salon.com contacts DFU over FR's role in murder of Nick Berg by Islamofascist Terrorist b*st*rds

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Apparently, I am in the middle of a controversy regarding the brutal murder of Nick Berg by the Islamofascist terrorist b*st*rds.

I received the following FReepmail today from a salon.com reporter and spoke to him off the record. I will either call him back on the record or he can use my comments here on the record.

Salon.com inquiry, your post on the "enemies list"
From (redacted) | 05/12/2004 11:45:13 AM PDT read

Hello. My name is (redacted), and I'm a reporter at Salon.com. On March 7, you posted a list of signatories to an ANSWER protest; that list, which is now being discussed by a few left-leaning bloggers, includes the name of "Michael S. Berg," who is the father of Nick Berg, the man beheaded in Iraq.

It seems as if you just posted a copy of the list from the ANSWER site, but the trouble is, your list appears much longer than the one on their page. Michael Berg's name -- and many others -- is not on their page.

So I wonder if you can tell me where you got your list -- have you any idea why yours is longer than the one they have?

I also wonder what you think about the fact that you named these people enemies; do you really think they're enemies? Some people on left-leaning blogs are floating the theory that Nick Berg was detained or singled out by U.S. authorities in Iraq because of the list you posted. I wonder what you think of that idea?

I'm not trying to attack you; I'm a reporter trying to get to the bottom of this story, and it'd be great to get your input. Can you e-mail or call, or let me know where to reach you? Thanks so much.

NOTE: my first suggestion was to tell the report to ask ANSWER why many of the names have been removed from that original post.

Beheaded Man's Firm Was On Right-Wing 'Enemies' List
Breakfornews.com ^ | May 12, 2004 | Fintan Dunne
Posted on 05/12/2004 12:59:00 PM PDT by Tarantulas
Beheaded Man's Firm Was On Right-Wing 'Enemies' List

The family firm of beheaded American Nick Berg, was named by a conservative website in a list of 'enemies' of the Iraq occupation. That could explain his arrest by Iraqi police --a detention which fatally delayed his planned return from Iraq and may have led directly to his death.

Nick Berg, 26 disappeared into incommunicado detention after his arrest by Iraqi police in March, 2004. He vanished again after his release 13 days later. His body was found last Saturday in Baghdad, and a video of his beheading --supposedly by a radical Islamic group-- was posted on the Internet on Tuesday.

The official story of his gruesome murder has many dubious aspects, not least the real reason why Iraqi police detained the young man at a checkpoint. New research by BreakForNews has uncovered a plausible explanation.

The FreeRepublic.com web site and forum has a reputation for right-wing views, often fanatical Republican and relentless pro-war activism.

On 7th March, 2004, just three weeks before the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, an 'enemies' list of anti-war groups and individuals was posted on the Free Republic forum.

The list had been copied from publicly available endorsements of a call to action for an imminent anniversary antiwar protest on 20th March, 2004. The protest was being organized under the banner of the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism).

Among those listed as having endorsed the call to action was this entry: "Michael S. Berg, Teacher, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc."

That's Nick Berg's father, Michael who acts as business manager for his son in their family radio communications firm, Prometheus Methods Tower Service.

Here is my immediate reaction --- what is the color of the sky in the fantasy world which Fintan Dunne calls home?

I can't wait for her next story. Let's set the scenario. Two guys are driving to the airport. Their upper radiator hose bursts, the car overheats, and they miss their flight. They get to the airport a few hours late and are able to catch the next plane. The plane crashes. Fintan Dunne headline: Pep Boys Implicated in Death of Innocent Travelers. If anyone could conceive such twisted logic, it would be Ms. Dunne. Without a defective radiator hose, they would have made it to the airport on time. Without a defective radiator hose they would not have been on the flight where the shoebomber detonated his loafers in the seat just behind the wing.

Do we have an official "enemies list"? If so, what do we do to them? Who is keeping track?

I will let you make some comments before I make additional on the record comments. Please don't be crazy. Think through your argument carefully. Some of this may appear on salon.com and we can perhaps help them get up to about 2 cents per share.

Also to keep in mind...

Salon.com Announces Election-Year Initiative With MoveOn, The Guardian and Air America

MediaChannel.org ^ | March 13, 2004 | Timothy Karr

Posted on 03/13/2004 10:31:56 PM EST by RepatriatedTexan

NEW YORK, March 9, 2004 -- Salon.com announced Tuesday night a series of ambitious election-year initiatives, including the opening of a new Washington D.C. news bureau as well as strategic partnerships with MoveOn.org, The Guardian of London and the new progressive radio network, Air America.

The Website, which bills itself as "the largest independent news organization in the country" will also make the announcement via an email to MoveOn.org's 2-million plus members, MediaChannel has learned from a memo sent on Monday to Salon board members from company editor and founder David Talbot.

