PBS’s Amna Nawaz: [Elizabeth Tsurkov] was [in Iraq] doing work as part of her degree at Princeton. It was reviewed by Princeton in advance, approved by Princeton in advance.

What have your conversations been like with them so far?

Emma Tsurkov: Unfortunately, they have been very frustrating.

I expected Princeton to be a strong ally of mine and help get my sister back. But, in fact, what they have done is treat it mainly as a P.R. problem. I was passed from one administrative person to another. Princeton had started this whisper campaign in which the Israeli and the U.S. governments were told that — which is untrue — that she was there on her own.

And all of that is deeply damaging to my sister’s case and to her chances of survival. This isn’t a matter of P.R. or of liability. It is literally life or death for her.