Posted on 05/27/2004 9:26:51 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement.
Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well as examining the relationship between President George W. Bush and the bin Laden family. It received the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, on Saturday.
In a statement widely circulated by Moore's people after an initial request for comment by Salon, Moore said, "We have an interview with Nick Berg. It was approximately 20 minutes long. We are not releasing it to the media. It is not in the film. We are dealing privately with the family." Moore's camp declined to comment further on any aspect of the interview. Because the footage is not in the film, a spokeswoman for Miramax Films, the production company behind "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the company had no comment.
It was not clear from Moore's statement whether footage from the interview with Berg had ever been included in early cuts of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Reports about a film industry controversy surrounding distribution of the film first hit the news on May 5, a week before Berg's death. The film officially screened for the public and the press for the first time during the Cannes festival on May 17.
The news that Moore spoke to Berg while he was still in the United States only adds to the mystery surrounding the young man's presence in Iraq and tragic death. The interview was shot before the 26-year-old Berg left for Iraq late last year as a private contractor in the hopes of helping to rebuild the ravaged country. Though it was unclear what Berg spoke about in his interview with Moore, or how the two men met, unrelated reports following his death indicate that he headed for the Middle East with plans to work to improve the country's technological infrastructure and communication abilities. He ran his own company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Berg did not find employment in Iraq, and when he attempted to return to the United States he was detained by Iraqi police and questioned by American forces. He was released after his family complained. But shortly after, he is believed to have been kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Video of his beheading was released on an Islamist Web site on May 11. Salon was unable to reach the Berg family for comment before publication.
Moore's film chronicles the United States' military, political and business involvement in the Middle East in the years before and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His previous politically charged films, including "Roger & Me" and "Bowling for Columbine," have created controversy and won him praise (including an Oscar, for "Columbine"). "Fahrenheit 9/11" has already sparked a media storm; in early May, Miramax's parent company, Disney, announced that it would not allow Miramax to distribute the film, which is highly critical of Bush and his administration.
Miramax has yet to make a deal with a distributor, though the film's warm reception at Cannes and the publicity surrounding the film have made it a hot property that is generating a lot of interest in Hollywood. "Bowling for Columbine" grossed $21 million, making it the highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary of all time.
A source close to "Fahrenheit 9/11" said that a new distributor will be announced shortly, and that the film is expected to be released in theaters during the first week of July, as originally planned.
YOU HAVE MAIL
That makes sense.....that's for the clear up....but man oh man, NOTHING adds up.
I'm not in the tower business but I have a couple of clients who run television stations. You can figure what their towers and transmission equipment mean to them. Today I touched base with both and worked in a question about the tower business. Apparently for basic maintenance they would call locals for the work but they both said they wouldn't let a 25 year old with his own company do anything of a technical nature. They use what they call the experienced and reputable major companies for technical work. Though they too will hire locals for projects they would be under the supervision of experienced managers.
There are dozens and dozens of rules and regulations when it comes to towers. (From the FCC, to the FAA to OSHA to the EPA.) And this doesn't even speak to the technical and engineering aspects of the work. It seems to me that Nick Berg, just because he would climb a tower, made himself eligible for work in this field, particularly as a sub for a major name.
In Nick's own words, he saidhe would climb up towers (Uninvited) and then tell the owners what they needed to do to fix problems. Reminded me of gypsies knockig on doors and telling old people that their roof needs fixing.
Okay!
Are you crazy? On what basis do you make that claim? You should be over on the DU tinfoil hat forum.
I know what you mean! Try and follow this;
On #1716 - the timeline. April 6.
"He (Nick) repeatedly said he was held in the (Coalition Provisional Authority) jail in Mosul for two weeks."
MR INFANTE SAID!
So, Mr Aziz says Nick left town with some nice people...and Mr Infante says he was in jail in Mosul...why would we believe that either of them were telling the truth?
Speaking of DU, you've been on this forum since 5.19.2004.
Since you asked so nicely, I'll explain why I don't think that man in the video was Berg. I've seen several pics of Berg. He is a tall, well built fair looking man. The man in the video had a smaller build, and was dark haired and more Arab looking. What's up with that Amish looking beard? There's too much wrong with this story, so it wouldn't surprise me if Berg was still alive.
I'm not the only one who has doubts, so why don't you look them up and tell them to go over to DU? I guarantee they won't be so polite.
Interesting. Either the Yassin family name is the Iraqi equivalent of Smith or what?
What, if any, is the connection of Nick Berg of Philadelphia, and Philip J Berg, Philadelphia lawyer who is suing the administration http://www.911forthetruth.com/ over 9-11? Moussaoui apparently links the two, at least by coincidence. Note that Moussaoui is a defendant in Philip Berg’s case and used Nick Berg’s email address at the University of Oklahoma according to FoxNews. Coincidence, or could something else be going on? I found this unexpectedly while searching for “berg moussaoui” on Google.
I am not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch, but doesn’t this seem a little odd? Are these two Bergs related? If the answer is yes there are a number of other questions that one might ask. Like was PJ Berg involved with NB's trips to Iraq? Was NB helping in to gather evidence for this lawsuit against the administration? Etc.
