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USA Today – January 21, 2006
Muslim group pleads for reporter's release
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Muslim advocacy group arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to plead for the release of American hostage Jill Carroll, while an Iraqi official urged U.S. forces to free six detained Iraqi women in a bid to save the journalist.
A deadline set by kidnappers, who threatened to kill Carroll unless U.S. forces released all Iraqi women in military custody, passed late Friday with no word on her fate.
A delegation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations flew to Baghdad from neighboring Jordan in a bid to drum up momentum for Carroll's release. The 28-year-old was abducted Jan. 7 in a tough west Baghdad neighborhood.
"We are the only people who have come from outside of Iraq to call for Jill's release and we are very hopeful they will hear our message on behalf of American Muslims," Nihad Awad, the group's executive director said at Baghdad International Airport. "Harming her will do (the kidnappers) no good at all. The only way is to release her." ……
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-01-21-journalist-hostage_x.htm
Detroit Free Press – January 21, 2006
Muslims keep up fervent calls for reporter's release
Muslims from Baghdad to Paris to southeastern Michigan urged the militants to free Carroll, who was seized in a rough Baghdad neighborhood Jan. 7 by gunmen who killed her translator. . .
Meanwhile, Muslims across southeastern Michigan continued to work their contacts in hopes of securing Carroll's release, saying her kidnapping violates Islamic principles.
As Friday waned without word of Carroll's status, Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group was still hopeful her captors "will release her before the end of the night, or grant an extension."
The Washington, D.C.-based council has sent two officials to the Middle East, calling for Carroll's release….
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/NEWS07/601210307/1009
CAIR Bulletin – January 17, 2006
CAIR calls for release of U.S. journalist in Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 17, 2006 - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for the immediate release of American journalist Jill Carroll abducted January 7 while on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper in Baghdad.
Read More: Abducted in Iraq: An Update on Reporter Jill Carroll
Al-Jazeera reported today that the kidnappers have given the U.S. government 72 hours to give in to their demands.
In a statement, CAIR said:
"Journalists must be free to report on conflicts worldwide without fear of being targeted by combatants. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Jill Carroll and for the release of all hostages held in Iraq. No cause can be served by harming those who only seek to convey the human suffering caused by war."
CAIR's statement will be translated into Arabic and distributed to Middle Eastern media outlets.
In December, CAIR held a news conference at its national headquarters in Washington, D.C., to call for the release of members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams also taken hostage in Iraq.
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