Carroll Disavows Statements Against U.S.

Posted on Apr 1, 2006

AP / Michael Probst

U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, 28, is welcomed by base commander Col. Kurt Lohide after she landed at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, southwestern Germany, Saturday, April 1. Carroll, a hostage in Iraq for 82 days, was released Thursday.

The freed American journalist said her captors forced her to make the anti-U.S. propaganda tape, and told her she would be released if she cooperated.

UPDATE: Carroll lands safely in Boston.

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AP:

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - Protected by the U.S. military and far from the country where she had been held hostage, Jill Carroll strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in
Iraq and shortly after her release, saying Saturday she had been repeatedly threatened.

In a video, recorded before she was freed and posted by her captors on an Islamist Web site, Carroll spoke out against the U.S. military presence. But in a statement Saturday, she said the recording was made under threat. Her editor has said three men were pointing guns at her at the time.

“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 cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed,” she said in a statement read by her editor in Boston.

“Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not.”

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