AL-JAZEERA TELEVISION Tape of American hostage airs in Iraq

The journalist's family pleaded for her release.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Hostage American reporter Jill Carroll appeared in a silent 20-second video aired Tuesday by Al-Jazeera television, which said her abductors gave the United States 72 hours to free female prisoners in Iraq or she would be killed.
The tape showed the 28-year-old reporter sitting in front of a white background and speaking, but her voice could not be heard. On the tape, Carroll is pale and appears tired, and her long, straight brown hair is parted in the middle and pulled back from her face.
Al-Jazeera would not tell The Associated Press how it received the tape, but the station issued its own statement calling for Carroll's release. An Al-Jazeera producer said no militant group's name was attached to the message that was sent to the station with the silent tape Tuesday.
However, a still photograph of Carroll from the videotape that later appeared on the Al-Jazeera Web site carried a logo in the bottom right corner that read "The Revenge Brigade." The group was not known from previous claims of responsibility of violence in Iraq.
Pleas from family
Carroll was a free-lance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, and the newspaper released a statement from her family pleading with her captors to set her free.
"Jill is an innocent journalist and we respectfully ask that you please show her mercy and allow her to return home to her mother, sister and family," the statement said. "Jill is a friend and sister to many Iraqis and has been dedicated to bringing the truth of the Iraq war to the world. We appeal for the speedy and safe return of our beloved daughter and sister."
In its own statement appealing for Carroll's release, the newspaper said she arrived in Iraq in 2003 and began filing stories for the Monitor early last year.
The kidnappers "have seized an innocent person who is a great admirer of the Iraqi people," the newspaper said. "She is a professional journalist whose only goal has been to report truthfully about Iraq and to promote understanding. As an intelligent, dedicated, open-minded reporter, she has earned the respect of her Arab and Western peers."
The State Department responded to the videotape with a statement that U.S. officials were doing everything possible to win Carroll's freedom.
Also Tuesday, a court official said a Shiite lawyer is expected to take charge of Saddam Hussein's trial in the 1982 massacre of more than 140 Shiites, replacing the Kurdish chief judge who resigned amid claims of government interference in the high profile case.
Judge's replacement
Said al-Hamash, the second-ranking member of the five-judge tribunal trying the former Iraqi leader and seven co-defendants, is expected to replace chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, said Raid Juhi, the top investigating judge who prepared the case against Saddam.
Amin's expected resignation followed complaints over the slow progress of the trial into allegations of Saddam's involvement in the 1982 Dujail killings north of Baghdad after an assassination attempt against him.
Terrorizing neighborhood
Elsewhere, gunmen firing from cars terrorized the western Baghdad neighborhood of al-Baiyaa on Tuesday, slaying a police lieutenant driving to work before three more men -- including an auto mechanic and his son -- were gunned down in the same area.
Earlier in the day, the bullet-riddled bodies of an army battalion commander and his brother were also found in al-Baiyaa. Col. Hussein Shiaa and his brother were abducted Sunday after leaving their base in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
Police found four bound and blindfolded bodies, each shot in the back of the head and dumped in a Baghdad sewer, police said. It was unclear exactly when the four were killed.