U.S. journalist Micah Garen was kidnapped in Iraq in August 2004. His partner Marie-Helene Carleton helped free him. On Friday, they spoke to Democracy Now! about his situation and that of Jill Carroll, whom her captors have threatened to kill if their demand for the freeing of all female Iraqi prisoners is not met.

An excerpt:

MARIE-HELENE CARLETON: She was the first person I met in Baghdad, actually, when I arrived.

AMY GOODMAN: Really? When was that?

MARIE-HELENE CARLETON: That was in May of 2004. We were all staying at the Dulaimi Hotel, which is a budget hotel for journalists out there.

AMY GOODMAN: You were un-embedded.

MARIE-HELENE CARLETON: Right. We were working on our own, our own project.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you describe Jill for us?

MARIE-HELENE CARLETON: She's a very dedicated professional person. I was very -- she really had an impact on me, because she was as dedicated as she was kind, and that really came across immediately. She was very warm, very welcoming, and I immediately felt welcomed into the group of journalists there because of her.

MICAH GAREN: I think a good example of what kind of a person she is, two examples, actually. One is anytime she would walk by somebody, say, in the hotel lobby, you know, an Iraqi man, Iraqi woman, she would walk up and say hi in Arabic, and so she would test -- try out her Arabic and try to connect with people. So she always made an effort to do that, which really kind of was outstanding. Then, you know, at night, a lot of times, after the day you're just completely exhausted, and people would gather and have dinner, but a lot of times she would skip dinner, and she would just work late into the night sitting on her floor, you know, typing up her stories, because she was so dedicated to actually getting the story out and getting it right.

MARIE-HELENE CARLETON: I think the word that comes to mind is “respect.” She really respected the culture, and because of that, she was respected by people there and by friends that she knew, referred to her as a sister or a daughter. And she really was able to get access to a lot of Iraqis on the ground, because she was so open.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Over the years of seeing all of these various kidnappings, one of the things that’s struck me a lot is that it's precisely those journalists who are most in touch with the populations, who are not embedded with the U.S. troops, who are perhaps more empathetic to the conditions and the struggles of the Iraqi people, who are the most exposed to being kidnapped. I'm wondering, your thoughts about that in the conversations with the other journalists there, both the embedded and the un-embedded ones.

MICAH GAREN: Well, it’s true. I mean, when you're independent, you make a decision that you want to be out there and really connect with people, and so you don't travel with security. You just try to blend into society. You learn the language, and you really try to connect, and it helps you really get the story and understand. And the mosque that Jill was visiting, I had visited that before, as well, with a Portuguese journalist, that same mosque, and you know, it's a bit frightening traveling into these areas, but you have to go out there to talk to people and really connect with them. And it's true. It's sad that that's happening, and it's because you're exposed in that way, but it's also heartening, because it gives me hope that her situation will be resolved peacefully, because her captors will realize that this person is a really good person.