meant for her loved ones.
all this stockholm syndrom nitpicking of her statement is absurd.
As usual, the filth that populate Little Green Footballs wish her well and are glad she's alive. This is typical of the comments section, and no different than the bloggers' attitude:
"She's probably coming home with a suitcase full of cash (her kickback) and a dose of the clap."
There's really nothing so awful that could happen to any of those people at that blog that I wouldn't celebrate with champagne. What despicable, hateful, slimy creeps.
You know until Miss Manners writes a book about excruciatingly correct behavior for hostages that are lucky enough to be returned alive and with all their parts, I guess we'll just have to settle with being happy she's home and glad she wasn't mistreated any more than the obvious mistreatment of being kidnapped and held hostage.
But I think it would be better for Miss Manners to write a book about excruciatingly correct behavior for all those who can't possibly imagine what she went through and yet feel the need to parse every word and movement as if she had any control over her situation. I'm glad she's back. I'm glad she wasn't physically harmed. I can only dimly imagine the relief her family must have at having her back and physically whole, and the fear that has to behind it of what she endured and what it has done to her mentally and emotionally. The rest is likely to take a long time, maybe the rest of her life, and she deserves our support, whatever that means from strangers, not our idle musings about what we think she really meant.
"There's really nothing so awful that could happen to any of those people at that blog that I wouldn't celebrate with champagne. What despicable, hateful, slimy creeps."
Those horrible, terrible people! How could they be so horrible as to harshly criticize this woman! Why, they're so horrible for speaking ill of someone that I would celebrate their deaths with champagne!
praise be to allah?
That's right, Palladian. And no apologies for it either. The LGF crowd are bottom-feeding scum suckers. F*ck 'em, all of 'em. Sometimes there's just no other proper reaction than utter, complete disgust.
Dunno, duck. They're like something out of bad leftwing satire. How can people live in such a state of nastiness, day in and day out? They must wake up to Ann Coulter affirmations over a nice, big bowl of venom every morning.
Elizabeth:
Let's not lose all sense of proportion here. Which is worse --making crude, tasteless comments on "Little Green Footballs," or joining the Islamic Vengeance Brigade so you can kidnap people and threaten to behead them?
tjl and tcd: you're both arguing a false dilemma. Go play in the sewer with your Little Green Snotball friends.
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