-> G21 MIDEAST
 BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you.
VA LOAN INFORMATION and VETERANS' MORTGAGES  KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis
New Orleans is the Lost City of America.A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.
Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now!
 AFRICA FRESH! New Voices from the First Continent
An anthology of African writing only featured on the Internet until now, this book features the collected works of writers for the G21 AFRICA section of G21.net. The eight writers represented here are from around the continent and present an exciting look at cutting-edge fiction and reporting from the first continent today.Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF copy now! |
To read this article in Deutsch, Francaise, Italiano, Portuguese, Espanol, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Russian, instead of English, copy and paste the complete URL ("http://www.g21.net/midE19.htm") and enter it in the box after you click through.
TRUTH SPEAK Ten Years of Continuous Truth-Seeking 1996-2006 G21 AFRICA G21 MIDEAST JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. It contains more jokes than not. G21 NEWS G21 PERSON OF THE YEAR 2005 DAY ONE GLOBAL*BEAT HOT LINKS IRISH EYES NEW YORK STATE SMOKE & MIRRORS TABLOID HART LAST WEEK's EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. We know you're lazy. Here's a button for a quick translation of this page. Just click on the flag for your country. You're welcome! OR TRY THIS GOOGLE TRANSLATION SERVICE. |
G21 MIDEAST: FOR JILL CARROLL - In her debut column, Natasha Tynes, a former editor for Al Jazeera, come to The World's Magazine speaking about her friend, Jill Carroll, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, kidnapped in Iraq last week and helps our readers take action for this brave woman's release.
Washington, DC, USA - January 09, 2006 - Oh God, not Jill!!
Natasha Tynes Oh my God. I'm in utter and complete shock. My hands are trembling as I'm writing this. My very good friend Jill Carroll has been kidnapped while on assignment in Iraq for The Christian Science Monitor!!
She is one of the kindest, most sincere, honest people I have ever met. She is a very motivated journalist who always went out of her way to seek the truth. I'm speechless. My words escape me at this moment. The knot in my stomach is more than I can bear. I pray to God to protect her and bring home safely. She really doesn't deserve this. She has been working ha rd for years to report the true side of the story.
I met Jill while working at the Jordan Times three years ago. She has become a dear friend since then. She attended my wedding and was even a supervising usher working hard to make our big day a success. Please, God, return her home safely!
PRAYING AND HOPINGFor the last two days, both the husband and I have been extremely stressed out, worried about the fate of our dear fiend Jill. We are still very hopeful that she will make it, primarily because she speaks Arabic and has been in the region for more than three years. Maybe her understanding and love for Arab culture will be a key to her getting out of this horrible ordeal.
She is the sweetest, most caring, most honest person you could ever meet. What kind of a person would want to hurt Jill? Will the kidnappers have any mercy left in them for her? We are hoping and constantly praying that they will. As this story has developed, so have the reactions from the blogosphere. Here are a few thoughts from those that knew her personally. This from Baghdad Treasure:
She was in love, but not with a man. She was in love with Iraq and its people. She always felt that she belongs to this country. It was obvious in her eyes. once, I had hamburger for lunch. "What is this?" she said sarcastically. "You leave all this delicious Iraqi food and eat a Hamburger?" she used to come to the office when she has time and we spend great time altogether. I wonder what she is doing now. It's cold. Is she covered well? She was kidnapped wearing her light black abaya. She used to call it a "bullet-proof abaya" but it seems she was mistaken. I am afraid that she might die out of the shock seeing her translator, the friend, killed in front of her.On the blog 24 Steps to Liberty a fellow reporter in Baghdad relates:She loved this country and its people. She sympathized with its sufferings and committed to tell the truth. When I talked to her about how the Iraqis live, she always cried. She cried for the sufferings of Iraq more than Iraqis. She has the nicest heart in this world. When I blamed Iraqis for what is happening in the country, she said "don't blames the Iraqis. You should blame the governments for what they do." I remember once we were chatting and I asked her, "so where is home for you?" And without hesitation or a moment to think, she said "This is home. Iraq. Why? What's wrong with that?" and as the chat goes on, at some point she smiled and said "I know my fate is in Iraq."NBC News Correspondent Richard Engel highlighted the story on the MSNBC blog, pointing out how:The small community of reporters in Baghdad (shrinking by the month) has pulled together around the kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll in a way I have not seen here before. It could be because she's friendly, always smiling, or because we respect her ambition - young and gutsyäbut I think it's mainly because she was alone and vulnerable.
