(Hat tips to Think Progress and AlterNet.)
Stand Strong diaried earlier on the Freeper's expected attacks on Jill Carroll. (The consensus: the typical wingnuttery about how she's a terrorist sympathizer and how the whole thing was probably faked anyway.)
Now, the "legitimate" right wing press (sic) is piling on. National Review's John Podhoretz seems to think that Ms. Carroll is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome (if not an outright TerrSympTM):
It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days.
I'm sure J-Pod made a point of sending flowers first.
As pointed out by Think Progress and AlterNet, Carroll was being interviewed right after being released,
while she was still in Iraq. Of course she's going to be dressed in "Modest Muslim garb" - she's respecting the prevailing custom. (And, though she hasn't said anything about it yet, I wouldn't be at all surprised if her captors more or less
insisted that she dress that way - if she wanted to remain alive anyway.)
I'm sure the same John Podhoretz who's offended by the idea of someone - an American - respecting the customs of another nation, is equally offended by immigrants to the United States who have the temerity to "refuse" to learn English and who retain any vestige of their native culture.
Oh, and irony alert: Ms. Carroll wouldn't have been required to cover her head and dress "modestly" had George W. Bush not invaded "liberated" the more secular, pre- March 2003 Iraq.
I'm guessing that Podhoretz and the Freeper wingnuts would prefer that Carroll lie about her treatment while in captivity. Or - even better - if she had been beaten, raped and tortured, and scarred for life.
You know, like a good American.