The Shadow Comments on Jill Carroll

As many readers of this blog knows, The Shadow had been tirelessly lobbying for the unconditional release of Jill Carroll. Last Friday, that was accomplished and Ms. Carroll was freed. She is currently in Boston with her family and The Shadow is abiding by his earlier statement to give the family privacy until they are ready to comment.

The Shadow has been disturbed by several items in the news that indicates that Ms. Carroll was siding with her captors and many people (including bloggers who were rallying to her cause) were posting remarks against her.

The Shadow decided to wait until Ms. Carroll was safely outside of Iraq before believing anything that Ms. Carroll said. The Shadow firmly believes that Ms. Carroll was under duress when she made the anti-American statements that she made. She did it to protect her life. Now that she is outside of Iraq and under the protection of the United States once again, she is free to state what she really felt about the situation, which she did on Saturday through a statement read by the Christian Science Monitor.

The Shadow accepts everything that Ms. Carroll has stated from the time that she was under U.S. protection to the present. The Shadow does not believe, even for a moment, that Ms. Carroll stood by the statements that she made on Baghdad television or on Islamic websites that are being widely distributed.

The Shadow also will not accept comments from anyone seeking to discredit Ms. Carroll or the Christian Science Monitor. The Shadow has deleted comments from this blog in the past 24 hours that has done that. If you wish to comment on these articles, that is fine -- but The Shadow will not leave these entries as an opportunity to attack Jill Carroll or the Christian Science Monitor.

Evil lurks everywhere. And The Shadow will delete it anywhere that he sees it.

Jill Carroll is now home with her family. This is a time to celebrate her release from captivity, not flame her for remarks that she made under duress.

Again, The Shadow will have a final word on this matter once the family has made a formal statement.