Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Rallies for Jill Carroll's release occurred in many cities in the world. By PETER GRIER CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR The Feb. 26 deadline tied to the third video came and went. The kidnappers didn't call. They didn't write. They issued no new demands. But public interest in Jill Carroll's plight didn't flag. The Monitor's Team Jill had adopted a strategy early on to take a low-key U.S. media response. They followed the advice of experts who had analyzed The Wall Street Journal's efforts to free Daniel Pearl after he was kidnapped in Pakistan: Ignore the Western media, focus on Iraqi media. The kidnappers and ordinary Iraqis who might generate tips won't be watching Larry King. Still, Carroll's abduction struck a remarkable global chord. There was a series of "Free Jill" rallies in Paris. A giant poster of her was hung from the city hall in Rome. Students at the University of Massachusetts (where Carroll went to school) and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (where Carroll grew up) held rallies and candlelight vigils. Thousands sent donations to a fund set up to support the family of Alan, Carroll's Iraqi interpreter. A jazz song was composed in her honor. Paintings and poems were sent to the Monitor offices. And prayers were said at hundreds of churches, mosques and synagogues around the United States. A 45-year-old man from Fremont, Calif., was one of half a dozen Americans who offered to take Carroll's place. "I would like to emphasize the fact that I am definitely not suicidal nor would I relish having my life cut short. ... "I'm offering myself as a replacement for her as a hostage or even as a potential martyr for her outstanding work as a balanced and compassionate journalist," he wrote. After the fury over the Feb. 22 Samarra bombing and the backlash over Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, it seemed wise to lower Jill's media profile until emotions calmed somewhat. From about mid-February, no public service ads were broadcast. Campaign restarted On March 7, the two-month mark of Carroll's abduction, the Monitor restarted the PSA campaign in Iraq. It distributed a video to Iraqi news outlets that included clips from an Al- Sharqiya TV interview. The Baghdad-based network had interviewed an Iraqi family that Jill had written a story about in the spring of 2005. A toddler had been left paralyzed by a suicide bomber, and her family had been left homeless. Carroll had profiled the family and later brought money to them sent by readers. The story illustrated her compassion for Iraqis. But it also highlighted how Carroll's personal and professional history made it easy to generate public support for her in the region. On March 10, the U.S. State Department announced that they had found the body of American Quaker activist Tom Fox. He had been taken hostage Nov. 26, 2005, along with three other members of the Christian Peacemakers Team. To those working on Carroll's behalf, it was an emotional blow, a harsh reminder that hostages held long enough to become icons with their own TV news logos often get killed. Would PSAs be enough to protect her? As March slipped away, to some involved in the long effort to free Carroll, it was as if they were now coasting — like a car that was moving forward but with the engine off. Twin goes on TV So Team Jill did what they had agreed to do when things seemed too quiet. They'd kept one person in reserve, someone who might get lots of attention and elicit much emotion: Carroll's twin sister, Katie. It was time to put her on TV. The funny thing — the ironic thing — is that Katie and Jill were twins who didn't get along. Not when they were youngsters, anyway. They fought and fought and fought all the way through high school. The points of contention between them were the usual sibling irritants, such as whose turn it was in the shower, and who'd been in whose room, and when, and for how long. They were just different sorts of people, with different lives. Katie was a dancer and looked like a ballerina; Jill loved competitive swimming and had a muscular swimmer's build. But their relationship changed when they went away to college (Tufts University for Katie; the University of Massachusetts for Jill). They spent hours on the phone with each other, and suddenly the person who had been so irritating when they lived in the same house seemed like an invaluable support. After graduation, both ended up working in the same area: foreign affairs. Katie joined an international development firm, based in Washington. Jill pursued her dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. Katie appeared on Al-Arabiya on March 29. She talked about how Jill's kidnapping had affected her family and appealed for information that could lead to her release.