Man Admits to Extortion Attempt in Jill Carroll Kidnapping

By: A West African man admitted Friday that he tried to extort $2 million from the Christian Science Monitor by promising to win the release of journalist Jill Carroll, who was captured in Iraq.

Kelvin Kamara pleaded guilty to one count of making ransom demands. He admitted in federal court that, early this year, he e-mailed the newspaper's Washington bureau, claiming he worked with brigades who would free Carroll in exchange for ransom.

Kamara had no such influence and was arrested in March, two weeks before Carroll was released unharmed in Iraq after 82 days.

Kamara faces a likely prison sentence of about 3 to 3 1/2 years when he is sentenced Dec. 2. He will also be deported, though U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said it's unclear where he will be sent. Authorities have said he is either Nigerian or Liberian and was living in Germany at the time of the extortion attempt.

Investigators recovered e-mails Kamara sent to the newspaper from a Yahoo account. Calling himself Saidu Mohammed, he told an editor to raise $2 million or Carroll "is likely to become history."

In court Friday, Kamara tried at first to downplay his intentions.

"This was an effort to obtain money?" Collyer asked.

"From the way you look at it, but I never really wanted to make any money," Kamara replied.

But Collyer persisted.

"You made a ransom demand?" she asked. "That is a demand for money in exchange for releasing someone who's being held. Is that what you did?"

Pausing briefly, Kamara replied: "Yes."

Kamara's e-mail address was also apparently used in "Nigerian advance fee schemes," the FBI said. In such schemes, scammers promise millions of dollars in exchange for help getting money out of Nigeria.