Jill Carroll (born October 6, 1977) is an American former journalist who worked for news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, and the Christian Science Monitor. On January 7, 2006 while working for the Monitor, she was kidnapped in Iraq, attracting worldwide support for her release. Carroll was freed on March 30, 2006. After her release, Carroll wrote a series of articles for the Monitor on her recollection of her experiences in Iraq. She participated in a fellowship at Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and returned to work for the Monitor. She later retired from journalism and began working as a firefighter.
Early life and career
Carroll was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She attended Huron High School in Ann Arbor and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1999. After college, Carroll worked as a reporting assistant in Washington, D.C., for the Wall Street Journal and worked for States News Service. Carroll then moved to Amman, Jordan as a journalist for The Jordan Times, before going to Iraq at the start of the US invasion in 2003 to report for various news outlets there.
Kidnapping
On January 7, 2006, Carroll, along with an interpreter and driver, traveled to the Adel district of Baghdad to interview Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni politician and leader of the Iraqi People's Conference. After discovering that al-Dulaimi was not at his office, they left and soon after were ambushed by masked gunmen. The driver, Adnan Abbas, managed to escape, but Carroll was kidnapped and her interpreter, Alan Enwiyah, 32, was shot dead and his body abandoned nearby by the kidnappers during the abduction. Carroll's driver, quoted in a story posted on the Monitors website, said gunmen jumped in front of the car, pulled him from it, and drove off with their two captives all within 15 seconds.
Enwiyah, also known as Alan John Ghazi, was formerly a well-known music retailer in Baghdad. According to the New York Times, Carroll was the 36th foreign journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq since the Iraq War began in March 2003.
Among the many kidnappings in Iraq, Carroll's kidnapping evoked one of the most widespread outcries. "We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim said in January. "I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world," Mary Beth Carroll told CNN's American Morning on January 19, 2006. In efforts to locate and rescue Carroll, U.S. forces initially raided a mosque in the west of the capital after a tip that "activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside," triggering angry protests from Sunni Muslim citizens.
Sunni political leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, whom Carroll was attempting to visit when she was kidnapped, gave a press conference on January 20, 2006, and gave the following statements. This act has hurt me and makes me sad because the journalist was trying to meet me when she was kidnapped. After she left my office because she was unable to meet me, she was kidnapped 300 meters from my office. We are against violence by any group, and we call the government and U.S. forces to stop raiding houses, arresting women. I call upon the kidnappers to immediately release this reporter who came here to cover Iraq's news and defending our rights.
Media blackout
The Monitor requested that a media blackout regarding the kidnapping take place. One did, lasting until January 9th. The Monitor claims it was 'criticized in some corners' for this choice.
First video and prisoner release
On January 17, 2006, Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera aired a silent 20-second video-tape that showed Carroll, and indicated that, in an accompanying message, an as-yet unidentified group was giving the United States 72 hours to release all female prisoners in Iraq. If that demand were not met, the group says it would kill Carroll. The silent video showed Carroll speaking in front of a white background. The Qatar-based station said the kidnappers identified themselves as members of a previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Brigades of Vengeance".
On January 27, 2006, five female Iraqi prisoners were released from U.S. custody. The U.S. military claimed the releases were already planned and had nothing to do with Carroll's kidnapper's initial threat to kill her within 72 hours unless all female detainees in Iraqi prisons were released.