why people do the things they do amaze me.....this was senseless abduction.
Reporter's Mother Makes Emotional Appeal
By NOREEN GILLESPIE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour ago
NEW YORK - The mother of abducted American reporter Jill Carroll appealed for her daughter's release Thursday, hours before her captors' deadline, saying the 28-year-old is a woman of deep conviction who respects the Iraqi people.
"They've picked the wrong person. If they're looking for someone who is an enemy of Iraq, Jill is just the opposite," Mary Beth Carroll told CNN's "American Morning."
Mary Beth Carroll said video images aired by Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday gave her hope that her daughter is alive but also have "shaken us about her fate." Her daughter's captors demanded the U.S. release all Iraqi women in military custody by Friday or they would kill her.
"I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world," she said, reading from a written statement.
Jill Carroll was working as freelance journalist for The Christian Science Monitor when she was abducted Jan. 7.
Her mother said she moved to the Middle East to get to know the region before reporting on it. She learned Arabic along the way, she said.