...How 26-year-old Nick Berg fell into the hands of Islamist militants is unclear, but while in Iraq he also came to the attention of the FBI and the Iraqi police. The state department said he was a private citizen who was not employed under any known contract.
He owned a business called Prometheus Methods Tower Service, inspecting antennae on communications towers, and went to Iraq last December, apparently independently, to look for work. He stayed until February. "It was more of an exploratory mission," Michael Berg told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. His parents say he was lured partly by a sense of adventure, and partly because he was a "staunch supporter of the government position in Iraq and he wanted to go over there and help", according to the paper.
He returned to Iraq on March 14, believing that he had found work there, then told his family he would be back in the US by March 30, in time for a friend's wedding. But he failed to turn up for his flight.
The next day, FBI agents arrived at Berg's family home asking why he was in Iraq. They informed Mr and Mrs Berg that their son was in jail...
...Berg spoke to his parents on March 24 and told them he would return home on March 30. But he was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24.Berg was turned over to US officials and detained for 13 days. His father, Michael, said his son wasn't allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.
FBI agents visited Berg's parents in West Chester on March 31 and told the family they were trying to confirm their son's identity. On April 5, the Bergs filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the US military. The next day Berg was released. He told his parents he hadn't been mistreated.
It was not clear how or when he was captured by al-Qaeda-linked group...