“I am appealing to those who kidnapped the American journalist Jill Carroll…I am appealing to you in the name of God, in the name of anything holy, to let her go. She came to the General Conference of the Iraqi People headquarters to interview me. I am Dr. Adnan Dulaimi. I am the one who has been defending Iraqi unity and Iraqi independence. I’m the one who has been committed to the rebuilding of Iraq… I am asking you to release this woman. By kidnapping her, you are insulting me…I’m appealing to you, the ones who are holding this woman, to let her go, to free her, for the sake of our country and in the name of our honor and principles, in the name of the Iraqi people…”

— Adnan al-Dulaimi, of the Iraqi Accordance Front, joining the chorus of citizens and luminaries who are calling for the release Jill Carroll, the female American journalist who was kidnapped on January 7th while reporting in Baghdad.    

There have been a torrent of calls for Jill Carroll’s release, praising her professionalism and her concern for the Iraqi people, from myriad sources, including: the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas; the Iraqi Accordance Front; Montasser al-Zayat, head of the Liberties Committee at the Egyptian Lawyers’ Syndicate and former member of Gamaa Islamiya, the militant Egyptian Islamist organization; the Iraqi Islamic Party; Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brothers Mohamed Mahdi Akef; the Muslim Brotherhood Association, and a slew of others. Jill Carroll is a frequent contributor from Iraq to The Christian Science Monitor. Her captors released a video of her on January 17th in which they threatened that they would kill her unless all of the female prisoners in Iraq were freed within 72 hours. Jill Carroll’s family, various dignitaries, and numerous organizations continue to lobby for her release.

Mimi Hanaoka