FBI Saw Berg Three Times During Iraq Police Detention (he was never in US custody)

Reuters via Yahoo! ^

[dead]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The FBI saw Nick Berg, the American civilian beheaded in Iraq, three times while he was being detained by Iraqi police, the U.S.-led occupation authority said Wednesday.

An Islamist Web site Tuesday carried a video clip of Berg's beheading, with a statement saying a group linked to al Qaeda carried it out in revenge for the abuse of Iraqis by U.S. troops.

Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, said Berg had not been in U.S. custody before or after his arrest by Iraqi police on March 24.

"My understanding is that they suspected that he was engaged in suspicious activity," Senor told a news conference.

"U.S. authorities were notified, the FBI visited with Mr. Berg when he was in Iraqi police detention and determined that he was not involved in any criminal or terrorist activities," Senor said. "They had contact with him on three occasions."

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said U.S. military police had seen Berg during his detention to make sure he was being fed and treated properly.

Berg, whose body Senor said was discovered by a road near Baghdad Saturday, was in Baghdad from late December to February 1 and returned to Iraq in March.

He did not find work and planned to return home at the end of March, according to his parents.

Berg's communications to his parents stopped on March 24 and he told them later he was jailed by Iraqi officials after being picked up at a checkpoint in Mosul.

On April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit alleging their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military in Iraq. The next day, he was released.

Berg was one of dozens of foreigners kidnapped in early April as U.S. forces launched twin offensives on the restive city of Falluja west of Baghdad and followers of a rebel Shi'ite cleric in the capital and across southern Iraq.

[OXENinFLA]

The DUmmies are over there with outrages theories that our side did it to make more Americans outraged and boost support for the war.

Yeah, I read that too. DU Psychos.

[twigs]

You're correct. Berg was Jewish. It is not accident that the only two Americans who were beheaded in this war have been Jewish.

[Dilbert56]

Actually, he was perilously close to finding the WMD stockpiles. The Neocon Special Forces are saving them for the day after the Democrat convention and couldn't afford to have their existence prematurely uncovered. Richard Perle decided he had to die. He invoked Fascist NeoCon SOP #42A:

• Rumsfeld signed the necessary orders.
• Aschroft slipped in an amendment to the PATRIOT act giving the Administration unlimited power to kill anyone, anywhere without showing cause.
• Ted Kennedy proposed a toast, called George Washington a terrorist, and drank to his memory.
• Hans Blix called asking for directions to the dresser in his hotel room.
• Cheney got Haliburton to hire five guys with masks.
• At the "GO/NO GO" meeting the night before, Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Boortz were briefed by Rupert Murdoch. They agreed on the storyline and various subplots that could be spawned off it.
• At 10PM, Max ignored another poorly-diguised pass by Agent 99.
• At 9AM, President Bush awoke and convened a secure videoconference. He asked each of the principals if they had what they needed. They all agreed they did.
• According to Bob Woodward, Colin Powell called Dick Cheney a "fattie" with a "bad ticker".
• John Kerry sent mailings to his constiuents saying the executions were necessary but should only be done if France agreed. A second mailing reversed both positions.
• The President then gave the "go" signal - a secret "Skull & Crossbones" salute.

[A CA Guy]

http://www.network54.com/Forum/170322

The board above seems to be full of liberals that are of course suggesting everything is Bush's fault as well.

I wouldn't mention FR, but I would go ever for a couple of minuetes and have a little fun upsetting their apple.

You don't have to sign up or in to post.

This is a "THE VIEW" message board for mostly liberal women.

[ex-Texan]

LOL, LOL, LOL !

[GottaLuvAkitas1]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133743/posts Parents blame Bush for son's execution
financial times ^ | Published: May 12 2004 5:00 | Joshua Chaffin

"Mr Berg was released on April 6, a day after his parents filed a lawsuit in federal court naming defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a defendant, and claiming that their son was being unlawfully held. They last heard from him on April 9. "

[twigs]

This was his second trip to Iraq. He did have work the first time; he was an independent businessman whose field was communications. Our local news is saying that a friend talked with him right before he went back and that he was very agitated, which does not sound like him according to other people who knew him. His friend thought it was because his parents did not want him to return. This is the first I've heard that he did not have a contract when he went back. On another thread, I read that he had been warned by the US that he shouldn't return, but I do not know if that can be confirmed or not. This story does NOT seem to add up yet.

[BlessedByLiberty]

You are getting a bill for a new keyboard and monitor! Very well done! Bravo!

[gandalftb]

Something odd about all of this. Zarqawi is claimed to be the killer, but the video killer has both legs and Zarqawi lost one in Afghanistan. Zarqawi is too secretive to take an on-air role, I think he is named to give credibility to the group. Zarqawi is a johnny appleseed recruiter/facilitator for Al Queda, not a soldier. Berg is dressed in detainee garb on-air but the reclaimed body is in his original street clothes. Why would his murderers do that, or were they invited in for the dirty business, and the detainee garb and it's clues removed by others who may have been holding him. Who would have the opportunity to kidnap him and have access to detainee garb? Especially when he was kidnapped right after his release from Iraqi detention? Who knew he was available? Who were his local contacts? Why was he in Kurdish Mosul?
This stinks of Ansar al-Islam, who are from that area, and are connected to Zarqawi and Muntada al-Islam.

