American Journalist Held Hostage in Iraq Describes Ordeal

Oct. 12, 2005 — -- A couple for five years, Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton shared another passion -- to make a documentary about the looting of Iraqi treasures after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Dressed in traditional Iraqi clothing, they shot footage together in southern Iraq, even as insurgents battled U.S. forces.

In August 2004, Carleton returned to New York to begin editing. Days later, Garen and his Iraqi translator, Amir Doshi, were kidnapped by a group loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Carelton learned of the kidnapping in a phone call from Garen's mother. When the news was confirmed, Carleton, the Garen family and the couple's friends began reaching out to contacts in the Middle East by e-mail and cell phone. Television crews camped outside Carleton's door.

Three days into the kidnapping, the captors took Garen at gunpoint and brought him to a room to make a video, which aired on Al-Jazeera and CNN. The kidnappers threatened to kill him within 48 hours unless the United States withdrew its forces from the city of Najaf.

Garen said when the kidnappers came to get him for this filming, it was his scariest moment. When they tied him up and blindfolded him, he was convinced they were going to kill him.

"The only moment of hope I had was that after a few moments they untied my hands," Garen told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview.

He figured they wouldn't do that if they were going to kill him because it would have made it easier for him to fight back.

When Carelton and his family saw the video, they feared the worst, knowing the fates of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg, whose kidnappings both ended in brutal deaths broadcast around the world.

Garen said he knew he had a chance if the group was Shiite and loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

"I was a journalist there and groups loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr didn't have a history of killing journalists," he said.

Carleton and Garen's family were able to secure his release 10 days after his kidnapping by appealing to al-Sadr.

Garen said the first night after he was taken hostage, he wrote a message proclaiming his love for Carleton and his dog with a reed on a cigarette wrapper. He kept this in his shirt pocket the entire time.

"It was sort of a talisman for me," Garen said. "But at the same time I thought if something did go wrong I wanted to have a final message."

The couple wrote a memoir, "American Hostage," about their experience. You can read an excerpt, by clicking here.

Now they are beginning to plan their wedding.