Encouraging news about Jill Carroll

Heartening news from ABC on the day of the latest deadline:

A top Iraqi official tells ABC News that he believes Jill Carroll is alive and that he believes she will be released, even though the latest deadline for the kidnapped journalist has passed with no news of her fate.

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabur al Zubaidi said he knew who had abducted the 28-year-old freelance journalist.

“We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans,” Zubaidi said. “I think she is still alive.”…

U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told ABC News that he also believed Carroll was alive.

Needless to say, this is wonderful news if true. Given the way that Iraqis have responded to Carroll’s plight, there is surely no propaganda value to be gained by killing her. I’ve been hoping that her captors would realize that and dump her — alive and uninjured — along the side of a road somewhere.