Jill Carroll's Story Completed, 'Weeks' From Publication

By: Joe Strupp Nearly three months after being released by kidnappers in Iraq, Christian Science Monitor Reporter Jill Carroll has filed her account of the 82-day ordeal. But a Monitor spokesman says publication of the story is not expected soon.

"We are several weeks away," said Dave Cook, the paper's Washington, D.C. bureau chief who has acted as a spokesman for Carroll. "She has filed a comprehensive story to us, has written it. It is going through our process."

World Editor Dave Scott described the story as "long and multi-part" but declined to offer more specifics. "We are not pushing it, we do not have a pub date." He added that Carroll was taking time with the story edits, in part, because of her recovery from the ordeal. But also because she is dealing with the loss of her interpreter, who was killed when she was kidnapped. "It is also losing someone close to her," Scott said.

Scott also acknowledged that Carroll and editors wanted to be careful about how much detail to put in the story. "She is wrestling with 'how much do you say about a terrorist organization and what you know?'" Scott told E&P. He said concerns have arisen about whether specific information about her captors might prompt retaliation. "Retaliation against other journalists, Monitor correspondents, and that kind of thing."

Managing Editor Marshall Ingwerson could not be reached for comment, but Monitor spokesman Jay Jostyn acknowledged that the story had taken longer than expected. "There has been a delay," he said. "She has been working with colleagues and preparing a detailed report while still recovering from her captivity."

Carroll, 28, was released in Baghdad on March 30 after being held captive for nearly three months. A freelancer at the time, she was kidnapped on Jan. 7. Her kidnapping drew worldwide attention as numerous human rights and journalism groups urged her release.

Her abductors, who had demanded the release of all Iraqi women prisoners several times, dropped her off at a political party office with no explanation. Since her release, Carroll has maintained a low profile, appearing only a few times in the Monitor newsroom, declining requests for interviews, and even avoiding invitations to appear for awards and other accolades.

"So far, she has been contacted by a number of people and has made it clear that she does not plan to attend any of those functions," Cook said. "Monitor editors will represent her. At the moment, when groups say they want to give her Award X or Y, she has been told and has said that, at the moment, her plan is not to make those appearances."

Carroll, who had worked for months in Iraq as a Monitor freelancer, had been made a staff employee of the paper shortly after her abduction. No information has been revealed about what her future assignment may be beyond the personal story.

Scott said her kidnapping had prompted the paper to institute a new policy against using freelancers in Baghdad, except in embedding situations. "It is a matter of the security issue," he said, noting that one Monitor staffer is currently assigned to the Iraq city, a situation not likely to change "unless they got really busy."