Carroll: Statements Made Under Threat

Protected by the U.S. military and far from the country where she had been held hostage, Jill Carroll strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying Saturday she had been repeatedly threatened.

In a video, recorded before she was freed and posted by her captors on an Islamist Web site, Carroll spoke out against the U.S. military presence. But in a statement Saturday, she said the recording was made under threat. Her editor has said three men were pointing guns at her at the time.

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. So I agreed," she said in a statement read by her editor in Boston.

Matt Moore

Given the jihadists' tendency to violently separate people's heads from their bodies, I can't say I blame her. In some quarters it is being said that she should have chosen martyrdom rather than cooperate with a propaganda effort. That's a painfully silly position for armchair pundits to take, but then again, they wouldn't be armchair pundits if they didn't, would they?