Posted on 05/21/2004 3:17:18 AM PDT by billorites
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, 21 May 2004 — Nicholas Berg died horribly in Iraq. Why?
His killers don’t say. They complain, but not about Berg.
Of all Iraq’s hostages, only Berg was decapitated.
And very inexpertly.
Suspects have already been rounded up.
One wonders how, since all five were masked and unidentifiable.
Why would the infamous, already-photographed Zarqawi hide?
Although CIA voice analysts claim Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi decapitated Berg, European intelligence sources doubt it. Zarqawi, a skilled poisoner, “is more sophisticated than that,” said one expert. And would the one-legged Zarqawi be less nimble than Berg’s executioner on tape?
All Berg’s killers possessed military bearing, which could have been learned in terrorist camps. Or in more formal military settings. And the notorious website could be set up by anyone.
We must therefore look carefully at Berg before killing, torturing, or jailing anyone in his name.
US Secretary of State Collin Powell complains of muted Middle Eastern reaction to the beheading. But condemnation requires a measure of certainty missing here.
Who was Berg?
Neocon? Nincompoop?
Radio tower guy? Communications spy?
Berg, a neocon “believer,” had no military service, despite his strapping, muscular physique and shaved head.
Unmarried and full of male friends, Berg attended four universities without graduating. He repaired communications equipment and climbed radio towers obsessively. In Ghana, Berg taught those Bush fondly calls “brown people” to make bricks — which in the Third World is like bringing coals to Newcastle.
In his Baghdad hotel room, Berg read espionage novels.
Perhaps Berg finally found his calling.
How might he have taken that particular road? Berg’s friend, Aaron Spool, says two years ago, Berg started taking synagogue classes. Berg’s family claims he was recruited for Iraq by the US Chamber of Commerce. But he set off for...Israel.
Why?
Spool avers Berg “visited” Israel on his way to Iraq to “study Hebrew.” Berg brought a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap) and a tallis (fringed prayer shawl) into Iraq — an odd wardrobe choice to carry into a country purportedly besieged by crazed Islamic jihadists. Spool says Berg “wasn’t foolish. He would not have bandied about the fact that he was Jewish.”
Oh. That explains the clothing!
And Berg’s passport, stamped in Israel. Usually, passengers traveling on decline the stamp, which can cause exclusion elsewhere in the Middle East.
What did Berg do in Israel and Iraq?
We need to know. As Jack London, CEO of US Department of Defense civilian contractor CACI International, Inc., declared: “Getting in and out of Iraq is not willy-nilly. People just don’t go in there, go to the hotel, open their suitcase, set up shop and go over to the Coalition Provisional Authority and try to cut a contract.”
But isn’t this what Berg supposedly did?
Or did he have a secret contract?
While Berg told his family he’d struggled to make money, friends said Berg made $70,000 his first month there, and considered sailing the Turkish coast before returning home.
When he returned to Iraq again, Berg expected contracts worth $20,000 a month for “radio” work. But was he being paid for something else?
Berg complained to US officials their detention cost him “thousands of dollars.”
When arrested, Berg was carrying a laptop, cash, his Israel-stamped passport, a Qur’an, and “anti-Semitic literature” in Arabic — a language that Berg could neither read, nor write, nor speak.
Were these books for Berg’s erudition? Or for planting at the scene of some catastrophe, as the Mossad is sometimes accused of doing by anti-Zionist groups to falsely implicate Muslims?
When released, Berg spurned US consular officials’ offers of money, plane ticket, and official airport escort. One cryptically remarked: Berg “didn’t want us. He said, ‘You don’t understand these people like I do. You’re here for a reason and so am I.’”
What reason? Dead men don’t talk. But their friends do. Berg’s friends said Iraqi authorities suspected he was “an Israeli spy.”
Imagine!
The US admits Berg was arrested for “suspicious activities” and using “false identification.” Iraqi police claim Berg had “no identification.” And Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmett says US military police “monitored” Berg.
“Monitored” is significant. CACI’s Jack London announced Rumsfeld’s Abu Ghraib testimony “cleared up an important point: As stated, CACI employees are monitored and are under the supervision of US Army personnel.” DOD “monitoring” is “in CACI’s services contract with the U.S. military.”
Was Berg, whom the FBI in Iraq questioned three times because of his “ties” to alleged 9/11 terrorist Moussaoui in Oklahoma, a CACI contractor or Israeli-based subcontractor? This would explain why occupation authorities released and allowed Berg to remain in Iraq.
Did Berg, the “radio guy,” work with CACI’s famous “interlocked” telecommunications services integrated with “key CACI technologies, including information assurance, modeling and simulation, and web-enabling,” as CACI’s corporate literature states?
What about GlobalNet, recently “awarded an exclusive contract for worldwide termination of voice and data mobile satellite telecommunications traffic originating in Iraq?” Its press release laments the “dangers of sending...workers into the war-torn nation to install telecommunications towers.”
