Jill Carroll arrives home

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Shortly before her release, her captors - who refer to themselves as the Revenge Brigade - also told her they had infiltrated the US diplomatic compound in Baghdad, and she would be killed if she went there or cooperated with the American authorities. It was a threat she took seriously in her first few hours of freedom.

Carroll worked at the Wall Street Journal's Washington office in early 2002 when that paper's reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and beheaded in Pakistan. "Many of her colleagues knew him and it was very emotional in the office,'' Mr. Carroll, her father, said Friday after talking to Jill by phone. "She had that memory in the back of her head while she was being threatened."

ARRIVAL: Jill is welcomed by Base Commander Col. Kurt Lohide after she landed at the US Airbase in Ramstein, southwestern Germany, on Saturday. MICHAEL PROBST/AP

Finally free Stories 04/04/06 A Carroll family reunion Videos 04/02/06 Jill Carroll arrives home 04/01/06 Jill Carroll statement 03/31/06 Jill Carroll forced to make propaganda video 03/31/06 Jill Carroll: finally free 03/31/06 Timeline: Almost three months of captivity 03/31/06 Helping Jill interpret Iraq Latest updates Readers write: support for Jill Carroll Full coverage Commentary 03/31/06 What it took from the hearts of many people to free Jill Carroll Slideshows: Homecoming 1, Homecoming 2, Efforts to free her, Reactions to her release A Spiritual Perspective 03/31/06 Singing for Jill, and all

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In making their last video, Mr. Carroll says, her captors "obviously wanted maximum propaganda value in the US. After listening to them for three months she already knew exactly what they wanted her to say, so she gave it to them with appropriate acting to make it look convincing."

Those who encountered Carroll in a professional context repeatedly praised her fairness and compassion, as demonstrated by some of the thousands of letters the Monitor has received in her support.

"Her professionalism and objectivity were unparalleled within the media community," Capt. Patrick Kerr, a Marine public affairs officer who got to know Carroll last December, when she spent a month with a Marine unit in Western Iraq, said in an e-mail.

"I saw her in Husaybah, on the Syrian border, in early December shortly before I returned to the States. Aside from being very personable and down to earth, what really struck me was Jill's bravery. She seemed to fit right in with the marines and Iraqi security forces," he wrote in January.

The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, says that "none of us - except perhaps her personal friends and family - know what Jill's views are about the war in Iraq. But we do know that they did not color her reporting for the Monitor. She covered a wide spectrum of people in Iraq and that is part of what made her reporting valuable."

Mr. Garen, who was forced to make a propaganda video by his own captors, says that "I said the US should 'stop the massacre' in Najaf - and they weren't my words, and I felt very uncomfortable saying them," recalls Garen.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Sen. John McCain said he wouldn't take the propaganda video made by Carroll's captors "seriously. I would not, any more than we took seriously other tapes and things that were done in other prison situations, including the Vietnam war."

In his book "American Hostage," co-authored with his wife Marie-Hélène, he recounts his experience and delves into the methods and motives of kidnappers. "The point of taking hostages is to get them to make propaganda statements," he says. "The job of a civilian hostage ... is to stay alive."

Savoring freedom

On Saturday evening, Carroll was savoring her freedom. The rain had stopped. She took a long stroll with a Monitor colleague around the Ramstein Air Base, drinking in the cool night air. The conversation bounced from what had happened in the world at large during the past three months to the details of her own release.

Sunday, Carroll rose early, was driven to Frankfurt airport, and boarded Flight 422 to Boston.

During her captivity, she says she was moved several times. But she was always held in rooms where she couldn't see outside. At one point, she could see strands of sunlight entering her "cave," and that buoyed her spirits.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, during the flight Sunday, her nose was often pressed against the window. She marveled at the expanse of blue and what it represented. "Talk about freedom: here we are right above the clouds, we're in the sky - when I was so far away from it. It's wonderful," she said.

Throughout the past two days, there's been a dawning awareness of her celebrity - and how many people around the world who had prayed for her release: The warm reception by military personnel at Ramstein, the media waiting at the base, the strangers smiling at the airport and on the plane. And there was the German security guard who ushered her to seat 84A.

Before turning to leave, the burly guard hesitated. "Welcome back home," he said, eyes brimming with tears.

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		JILL CARROLL: After arriving at Logan Airport Sunday, she was met by Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim (l.) and Washington bureau chief David Cook. For updates see csmonitor.com SCOTT PETERSON/GETTY IMAGES