Eat your words, Jonah: Carroll was coerced
Still feeling a little creeped out, Jonah? Because Jill Carroll has completely disavowed all the propaganda statements she was forced to make.
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) - 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.”
She also recanted what she had said in her first interview, where she said she had been “treated well” and wasn’t threatened.
In the statement, Carroll also disavowed an interview she gave to the party shortly after her release. She said the party had promised her the interview would not be aired “and broke their word.”
“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,” she said. “Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: One - that I refused to travel and cooperate with the U.S. military, and two - that I refused to discuss my captivity with U.S. officials. Again, neither statement is true.”
In other words, I was completely right in my first post, when I said it looked like Carroll was being coerced. My post was written two hours before Jonah Goldberg — with access to the same information as I — said the following:
MAYBE IT’S JUST ME [Jonah Goldberg]
But Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me. The details are still murky and it’s hard to appreciate what she’s been through. And maybe JPod’s right about Stockholm syndrome. And maybe the media’s selectively choosing what to show of her statements. But it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors, particularly about the fact that they murdered her translator in cold blood. I’m very glad she’s alive, but I’m getting a very bad vibe. More, no doubt, to come.
And now, his apology:
Me: In all sincereity: good for her. I take Carroll at her word and hope nothing but the best for her. I’m sure it was a terrible ordeal and I think, barring some major revelation, this should put an end to the criticism of her. Leave her be. I’m sorry for suggesting that she might have believed what she said. I hope there will be some apologies coming from those who did believe what she said.
It’d look a whole lot better if he hadn’t just written this an hour earlier:
If you go back and read what I’ve posted, I said that Carroll’s statements didn’t scan.
No, Jonah, you out-and-out accused her of siding with the enemy with these words: “it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors.”
Classy. Very classy. Gotta love that rush to judgment.
And that goes for my commenters here, too. Have a little crow, with a side dish of apologies, on me.

