Jill has published the first part of the 11-part series that details her kidnapping ordeal in the Christian Science Monitor. The whole article can be viewed here.

This series also contains video interviews with her in which she expands on her ordeal. I have to admit though, there were parts in this first section that were hard for me to read. They just broke my heart into a million pieces. This is one of them:

I crawled over to Abu Hassan, the one who seemed more grown-up and sympathetic. His 9mm pistol was by his side, as usual. "You’re my brother, you’re truly my brother," I said in Arabic. "Promise me you will use this gun to kill me by your own hand. I don’t want that knife, I don’t want the knife, use the gun."

This morning a spokesperson for the US military announced that four people that were connected to the kidnapping of my good friend Jill were arrested in Iraq. Here is a piece of the AP story:

Marines have arrested four Iraqi men in connection with the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, who was freed last March after 82 days in captivity, a U.S. spokesman said Wednesday. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the four, who were not identified, were arrested in Anbar province west of Baghdad but he did not say when.

Richard Bergenheim, the editor for Jill’s paper, The Christian Science Monitor, issued a statement:

Jill Carroll and her Monitor colleagues are very grateful for all of the efforts the US government made to secure Jill’s freedom after she was held against her will for 82 days. Like reporters everywhere, we are reassured to hear that several of those believed to have held Jill have been apprehended. The daily threat of kidnapping in Iraq remains acute for all. Everything possible needs to be done to relieve Iraqis and others of this scourge.

I’m glad that those that put my friend through this terrible ordeal and murdered her translator Alan are finally going to be brought to justice. For those following all this, make sure to take a look at Jill’s story told in her own words when it is published in a series of articles in the Monitor starting this Sunday.

My good friend Jill Carroll. who was kidnapped in Iraq last January for 82 days, will detail her ordeal in an 11-part series that is scheduled to appear next week. The series will appear in The Christan Science Monitor (on-line as well — with video). According to The Boston Herald:

The 27,500-word series will be the first public accounting by Carroll since her release. It will detail what she did during captivity, the Monitor’s efforts to free her and the "lessons learned," according to Dave Cook, the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. "This is clearly one of the most widely anticipated and in-depth series that we have run," Cook said.

"In the Monitor’s 98-year history, we’ve never had anyone held captive as long as Jill, and an immense and intense effort went into winning her freedom. We’re extremely grateful that she returned alive and was able to tell her own story."

The series will be a first-person account by Carroll with "contextual narrative" by Peter Grier, a senior writer in the Monitor’s Washington bureau who has spent a lot of time interviewing Carroll. The editing process for the series was an extensive one, Cook said, as Carroll feared that divulging certain details about her captors could result in retaliation. "Jill has taken great care to make sure that nothing she says will harm her colleagues in Baghdad who are still there reporting," Cook said. "We took the concerns seriously." Clips from a videotaped interview of Carroll will be included with the story on the newspaper’s Web site.
Source: [Boston Herald]

Click here to see the ad that the Monitor is running to advertise the series. For those that have been following her ordeal make sure to check out the series that will start next Monday.