Posted on 05/13/2004 4:50:22 PM PDT by KQQL
A CIA official said Thursday that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was, in "high probability," the person shown on a video beheading American Nicholas Berg, based on an analysis of the voice on the video.
The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders. Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters Thursday in Baghdad that it appears al-Zarqawi was responsible. The U.S. military has already posted a $10 million reward for Zarqawi for having orchestrated some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Initially, Berg's murder seemed to be a case of an eccentric young American who was in the wrong place at the worst possible time -- just as the revelations of American mistreatment of iraqi prisoners were coming to light.
But CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports on what is turning into a bizarre mystery with a connection to 9/11.
U.S. officials say the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password Berg used in college turned up in the possession of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative arrested shortly before 9/11 for his suspicious activity at a flight school in Minnesota.
The bureau had already dismissed the connection between Berg and Moussaoui as nothing more than a college student who had been careless about protecting his password.
But in the wake of Berg's gruesome murder, it becomes a stranger than fiction coincidence -- an American who inadvertently gave away his computer password to one notorious al Qaeda operative is later murdered by another notorious al Qaeda operative.
Berg's body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Two e-mails he sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
On Tuesday, an Islamic Web site released the video, titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."
Al-Zarqawi is thought to be in Iraq, operating his own terrorist network, known simply as the "Zarqawi network." A specialist in poisons, he is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden.
As recently as March, U.S. officials said al-Zarqawi's practice was not to make taped public pronouncements or take credit for attacks. However, in the last five weeks, he has increased his public profile with at least three recordings, including Berg's beheading.
Al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind well over a dozen high-profile attacks in Iraq, and many other acts of violence, which have killed hundreds.
Martin reports that in at least one other case, a high-level al Qaeda operative has personally carried out a brutal killing. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected Sept. 11 mastermind now in U.S. custody, is widely believed to have killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Meanwhile Thursday, new details emerged about Berg's last weeks in Iraq — a timeline that has been contested by his family and the U.S. government.
Authorities in Baghdad denied that Berg, 26, was held in U.S. custody before he disappeared in early April, despite claims to the contrary by his family. The authorities said he had been held by Iraqi police for about two weeks and questioned by FBI agents three times.
In Baghdad, U.S. spokesmen Dan Senor said that "to my knowledge" Berg was not affiliated with any U.S. or coalition organization, nor was he ever in U.S. custody.
Iraqi police arrested Berg in Mosul on March 24 because local authorities believed he may have been involved in "suspicious activities," Senor said. He refused to elaborate, except to confirm that the Americans were aware Berg was in custody.
Berg was released April 6 and "was advised to leave the country," Senor added. Instead, Berg checked into a Baghdad hotel.
Berg had told friends he was arrested by Iraqi police in Mosul because he had an Israeli stamp in his passport. In e-mails released by his family, Berg wrote about his experiences in trying to track down and later meet an in-law in the Mosul area.
In Mosul, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi insisted Thursday that his department had never arrested Berg and maintained he had no knowledge of the case.
"The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American," al-Barhawi told reporters. "Take it from me ... that such reports are baseless."
Since Iraq remains under U.S. military occupation, it seems unlikely that the Iraqi police would have held Berg, or any other American, for such a length of time without at least the tacit approval of U.S. authorities.
"The Iraqi police do not tell the FBI what to do, the FBI tells the Iraqi police what to do," Berg's father, Michael Berg told the AP. "Who do they think they're kidding?"
The younger Berg told his family that U.S. officials took custody of him soon after his arrest and he was not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer, his father said.
Kimmitt said U.S. forces kept tabs on Berg during his confinement to make sure he was being fed and properly treated because "he was an American citizen."
But the three FBI visits suggest American authorities were concerned about more than Berg's well-being. They may have had their own suspicions about what the young American was doing in Iraq.
Two e-mails Berg sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
Shortly before Berg's disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday.
Officials said the U.S. government warned Berg to leave Iraq, and offered him a flight out of the country, a month before his grisly death.
On April 10, four days after Berg was released from an Iraqi prison, an American diplomat offered to put him on a flight to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said.
But Berg told the diplomat he "planned to travel overland to Kuwait and would call (his) family from there," Shannon said.
Michael Berg, said that although his son wanted to leave Iraq, he refused the flight offer because he thought the travel to the airport would be too dangerous.
but other articles showed him getting closer to his Jewish roots recently. Flipping to the darkside doesn't make sense.
I don't believe he was wandering around unescorted. I notice this piece left out the fact that he was offered a phone call home. He wanted to wait til he was in kuwait. Why?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Another interesting nugget. Who is the in-law?
Maybe he was changing his mind about them. Maybe he was a Muslim who wished to return to the Jewish faith after seeing more of Muslims first hand --- and forgot that you can never change your mind.
Michael Berg, said that although his son wanted to leave Iraq, he refused the flight offer because he thought the travel to the airport would be too dangerous
So tell me again how this is President Bush's fault? Because I am just not getting it.
Sounds like the Iraqi police are lying about never detaining Berg. No doubt the existence of the Israeli stamps in his passport were communicated to al-Zarqawi's followers by someone in the Iraqi police force. Why the FBI was questioning him is anybody's guess.
money.......it;s gas...........
It does strange things to some people.
This in-law is an Iraqi married to his paternal aunt.
B.S.
Give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
The conspiracies are popping up to stifle our anger.
He was essentially tortured to death, for God's sake.
I think it was his Iraqi-Arab uncle married to his dad's sister -- a Jewish woman. Something doesn't make sense about this family.
"he refused the flight offer because he thought the travel to the airport would be too dangerous."
OK, now daddy is an out an out liar.
BTW, just how did Berg end up in the hands of Zarqawi?
As far as we know, Berg left "the hotel" telling a friend he was "going to the airport." Was he really?
How was he captured?
With each hostage story we seem to know the "how" - usually a convoy/auto ambush.
With Berg, nothing.
IMO, most of the kidnappees seem to be held by local sunni or shi'ite thugs and mafias. Yet Berg ended up in the hands of #3 AQ official Zarqawi. How does that happen?
A little to adventurous like Daniel Pearl?
Something else?
Why did daddy call him "their" "best friend."
Did some local peacenik/ANSWER contacts go wrong?
There's more to this story.
Nick's dad is a pile of lying pile of liberal crap.
John Gibson on Fox said he had talked to some U.S. contractors back from Iraq and was told there is no way any American would be running around the country with no attachment to any business or institution. Sounds a bit like a character in a graham Greene novel.
no one just wonders in iraq.
Something smells ....
Man....where's my tinfoil hat when I really need it?
Other fascinating thing is that the father already had a meeting with Kerry...
So if the source of the "smell" is found, we blow this display of TROP off?
I think your on to something. Elsewhere and acquaintance reportedly said that he had made lots of money, enough for a jaunt through Turkey.
I think his Islamic acquaintances set him up, and delivered him to AQ. A young, idealistic, non-conformist American must have seemed an easy mark. Throw him money for some "contract" and reel him in. I wonder if they got their money back, and how? Paper trail?
Arabs have been killing each other for thousands of years.
One day they are close friends. The next day, blood enemies. They kill their own people in "suicide" bombing, just to murder a few Westerners or Jews.
So if Berg was working with AQ, it would not surprise me if they killed on of their own.
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