Carroll Kidnapping Reaches One-Month Mark With No Word On Her Fate

By: Joe Strupp It's been one month since the abduction of reporter Jill Carroll in Baghdad and her fate remains unknown, according to editors at the Christian Science Monitor, for whom she was freelancing at the time of her kidnapping.

"We continue to explore every avenue that we can think of," said David Cook, the Monitor's Washington bureau chief and lead spokesman for the paper on the Carroll search. "We are working closely with her family and exploring every option."

In Europe, meanwhile, Carroll's plight has been gaining attention in recent days. First, a large poster of Carroll's photo has been hung outside the city hall in Rome, where it will reportedly remain until she is found. Today, a demonstration in Paris urged support for Carroll's eventual release.

Actress Juliette Binoche and former French hostage Florence Aubenas were involved in the Paris event, according to Reporters Without Borders, which staged the demonstration to mark the one-month anniversary of Carroll's abduction.

The group released 30 white balloons from the human rights esplanade at Trocadero, overlooking the River Seine, to mark each of Carroll's 30 days in captivity, according to the organization's Web site.

Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert M?nard told the group that it was "essential to demonstrate." "Thirty-seven journalists have been kidnapped since the start of the war in Iraq in March 2003," he added. "Five of them losing their lives."

Carroll, 28, was kidnapped on Jan. 7 in an incident in which her translator was killed. Since her abduction, two videos have been released by her kidnappers, the last showing an apparently frightened Carroll asking for help, but without sound. The kidnappers also have demanded that all Iraqi women prisoners be released in exchange for Carroll's freedom.

Since that demand, the U.S. has released five Iraqi women prisoners, but continues to hold three others. Monitor editors would not comment specifically on what efforts are being made to find Carroll, but they have previously indicated that the paper's two current Baghdad staff reporters have been involved in the process. Those reporters, Scott Peterson and Dan Murphy, have been unavailable for comment.

"There is no new word," said Managing Editor Marshall Ingwerson. "We've still got our same two guys there."