"The Web has come of age this campaign season as a political news medium and Salon is well positioned to be a leading player in the election year's round-the-clock news cycle," Talbot states.

Salon claims to have three million readers who visit its Website each month. Of this group, 74,000 are subscribers who pay up to $35 a year for "premium" access to news reports, political columns, cartoons and other editorial features. "We anticipate creating some buzz, and more importantly, new subscription revenue with this publicity offensive," Talbot wrote about this week's announcement in the memo to Salon board members.

In January Salon Media Group secured a $200,000 investment from Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine to collaborate on coverage of the upcoming presidential election. This funding helped set up the Washington Bureau headed by columnist and former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal.

Blumenthal will spearhead the Website's newest editorial initiatives. "The Bush administration has put enormous political pressure on the press not to probe its radical policies and their consequences," Blumenthal states in the memo. "Salon intends to be fearless."

Blumenthal is a former Washington Post and New Yorker reporter and senior aide to President Clinton; author of "The Clinton Wars" and five other books.

Salon published on Wednesday an inside account of how intelligence was twisted in the rush to the Iraq war. The author of the article, "The New Pentagon Papers," is a retired lieutenant colonel, Karen Kwiatkowski, a Near East specialist, formerly assigned to the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon.

According to the memo, Salon will publish on Thursday the first of several advance excerpts from "House of Bush, House of Saud," a new book by Craig Unger "that explores the relationship between the two dynasties," according to the memo.

Unger "will expose shocking new details on the flights approved by the Bush White House that carried members of the bin Laden family and other prominent Saudis out of the U.S. to Saudi Arabia after September 11. Salon will publish for the first time the manifest of the passenger list and identify one passenger as a suspected al Qaeda funder who was aware ahead of time of the September 11 attack."

Salon has also agreed to a trans-Atlantic media partnership with The Guardian of London. "Salon and The Guardian will exchange news stories daily to be posted on each others' Web sites," the memo states. The Guardian has 8.5 million monthly Web readers, including 2 million in the U.S.

Salon will also contribute daily to the new progressive radio network, Air America, providing "The Salon Story of the Day." Air America announced on Wednesday that it will begin broadcasting in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco markets on March 31. The radio network's on air personalities include political satirist Al Franken, comedienne Janeane Garofalo, hip hop icon Chuck D, radio personality Randi Rhodes, and humorist Sam Seder.

Salon, founded in 1995, has established a solid reputation as a credible journalistic voice on the Web, though as a business it has never been profitable. In recent years, the company has experimented with multiple revenue models. It now focuses on a "Salon Premium" subscription model supplemented by advertising revenues from companies including Visa, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, HBO, and Microsoft.

For the last several years, the company has had to fend off rumors of its demise. Salon reported quarterly net revenues ending December 31, 2003 of $1.3 million, but reported an equivalent net loss. The company's fourth quarter 2003 financial report to the SEC notes that if the Web publication "does not secure additional funds from the issuance of equity securities or instruments that convert into equity securities, Salon may be unable to continue as a going concern and cease operations."

Salon.com has survived thus far in part by attracting cash infusions from wealthy investors, including famed TV producer Norman Lear. Around the same time Wenner Media took a $200,000 stake earlier this year, founder and co-chairman of Adobe Systems John Warnock tipped another $600,000 into the company, enough to keep the Website going at least through the 2004 elections. Warnock is also a Salon board member.

As a part of the election-year expansion Salon will add writers for its political coverage. Edward Jay Epstein, author of numerous books, from "Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth" to "Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer," will be writing on the September 11 Commission. James K. Galbraith, the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in government-business relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, will become Salon's economics correspondent.

-- Timothy Karr is executive director of MediaChannel.org, which last month launched Media For Democracy 2004 (www.mediafordemocracy.us), a citizens-powered initiative to hold mainstream media to a higher standard of election coverage.

© MediaChannel.org, 2004. All rights reserved.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1097243/posts#6

I recall a banned individual with the name Tamara.

I just cannot place her.

Well, we all know that this crap is crap and will be flushed, as the list was public before we pasted it on the forum and the name of the father was on the list through his actions and not ours. It was he who authorized the use of his name on the ANSWER site.

His son's name was not on the list, and for Iraqi security to arrest his son on the strength of that information is so far fetched and dubious, that tinfoil does not even apply here. it would be beyond wierd and unexplainable.

I cannot balme Salon for chasing this down, but the facts are that the coalition offered this guy safe passage and he refused.

We also know, that the son did not share the fathers beliefs and that he was pro-Bush and against Saddam. unfortunately, that is more than we can say for the father, but as I said earlier, we should let this guy bury his son before we put on a defense to this nonsense.

Frankly, I do not think any defense will be needed for something like the conspiracy that has been dreamed up by this grieving man.

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