It's a terrifying occupational hazard for journalists covering wars these days, kidnapping. It's become all-too familiar. the masked gunmen, constant dread. Today it happened again. two journalists working for FOX NEWS were kidnapped in GAZA. No group has claimed responsibility so far.
tonight, we bring you the story of a reporter who survived in Iraq, in her own word. Jill Carroll of "the christian science monitor" spent 82 days in captivity, her ordeal captured the ateng of the word. Now in an interview conducted by her colleague on these monitor. jill tells what was like T first time to be held hostage in Iraq.
reporter: jill carroll's ordeal began on an ordinary day for her in bag ad. she was leaving the office of an iraqi politician and gunmen stormed her car.
my no got louder and louder. I realized they weren't stopping. they were cing at us with gun.
within seconds, as she was being forced back into the car, jill saw her friend and translator, Allen killed in cold blood.
bending down and shoved over I was looking out the corner, the crack of a door was open, and I saw Allen was there and I saw them kill Allen.
He was ooh Iraqi 3shgs 2 years old, a husband and father of two small children.
His death marked every moment of Jill Carroll’s 82 days in capital tist. She knew the men who held her were capable of anything.
We’ve seen the videos of people being beheaded and killed.
We know what happens when you are kidnapped and they were saying they are—it was clear. I saw them kill Allen. I knew they had no problem with that.
She was in more danger than sheknew. The insurgents who captured jill carroll were pary of the same network that captured and killed many others. Including the American acttist Tom Fox and Margaret hus san. Dan Faufr. The monitor’s middle east correspondent, spearhead the paper’s efforts to win jill’s freedom.
These guys are scary individuals. They’ve been involved in an at least six other kidnappings of foreigners, same group of fellas, we know they probably killed hundreds of Iraqi. They plant imro viced bops, involved in encouraging suicide bombs and arming them. These guys are largely drawn from anbar province, west of bagdad, real deal
And Jill Carroll recalls they were thrilled to have nabbed her, one of the captors phoned home to tell his family they were on their way with a guest.
He was saying, got me—got the phone, called home and said my mother and my sister and my wife are so – they love you so much, they are so happy you are coming. You’ll meet them all. They love you very, very much. Can’t wait to see you. Saying in broken English.
That grotesque contrast between cold-blooded murder and family life was one of the most striking things Jill Carroll learned in the Iraqi insurgency during her captivity. This isn’t an army, it’s a family affair.
Not just random men getting together. It’s through family, maybe tribal. Communal relations. You walk into the house and you know the father is an insurgent, you take him way, that wife will raise her kids and that little son to fight and to kill. The whole family is—the operation. What will you arrest all of hem? The kids? So it’s not--- youcan’t do that
Even the women Jill met in captivity were totally committed to the Jihad, the holy war.
One day, during the second or third day, we were in the kitchen and her husband came in, that guy and he says, you know, she wants to be a suicide bomber. And I’m always like, oh, yeah, I do. Really blushing, he was praising her and she was proud of it. And I was like--- she’s got three little kids on the kitchen floor playing, I’m playing with the kids, they are make dinner and she’s four months pregnant.
And the male suicide member who helped out in the kitchen was explosive—laden vest.
Open flame, gas stove, sit back carefully to cook because the heat would set off the dynamite.
The weeks and then months passed, Jill’s captors forced her to make videos being for release.
Please just do whatever they want.
Ordering her to cry for the cameras. She hated it.
She’s for your enemy.
On the other side of the world, jill’s family was doing everything possible to get her out. Her dad made TV appearances trying to humanize his drughter.
Where the moment we go that first call. All perspective changed. It’s very clear once you have a message like that. All other priorities in life become irrelevant.
For Jill, every decision she made could mean life or death. Contract time her captors told her she could watch TV.
I know shouldn’t I watch anything that will make him upset. News is out. Anything with Iraq out. So I found – English channel, came across oprah on channel is dubai. She won’t have anything word, naked women running around, we watched oprah. And Arabic sutitles so he could see what it was.
Thought about escaping. Several types she thought she was about to be killed and she reached a point a point of despair.
You don’t know that that word means until you rally feel it. Doesn’t like I very powerful thing but it is. It hurts. It actually hurts, physically hurts.
And then like that, without warning. It was over.
They just came to me and said we’re letting you go now.
Bounded in a car and one of the captors started giving her money.
$100 bills, this is for--- because we’re sorry for your trouble, this is for your computer, tell your father and mother we’re sorry. Paid this money, each bill was about something to pay their debt.
Then they pushed her out of the car in front of the headquarters of an Iraqi political party, forced to make yet another video and first thing she wanted to do was tell her twin sister Katie she was coming home.
They gave me one of the phones to call my sister. I cried Katie, Katie I’m free!
A Plucky, lucky reporter with a great story and if you would like to see more of Jill Carroll’s interview and read her story of her 82, see website.
