Epilogue • Family reunion

	SISTERS REUNITED: Katie and Jill Carroll hug in Boston on April 2 upon Jill's return from Iraq. Their parents, Jim and Mary Beth Carroll, look on. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN - STAFF Photos: Homecoming and reunion

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Nearly five months on, what's to be learned from Jill Carroll's kidnapping and release?

Monitor editors and correspondents were heartened by the global condemnation of the kidnapping, especially from Muslim religious leaders and even militant groups, such as Hamas. They remain proud of the media campaign they helped mount, from the solicitation of statements on Jill's behalf to the public service announcements that ran in the Iraqi media. They believe it was targeted to the right audience - the Middle East - and well placed. They know the kidnappers saw some of it.

It's presumptuous to say it led directly to her release, but "I do think that changed the mental climate," says Richard Bergenheim, editor of the Monitor.

Another obvious conclusion is that Iraq has become a very dangerous place for the news media. More than 100 journalists, including interpreters and assistants, have died there since March 2003.

Since Jill's kidnapping, the Monitor has upgraded its security measures in Baghdad - both because of what had happened to her and because of the worsening situation on the ground. Editors won't detail those measures, so as not to undermine their effectiveness. The paper has kept a British security firm on retainer for consultation.

As for Jill herself, she says that her experience taught her about priorities. Throughout her 82-day ordeal, she missed her family and her friends. Work and success didn't seem so important anymore. "I never once wished I'd filed one more story," she says.

But she doesn't regret going to Iraq in the first place. She was doing what she had always wanted to do - foreign reporting. Since her release, she has returned to Egypt, and is glad of it. She experienced again the distinctive culture of the Islamic world in a peaceful context.

"What happened to me is not the whole Middle East," she says.

Jill is no longer a freelancer. To provide financial support in anticipation of her eventual release, the Monitor quietly made Jill a full-time employee a week after she was abducted. This fall, she's been accepted into a journalism fellowship program at a major university. After that, she plans to return to writing from overseas.

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