[twigs]

Berg also worked on the communications tower next to Abu Ghraib prison when he was there the first time. Do you get the Smerconish radio show where you are? His chief engineer was a good friend of Berg's and he was going to interview him this morning. I didn't hear it, but he might have access to good information in the next several days.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I think we all need to just let this play out. We have grieving parents. A son who allegedly backed this administration and the President. WENT TO IRAQ INDEPENDENTLY, not as a contractor, or a government employee, but INDEPENDENTLY.

Our Government may have checked him out at one point. So what? They let him go. We can't be responsible for people who go there on their own. They are warned of the risks. Nick was surely warned of them.

He seems like a nice young man. But like news men and women who go over independently, we have NO CONTROL over them.

Michael Berg said ''I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused,'' he said. ''I don't think this administration is committed to democracy.

But obviously it was just the opposite. Nick was FREE to go anywhere he pleased.

So we need to let a grieving Dad alone.He is striking out in his GRIEF!

God Bless the Berg family. This is a horrific way to lose a son. Young Nick got himself into the worst situation possible. Lets just pray for all of them instead of thinking up conspiracies or condemning the father.

Thanks

[Right Wing Puppy]

Too late his father has already blamed Bush.

[Califelephant]

The war on terror is widening and deepening the rift between conservatives and liberals. An ideological civil war has been going on in America for years, but now the battle lines are getting brighter and clearer. And it will get worse before it gets better.

[talleyman]

Actually, he was perilously close to finding the WMD stockpiles. The Neocon Special Forces are saving them for the day after the Democrat convention and couldn't afford to have their existence prematurely uncovered. Richard Perle decided he had to die. He invoked Fascist NeoCon SOP #42A:

• Rumsfeld signed the necessary orders.
• Aschroft slipped in an amendment to the PATRIOT act giving the Administration unlimited power to kill anyone, anywhere without showing cause.
• Ted Kennedy proposed a toast, called George Washington a terrorist, and drank to his memory.
• Hans Blix called asking for directions to the dresser in his hotel room.
• Cheney got Haliburton to hire five guys with masks.
• At the "GO/NO GO" meeting the night before, Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Boortz were briefed by Rupert Murdoch. They agreed on the storyline and various subplots that could be spawned off it.
• At 10PM, Max ignored another poorly-diguised pass by Agent 99.
• At 9AM, President Bush awoke and convened a secure videoconference. He asked each of the principals if they had what they needed. They all agreed they did.
• According to Bob Woodward, Colin Powell called Dick Cheney a "fattie" with a "bad ticker".
• John Kerry sent mailings to his constiuents saying the executions were necessary but should only be done if France agreed. A second mailing reversed both positions.
• The President then gave the "go" signal - a secret "Skull & Crossbones" salute.

Post of the day award!!! ROTFLMAO! (But you've got it all wrong - Bush woke up at 8:30...)

[McGavin999]

He would have been safer if he had remained in IP custody.

[alnick]

If the U.S. Forces never had him then why did the parents file a suit against Rummy?

You can file a lawsuit for anything. Doesn't mean anything, really, in and of itself.

[Tacis]

The DUmmies may be outraged but it is because their Iraqi collegues killed this guy. Kerry, I'm told, had issued clear intructions to kerrorists the world over that they should do nothing to divert attention from the prison stories. The media had been instructed to maximize coverage.

Kerry and the other anti-Americans are furious that Berg was "beheaded" (they have forbidden use of the word "murdered" as being "too dramatic for the circumstances"). And, I can fully understand Kerry's displeasure with his Arabic friends. The American public has to decide now who they want to follow up on this murder, W or Bug Out Johnny.

Kerry wants no more surprises! He has already reviewed Willie's manuscript to see if it is OK. It is fine, not a word of truth to embarrass anyone. One of the folks who Willie really clobbers, however, is Paul Wellstone. Paul is accused of leading the party too far left, forcing Willie to expend resources to correct the drift.

[Snerfling]

I can fully understand Kerry's displeasure with his Arabic friends.

Rush referred to the silver bullet (ie the prison photos) that the Dems had planned on leveraging as the 'silver boomerang'. He also correctly noted that the Berg murder was the most galvanizing event since 9-11.

[IamConservative]

Sounds like a spy..

[Hildy]

I wonder how many freelance contractors there are roaming around Baghdad. It seems like that's not the smartest thing to do. I think the government was appropriate in their response to him, but I still want to know why he was detained for so long. We don't really have the dates, do we? When did they offer the prisoner switch?