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ANDERSON COOPER: Tonight,
the fate of an American journalist held hostage in
Iraq remains unknown. Jill Carroll was abducted
January 7. Her captors said they would kill the
28-year-old unless all Iraqi women in detention were
freed. Well, that deadline passed six days ago.
Today, the U.S. military released five Iraqi women
from custody. Officials said it was not linked to the
demands made by the hostage takers. But could their
release help free Carroll? Tonight I took that up
with Michael Ware. He's the Baghdad Bureau Chief for
"TIME" Magazine. He knows Jill Carroll and was once
taken hostage himself. I talked to him earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So today, U.S. military releases five Iraqi
female detainees. Does it make any difference in the
Jill Carroll situation?
MICHAEL WARE, TIME MAGAZINE BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF:
Well, I think it's going to play into the mix
somehow. In what manner, we don't know yet, but this
is definitely going to be painted by the insurgents
or the kidnappers as a win for them.
COOPER: Yes, how can it not be because, I mean, the
U.S. has gone to great lengths to say, oh, look, this
was in the works anyway. This is not a quid pro quo,
but...
WARE: It doesn't matter how they try to spin it,
Anderson. I mean, this is going to be seen as a coup.
The great fear is this now makes it open season on
journalists in Iraq. This is the first thing that can
be perceived as a concession by the U.S. military or
the Iraqi government. I'm afraid that this could be
the thin end of the wedge.
COOPER: It's also, I mean I think a lot of people
don't get what it's like working in Iraq, kind of the
risk that you take, you know, just on a daily basis,
just stepping outside. Jill Carroll was one of those
people. She was basically a freelancer. She didn't
have a security detail. And, you know, when I first
heard about it, it sent shudders through me because
that's how I started, you know, just bumming around
with myself, a little home video camera.
WARE: Yeah, look, it's frightening. I mean, Iraq is
not a story that can easily be covered by freelancers
who are operating on a shoestring budget. I mean, to
move outside of a secure hotel compound, you need at
least two vehicles. You need two, three, four armed
gunmen. You need a driver, a translator. That costs
money.
COOPER: When I was last in Iraq, one of our security
guys said to me, you know, you have to decide would
you want to be taken. Would you allow yourself to be
taken? That's a decision everyone has to make.
Have you -- I mean, you've had some very close calls.
WARE: I've been taken, yes.
COOPER: You were taken.
WARE: Yes. Yes. As far as we're aware, I'm the only
Westerner to have been in the custody of Zarqawi's al
Qaeda organization and to have so far lived to tell
the tale.
COOPER: And what was it like?
WARE: I was only held very, very briefly. They
swarmed my vehicle, intercepting it in the street.
They hauled me out with weapons and live grenades
with the pins pulled. And then they immediately had
me under one of Zarqawi's infamous banners and were
preparing to execute me there, just off the street.
When they pulled me out, they took me around behind
the building where there was another banner and they
thrust me down beneath that and were preparing to
kill me then and there and to film it with my own
video camera.
COOPER: In those first moments, when you are taken
and when you realize, you know, what's happening, you
suddenly realize, oh my God, this is -- this is it.
WARE: Yes.
COOPER: What goes through your mind?
WARE: Put it this way. It took me a long time to
recover from that first moment, Anderson, if I have
at all. When I did manage to get out, when the
Baathists forced my release, and I made it back to my
home compound, I didn't leave that compound for three
days. I barely left my room.
COOPER: I mean, can you talk your way out of -- can a
Jill Carroll, who speaks Arabic...
WARE: No.
COOPER: Does it matter what she says?
WARE: No.
COOPER: Does it matter that she makes -- you know,
whenever you're kidnapped somewhere else, you're
supposed to make yourself into a human in front of
their eyes.
WARE: In some degree, it depends on who has you. In
Jill's case, it's still unclear precisely who it is.
Unfortunately, in most cases, no, it doesn't matter.
I mean, the sense that a journalist has the
protection of being an objective observer, a
portrayer of the truth and a carrier of messages
holds no estate in Iraq whatsoever. They don't care
what you've been doing. You are a commodity, either
financially or politically to them. There's a
ruthlessness that we're seeing particularly in regard
to journalists, that is unparalleled within this
conflict.