Berg’s specialty.
GlobalNet seeks “an exclusive arrangement for worldwide termination of voice and data mobile satellite telecommunications originating in Iran and Israel.”
According to TIME magazine, Berg was rumored to work “for a telecom firm with ties to Israel.”
How involved is Israel in Iraq?
Answer first questions first, before avenging Berg.
Well, looks like Sarah Whalen is every bit the arabic loon we are used to reading in the Arab News.
I like the undertone that since Berg was Jewish he got what he deserved, but it wasn't Arabs giving it to him. Very similar to the Arabic loonie tunes take on 9/11.
Oh, and for the record Berg did speak Arabic.
So now he was an Israeli spy? Typical fantastic Aran thinking. Just explain away all the facts by substituting speculations.
Nutty as this particular scenario may be, the Berg backstory seriously doesn't add up.
What facts?
Perhaps you will elaborate?
A lot of holes to fill here for the Grassy Knoll Society types.
And the conclusion this author comes to:
If he was an Israeli agent, then his death does not need avenging???
Typical Arab conspiracy theory.
Sarah Whalen
http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/culture/sarah-whalen.html
A professor who has done pro Saudi propaganda in the past.
This Conflict Is All About Israel
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/March%202003%20op%20eds/24%20op%20eds/This%20conflict%20is%20all%20about%20Israel%2C%20by%20Sarah%20Whalen%20%20aljazeerah.info.htm
Got picked up for doing "research" in the National Archives. On a librarian website, this caused the usual outrage but one poster noted questions about her "credentials" as a law professor if you scroll down....
http://www.lisnews.com/articles/03/09/01/0753247.shtml?tid=31
Indeed, she is not listed under Loyola (New Orleans) website, and a Yahoo search didn't come up with many links...so perhaps she is not a 'professor" i.e. full professor but as above poster points out, just a visiting professor. So that means she lied on her resume...
Now in Arabia, Needed in Italy:
America’s War on International Terror
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/Whalen_Biagi-Assassination.htm
This (above) article also claims she still teaches at Loyola...wonder if they know she works for them:
Sarah Whalen is an expert in Islamic Law and teaches law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, La. She studied labor law with Marco Biagi at the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1981. She writes articles for Arab News, Palestine Chronicle, and scholarly journals. She can be reached at: whalen@sprynet.com
Funny how the Arabs believe that Israeli Intelligence is omnipotent and stupid at the same time. My guess: Berg was a flake.
search page at Loyola reveals no student or professor in their database, but I'm not sure how to look up previous teachers or part time teachers.http://www.loyno.edu/search/index.php
Here is her story about being denied access to records. It is 2003, and she claims in it she is a professor at Loyola at the time...http://www.rense.com/general52/catch.htm
This Catholic website notes the same thing: No sarah whalen at Loyola (scroll down to the end): http://www.pseudopsalms.blogspot.com/2003_03_23_pseudopsalms_archive.html#91282201
The conspiracy theorists also use her story about being threatened over her "research" to bash the Patriot act, but they didn't check her credentials:http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/wiggins3.html
In September, 2003, i.e. the start of this year's school year, she was still claiming to be a professor at Loyola
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/September/20o/Defending%20Fakihi%20Against%20WSJ%20Charges%2C%20Sarah%20Whalen.htm
By 3-2004, her byline says she "taught" rather than "teaches" at Loyola...anyone have an index of ex faculty there from last year?http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=41596&d=21&m=3&y=2004
If you want to see an "example" of her work, you can read the articles she spouts... It's the Jews.
It has been published that Berg WAS married, but his wife died. She had an uncle in Iraq.
But the worst thing is, people like the author give the rest of us Clinton conspiracy nuts a bad name.
"We need to realize that part of the difficulties involve examining who we are and what we are willing to accept."
Thanks for this little jewel. Unfortunately for us, we have in our midst those who feel that the only way to get back to the days of September 10th (as if things were so great back then) is by way of losing the war in Iraq. They fail to understand what is really at stake. The self examination you prescribe, according to their way of thinking, is most likely to yield results that are defeatist to the point where America "got what it deserved".
The facts are that he was a Jew and had an Israeli passport and that he was in Iraq. Not easy to get to that country , but the mother of a troops was able toand so have other unattached civilians. In place of this, we get several "what if the moon were made of green cheese."
For clarification...
In the e-mails, Nicholas Berg mentions meeting a brother of an uncle by marriage. Michael Berg said that his sister, who is now deceased, married an Iraqi man who lives near Baghdad.
http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_133170949.html
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)
And your point is?
Firstly ... I don't understand the part you wrote in bold.
Second ... You allow for three "facts". IE: Jew, passport, in Iraq. That's it? These are the sum of the "facts", as you know them?
I would state that as long as there are unanswered questions there will be theoretic suppositions to try and answer them. No?
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