Remember Allan Enwiya. And is Jill Carroll Iraq's Jane Fonda? [UPDATED]

Here's the story of Jill Carroll's interpreter, who was killed when she was captured.

Here, at Little Green Footballs, is a propaganda videotape Carroll's captors made by interviewing her before they released her, in which she blames the American occupation for the violence afflicting ordinary Iraqis and declares that the "mujahedeen" will surely win.

Well, what the hell else was she going to say under the circumstances? If she had said anything else, you wouldn't have seen it, and you wouldn't have seen her again, either. If you have any questions about whether she should have been more heroic, I have three words for you: ask John McCain. No, of course they're not comparable. Eighty-two days isn't seven years, and Carroll was not tortured. But if she had shown defiance, she might have been. And you can be quite sure she was terrified.

Watch her body language in the video. It will be analyzed by experts, no doubt, but to me there's a pleading quality. In between questions, she is absolutely silent, obedient, still. She looks like a student trying a pass a final oral exam in which F is for "Fatal." When asked if she has a message for President Bush, though, her little laugh and her Cindy Sheehanesque antiwar set piece seem like the real deal.

The deeper question is whether Carroll actually believed all of what she was saying, believed it even prior to duress and would have said the same things without the prompting of menace -- whether she is in reality, and not just being set up as, a sort of Baghdad Jane, who has always opposed the war and did not have to lie or violate her own principles to cooperate.

Some of the commenters on LGF are suggesting that she actually helped stage her own kidnapping. Some of them wish she had been killed, or opine that she should be arrested for treason (or gang-raped) when she gets off the plane. Others are more sympathetic to her traumatized state, and some are even informative. Like this:

According to CBS news, she has refused military transport to get out of Iraq and has refused to be debriefed by the U.S. military.

One thing's for sure, if you know anything about captivity: it will take Carroll quite some time to really believe she is safe and that her captors cannot reach her, and until then, she may be afraid to say anything negative about them. It is very premature to jump to conclusions. Even if she was naïvely pro-insurgency before she was captured, the terrifying experience may have made her true feelings take a decisive turn for the negative. The decent thing to do right now is back off.

UPDATE: The Monitor is now reporting (again via LGF) that Carroll's family talked with her about the video, and they say she told them it was made "under duress." It's not clear whether this comment from Monitor editor Richard Bergenheim is based on information from Carroll or on his imagination:

When you're making a video and having to recite certain things with three men with machine guns standing over you, you're probably going to say exactly what you're told to say.

Carroll was also reportedly warned not to talk with the Americans or go to the Green Zone because she might be killed; the Zone, her captors claimed, is infiltrated by insurgents.

Comments

[Danny]

Jesus, I cannot believe the ugly, cruel comments of so many people about Jill Carroll on the Little Green Footballs site. I can only hope those people never have a family member who is being held against his or her will. I guess they'd rather their loved ones die a horrible death at the hands of their captors than say anything remotely negative about our beloved administration or military.

[geoduck2]

She had guns held on her during the taping of the video. She was also told that her captors had people in the Green Zone and if she went to the Green Zone she would be killed.

They need to get her out of Iraq.

Elizabeth on Althouse sums up my feelings well about the LGF comments. They are pond scum and lacking in all forms of human empathy. Whats WRONG with them?

[Brendan Wolfe]

It's not just LGF, though. Don Imus's executive producer Bernard McGuirk had this to say on the air:

"She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the, try and sneak into the Green Zone ... She cooked with them, lived with them ... She may be carrying Habib's baby at this point."

To which Columbia Journalism Review responded:

"That isn't just irresponsible speculation -- it's absolute lunacy."

CJR followed with an interesting point:

"But some positive judgments about Carroll are guilty of nearly the same sin: jumping to conclusions without any evidence. The newspaper that championed her, the Christian Science Monitor and the one where she seems to have had many friends, the Washington Post, both wrote friendly and almost fawning pieces today about Carroll. Certainly, her release is a happy occasion, and we can forgive a certain degree of boosterism arising from the emotion of the moment. But at some point, the papers will have to forget that they know her and take a hard look at the facts -- lest they be just as negligent as news organizations that attribute to her all kinds of syndromes and sympathies."

In the end, an overheated press & overheated partisans need to hold off on passing judgment.

[Pooh]

Who are these people at LGF? I'm serious, this is some of the most disturbing rhetoric yet. Is there any qualitative difference between this and an accused rapists "she was asking for it by wearing that skirt" defense?

[geoduck2]

I'm profoundly disturbed by this talk. I can't believe what was said on Imus. I can't believe people are saying these things about her.

[amba]

It's like, She's a liberal? She's against the war? Torture her, rape her! That's what it's come to.

And: there are a lot of people squawking over at LGF about how she should have been more of a patriot and refused to make that video. I can guarantee you, none of them has ever been in a situation remotely comparable or has the faintest idea what he or she would do in that kind of fear. Chickenhawks all.

[Tom Strong]

Vile.