Jill Carroll, Part 2

When I wrote my previous post on the release of Jill Carroll, I was under the impression that she was already in safe hands when she made her statement about her captors. As it turns out, she was not yet out of harm’s way when her statement was made, which makes the right wings smears of her and her comments even more odious. The subtle implication was that she was, at the minimum, a terrorist sympathizer, and maybe even a collaborator. Jonah Goldberg , John Podhoretz, and John Hinderaker, and all the others who basically accused Carroll of sleeping with the enemy are complete and total jackasses who haven’t an ounce of the courage Jill Carroll has.

It was stupid for anybody, including me, to comment on the situation before the facts were out. I’m not going to be reflexively defensive and try and convince you I was 100% correct, but that is exactly what the rightwingers are doing. “See, we were right, she was under duress when she spoke”, they say. But that was never their argument. They, like me, assumed she was free to speak her mind. Given that assumption, they chose to cast aspersions on her motives. They were not doubting her freedom to speak.

They are actively trying to sell this bullshit, so let’s make sure not to forget their exact words. Tell me if you see any references to her not speaking freely…

Jonah Goldberg:

But Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me. The details are still murky and it’s hard to appreciate what she’s been through. And maybe JPod’s right about Stockholm syndrome. And maybe the media’s selectively choosing what to show of her statements. But it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors, particularly about the fact that they murdered her translator in cold blood. I’m very glad she’s alive, but I’m getting a very bad vibe.

Hey Jonah, any sentence that starts “I’m glad she’s alive, BUT…” makes you cocksucker.

John Podhertz:

It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days.

Hey John, those are the clothes she was made to wear, and was wearing when she was released, jackass. I can’t believe such basic things need explaining.

John Hinderaker:

No doubt her joy at being freed overwhelms all else, and it is probably churlish to critique her public comments. Nevertheless, I want to register a small protest against her statement, widely quoted in the press, that she was "well treated" by her captors. This is a sentiment that one often hears from people who have been released by kidnappers; one gets the sense that the victims are grateful--understandably, perhaps--to the terrorists for letting them go.

I’m glad you register her joy, and don’t pretend to feeling any joy yourself at her release. At least that was honest.

Fuck these pseudo intellectual assholes for just not admitting they are complete pseudo intellectual fucking assholes. How they sleep at night, I have no idea.