Jill Carroll and her Former Hosts Captors
Oh my God, can you believe the crazy stuff Jill Carroll said on video while still in the custody of the guys who had murdered her translator and publicly threatened to murder her (but not to hit her, which apparently is all that matters)? The nerve of that woman! The world must know immediately what an America-hating traitor she is. After all, we never said all that crazy stuff the last time we got kidnapped by terrorists for three months, so how can she?
Seriously, though, some people need to give this a rest. Jim Geraghty puts it nicely:
My instinct is to lay off for a bit. If she comes out in a few weeks making the same comments and appears to be defending her abductors, then she’ll be fair game for criticism. But for now, I’m willing to chalk up the pre-release tape to duress and the strange comments in the immediate hours and days after her release to stress and trauma.
Allah expresses a similar sentiment. Personally, I think one of the best things about the blogosphere is that information gets out there very quickly, but under some circumstances this can also be one of the worst things about it. For cryin’ out loud, the woman was a hostage for three months. Is it really too much to ask that we reserve judgment for at least as many weeks before deciding whether she is America’s answer to Giuliana Sgrena or a decent woman who said strange things under exigent circumstances?
Blogosphere, stand down.
UPDATE: Carroll has disavowed her remarks, pointing out the obvious-to-everyone-whose-last-name-isn’t-Schlussel fact that hostages sometimes say what their captors want them to say rather than what they really think. Captain Ed, Dafydd ab Hugh and Michael Williams have more.
UPDATE x2: Idiot extraordinaire cum would-be character assassin Debbie Schlussel continues to dig her heels, arguing that she doesn’t owe Jill Carroll an apology since she didn’t really smear her over the propaganda video, she smeared her for other, equally specious crap instead. Nice of her to clear that up.