The picture included here is one I took of her nearly three years ago at a restaurant in Amman. There is nothing that we can directly do to save her and it is driving Jeff and I crazy. We just have to keep hoping and praying. From my part, on this blog, Jill's ordeal will be given top priority. Her story will never be buried. I'm going to start a countdown of the number of days she has been in captivity. So far she has been kidnapped for five days! For those interested in her reporting, here are a few links to two National Public Radio stories with Jill in Real and Windows Media formats. Please God, bring her home safely.
The Christian Science Monitor published a brief update today on efforts to get Jill freed:Vigorous efforts are under way on many fronts !=- by the Monitor, many media organizations, and government forces in Iraq -!= to locate and secure the release of Jill Carroll, the freelance reporter kidnapped January 7 in Baghdad while on assignment for the Monitor. No one has yet claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.
20 January Update: January 20, 2006
Jill's father appeals for her release on Al JazeeraThe deadline the kidnappers initially gave will expire later today but efforts to save my very dear friend's life are still ongoing, non-stop. The latest major effort was an appeal by her dad who appeared on the Arab world's two most watched satellite TV channels: Aljazeera and Al Arabiya. This is what he said:
Jim Carroll speaks on Al Arabiya I want to speak directly to the men holding my daughter Jill because they may also be fathers like me. My daughter does not have the ability to free anyone. She is a reporter and an innocent person. Do not sacrifice an innocent soul ... as a father, I appeal to you to release my daughter for the betterment of all of us. And I ask the men holding my daughter to work with Jill to find a way to initiate a dialog with me. -- Source: [CNN]Also Friday, Arab satellite channels aired a news conference held by Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Conference for People of Iraq:
Adnan al DulaimiI urge the men who kidnapped this journalist, Jill Carroll, to release her for the sake of God and our country and our religion and our honor. We, in the Conference for People of Iraq, will demand those conditions of releasing the detainees in the Iraqi and American prisons. We will demand this by word, negotiations, and talks with Iraqi and American officials. This act tore me apart and pained me if it wasn't embarrassing, I would cry. In the name of God, in the name of religion, in the name of any word of sympathy that exists in Iraq, I urge you to release this female journalist. -- Source: [Washington Post]UPDATE: Agence France-Presse (AFP) is reporting that securing Jill's release is a "top priority," according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan:AFP: Securing abducted US journalist Jill Carroll's release from Iraq is a priority for the United States, the White House said Friday, as the deadline loomed on her captors' threat to execute her. "The safe return of any American hostage is always a top priority, wherever they are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. But he would not say what steps, if any, Washington was taking to secure her release.UPDATE 2: A demonstration of support for Jill is being held today at the Grand Mosque of Paris by Reporters sans frontiéres:With the ultimatum given by the kidnappers of US journalist Jill Carroll due to expire this evening, a demonstration in support of Carroll was held today at the Grand Mosque of Paris by Reporters Without Borders, mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur and former French hostages Florence Aubenas, Roger Auque, Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, Roland Madura and Ivan Cerieix.Calling for Carroll's release, the participants pointed that today's demonstration was being held exactly one year after a similar show of support for Aubenas, who was finally freed and was able to take part today, and they said they hoped that today's appeal would also be heard by those holding Carroll in Iraq.
NATASHA TYNES is a Jordanian journalist based in Washington DC. She has worked for publications across the Middle East, including Al Jazeera, the Jordan Times and Amman's Star newspaper. Her beat is covering issues in and about the Middle East for The World's Magazine. Her exclusives here begin in February. This her debut column reprinted from her blog Mental Mayhem.
2005 was a bad year for journalists. More journalists were killed, all over the world, than in the last twenty years. No matter what you think of us, it shouldn't be that way. The people working to bring you the truth should not be targets. - RA
© 2006, GENERATOR 21.
E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your snide remarks to rod@g21.net.