An American freelance journalist who was released after being held hostage in Iraq for nearly three months says she was forced at gunpoint to criticize the United States while in captivity.
"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video," Jill Carroll said in a statement written at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany.
"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."
Carroll, who was released Thursday, was flown by the U.S. air force to the German airbase en route to her home in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she was expected to arrive Sunday.
While at the airbase, she didn't talk to reporters, but told military officials, "I'm happy to be here."
Her statement was read Saturday by Richard Bergenheim, editor of The Christian Science Monitor, the newspaper that she was working for when she was abducted in Baghdad on Jan. 7.
The statement quotes Carroll as saying her captors told her they would let her go if she co-operated.
"I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed."
In the video posted on a jihad website, Carroll, wearing an Islamic headscarf, denounced the U.S. presence in Iraq, praised the militants fighting U.S. forces there and predicted the insurgents would defeat the Americans.
Carroll's statement also disavowed comments she made shortly after her release. She said she had been treated well by her captors and had not been threatened.