Philip Berg’s office is ~26 miles from Westchester, PA (Nick Berg’s hometown). (Source: Mapquest)
Apparently there are 47 Bergs in Philadelphia according to whitepages.com. Also, Philip J. Berg is referenced on a number of Democratic activist websites.
This has never made sense to me since (as best I can figure out) the towers had been owned by the state. It seems, as I read complete e-mails of his, his plan was to try to inspect them and use that data base to gain work through one of the major contractors in Iraq. But it seems crazy for him to go to Iraq to try to get jobs fixing antennae, light bulbs, painting and the like. I still don't buy that he would have been seriously considered as the lead for tower construction projects.
>>Re: that link on 1733....Is Chez What telling the truth about the time difference in the beheading video?
>>Chez What said that the head was held up on a video that had a time stamp of 1:47, but then the other camera 59 minutes LATER had Berg with his head on....and there were differnt people behind him. Do you have any answers to this....is it TRUE??
Well the leftists especially don't want to believe the video
because it doesn't fit their agenda. I think they're up to
at least 50 'flaws' they say prove its a fake.
The two cameras with clocks that don't match is the silliest.
All that means is that no one set the clocks, or they came
from different time zones. We already knew some scenes
were possibly filmed the day before the beheading.
Two cameras, two clocks, neither one accurate or even 'set'.
They also whine about the white chair. The arms on Nick's
chair are v-shaped. They squeeze his legs somewhat as
the seat portion is fairly narrow. Lindsey's chair (i think
thats her name) is sitting in a white chair built for
lard-@sses. the arms on the chair run perfectly up and down
- vertical, so the seat portion is wider. She has her legs
crossed and still has room where she's not squeezed by the
arms.
And even if the chairs were the same, so what? Not a lot
of different vendors there, so if one place has white
plastic chairs from china, its very likely tha a huge
number of others have the identical model
I must have missed your original post on this. I would call Phillip J. Berg's lawsuit against the administration over 9/11, another coincidence. Too darn many coincidences. I wonder if a geneological site could help find out if Phillip Berg is related to the Michael Berg family?
Berg is a common name in the Jewish community, and for the life of me I can't understand why most of them are Democrats! This is still worth checking out, if only to close a loose end.
Before we ask questions about PJ Berg's possible connections with N Berg, we should find out if they are related. Of course that might not even matter. You don't have to be related to conspire, but it helps.
Anyone have any ideas on checking this out?
I will tell you that genealogical ethics ask for details of living people not to be posted to the internet. So I doubt that would turn up anything.
Why a beard? Well one of his emails mentioned that he had taken to telling Iraqis that he was Turkish to avoid scrutiny; perhaps he was getting a little worried about the situation and decided to lower his profile, and grew a beard to blend in better.
A lot of his story has unanswered questions. Whether or not he was murdered on video is not one of them in my book.
Hey, can you clear up who is who for me? Do you know anything about berg's aunt? How close was she to his sister? Did they both die?
But what you said of course is true:
You don't have to be related to conspire, but it helps.
Let me ask you this: How likely is it that two very involved, somewhat prominent in their circles antiwar leftists (Philip and Michael Berg) in Philadelphia know each other? My guess is almost certainly they do know one another. Where this fits into the puzzle is anyone's guess until more information is gathered.
A Philly area investigative reporter should look into this.
Well I'm going to get flamed, but I'm going to say this anyway.
Until Michael Moore's name came up, this never entered my mind but now I'm having some problems with this whole thing. Okay, there were two video cameras taping this. Set at different times. What were the time zones? People are bleating about plastic chairs? China supplies the entire world with plastic chairs, for pete's sake.
Over the weekend I watched "Snow White, Tale of Terror". Bear with me. The special effects were pretty good, and Sigourney Weaver played the wicked stepmother to the hilt. If you're in the film industry, you can fake damn near anything on tape.
My friend and I saw a poor quality version of the video. At the time we were too upset to question anything. Whatever the killers were doing, it wasn't a traditional beheading. A head is then held aloft, with no blood running, or even dripping out. Sorry if I'm being gross, but if the time sequence was correct, there should have been at least a little blood running down that murderer's hand, and from the severed head itself.
Are we being scammed? If we are, what would be the purpose? Nick Berg, productive citizen, decent guy, pro Bush supporter is executed in revenge for the "outrages" suffered by the prisoners at Abu Graihb. Damn that Bush administration!!!
Now before everyone throws rotten tomatoes at me, just remember one name...Michael Moore.
That's what I thought. My aunt has been into geneology for quite some time. You never know, though. Thanks for the reply.
We saw a video that was barely watchable. What struck me when I saw Nick's picture is that the man in the video resembled my cousin Jimmy when he was in college. We're black Irish. The only difference is that Jimmy also had a moustache.
The nose I can agree with, thanks to posted still clips here. The bone structure, I can't. The cheek bones and the shoulders, for example. If Nick Berg had grown a beard, he would have looked like Paul Bunyan. Of course I could be full of it, I'm just saying that even POW's don't change that much. People can still recognize them.
Well, see my recent post to FL_Engineer. I'm starting to smell a rather large rat.
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