Carroll 'emotionally fragile' after captivity

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Jill Carroll, described as "emotionally fragile," went reluctantly to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone — the place her captors had warned her was infiltrated with insurgents — and spent Friday in seclusion, recovering from 82 days of captivity.

In a video posted on an Islamist Web site and recorded by her captors before she was freed, the 28-year-old freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor — dropped off Thursday outside the offices of a Sunni political party — spoke out against the U.S. military presence.

"Tens of thousands . . . have lost their lives here because of the occupation," she said in the video. "I think Americans need to think about that and realize day-to-day how difficult life is here."

She said the insurgents were "only trying to defend their country . . . to stop an illegal and dangerous and deadly occupation."

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Liz Colton declined comment, saying all queries regarding Carroll were being handled by her family and the Monitor.

The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, said Carroll's parents, who spoke to her about the video, told him it was "conducted under duress."

"When you're making a video and having to recite certain things with three men with machine guns standing over you, you're probably going to say exactly what you're told to say," Bergenheim told ABC's "Good Morning America."

He told NBC's "Today" show that Carroll was "emotionally fragile" but doing well after her ordeal and that her family wanted her to delay her departure until she was "strong enough, emotionally and otherwise."

She was flying to Germany and expected to arrive at Ramstein Air Base near Landstuhl at 8 a.m. local time (11 p.m. MST) Saturday, Ramstein officials told The Associated Press. It was unclear if she would stay there for exams at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center or travel on to the United States.

Carroll, who was seized Jan. 7 in western Baghdad by gunmen who killed her Iraqi translator, was dropped off Thursday at an office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab organization, and later escorted to the Green Zone by the U.S. military, the Monitor said Friday. The newspaper said her captors had warned her not to cooperate with the Americans and said the Green Zone was infiltrated with insurgents.

At first, she was reluctant to go, but a Monitor writer in Baghdad, Scott Peterson, convinced her it was safe, the newspaper said.