Public Support for Hostage Jill Carroll On the Rise

LYS ANZIA – WNN Features

Jill Carroll safe and happy at home in the U.S. before her travels to Iraq. Carroll was captured following an interview she conducted as a freelance journalist for The Chrisitan Science Monitor.

Jill Carroll is still alive. This is the good news.

According to a Feb 10 Christian Science Monitor report, a recent film released by Kuwaiti TV station and Al Rai TV depicts a stronger more determined Jill Carroll. This broadcast was aired to audiences in the Arab language television network and beyond.

In the video Jill looks straight ahead into the eyes of the camera and says:

“Today is Thursday, February 6 – [corrects herself] – February 2, 2006. I’m with the Mujahideen. I sent you a letter written by my hand that you wanted more evidence so we’re sending you this new letter now just to prove that I am with the mujahideen. I’m here, I’m fine. Please, just do whatever they want, give them whatever they want as quickly as possible. There is a very short time; please do it fast. That’s all.”

Carroll’s fate has now been extended to Feb 26 by her captors.

To mark the one month anniversary of Carroll’s captivity public demonstrators, from the city halls of Rome, Italy to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, have gathered together for one cause. To save the life of a dedicated journalist. Film celebrity Juliette Binoche offered her support adding her presence in public solidarity along with former French hostage, Florence Aubenas.

Last Sunday, February 5, Rome major, Walter Veltroni, made his own show of support placing a billboard sized poster of a smiling and self-assured Jill Carroll in Rome’s city hall building atop Capitoline Hill. The poster will be kept at the top of city hall until the hostage is released, said a statement by Veltroni.

A few weeks earlier, Jelloul Bouzidi, Grand Mufti of the Mosque of Paris along with Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi and the Council on American Islamic Relations offered public pleas in efforts to encourage the swift release of Jill Carroll.

On the first days of February, an editorial was released by the Jordan Times stating:

“With her firm rejection of any propaganda, her resolve to serve the truth, even at great personal risk, and her determination to expose the horrors of war and the suffering of the Iraqi people, Jill makes one of the best ambassadors Arabs could ever hope for.”