Intelligence and Results

American journalist Jill Carroll has been released. Best roundup here by the Jawa Report, via RCP. I found these comments interesting:

Some are speculating that Carroll's release comes because of increased efforts to free hostages by Iraqi and Coallition troops. Her release comes only a week after American troops rescued three peace activists.

Apparently, Carroll's captors turned her over to the Islamic Party office in western Baghdad. The Islamic Party is the major Sunni party in Iraq and is a Salaafist organization (wants Sharia and return of Caliphate) with links to the insurgency.

Here is an update:

Now the NYT (via Bad Hair Blog) reports that one of the leaders of the Islamic party, Dr. Tariq Al-hashmi, is claiming responsibility for winning Jill Carroll's release. This is very interesting, indeed. Especially after the last few days in which many see a change in the political atmosphere in Iraq, with reports of Sunnis now seeing the Americans as allies to protect them from Shia militias and Shias--the traditional U.S. allies in Iraq--becoming suspect of the Coalition.

The Kurds are the swing group here in forming a new government and are the most steadfast allies of the US. The key point is that the three factions are still talking to each other, and all three are working with the US as it suits their interests. Our troops were perhaps on the verge of rescuing Carroll anyway so one of the parties took credit for the release. It looks like our intelligence is improving and our results.

UPDATE: Local connection, Jill Carroll's mom lives in Evanston and family has Wilmette ties, WBBM here.