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.
And Kerry is connected to Iran, and Iran is operating and guiding this show...
Hmmmm.... :)
Or it's just a Kerry operative working quickly to get the two together. What's Kerry going to do, run on domestic policy? He's a worse globalist and outsourcer than Bush!
"Berg's mistake was trusting moslems."
Yes, this may be the exact thing of it. I guess Mr. Pearl made the same mistake. They both forgot how important killing Jews is to these so-called people.
something smells
That's what I've wondered. It was also rumored that some heard the murderers speaking in Russian near the end of the tape. So, I'm just throwing that out there since I didn't hear it.
#39
That sounds plausible.
I think we are ---- but from the moment it came out that his dad was a member of that anti-American group, questions started getting asked. It's pretty strange the guy had Al Queda connections --- with a known terrorist, an Iraqi uncle and was wandering about with no definite job in Iraq. His family who hates Bush tried to pass him off as pro-Bush --- but still uses his death as a way to try to get at Bush --- it doesn't add up.
Haven't you heard? That was Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz and Bremer in the hoods. Just ask Mad Michael Berg. He'll tell ya....
Yahoo and Reuter's are not getting the fathers quote exactly right.
I and my husband twice now today wathing FoxNewsLive saw and heard the father say; "They do not or did not know what they were doing. He was a friend to or of the Al Queda.
The father never flinched or stuttered or said I meant to say the Iraqi's, but the News Anchor Rick came on and said he meant to say a friend of the Iraqi's.
Hmm ... Was he maybe trying to find out why they hate us? Maybe they didn't know about the computer password story.
Too dangerous?? A guy who wanders through Mozul alone but worries a drive to the airport coutesy of the U.S. is too dangerous???
Sorry, but this sounds like a lie.
"Detained" is not the same as "arrested", although it may look and feel about the same. So the Mosul chief of police may have been correct in a technical sense. Nick Berg was not "arrested", but he probably spent several days in custody, primarily for his own protection.
But the password? Too improbable. Berg may have not exercised the necessary caution in protecting the password, but to say that he gave it up willingly to Zaccarias Moussaoui just strains credulity too far.
"This in-law is an Iraqi married to his paternal aunt."
And that's pretty darn strange too. So an Iraqi man is married to a Jewish American woman, and where is this aunt today? What is her status, and what is the status of her husband.
There is something very peculiar in all this, nice of Rush to be praising the guy today, and disgusting he was killed the way he was, and I remain convinced he was killed only and solely because he was Jewish, but this is becoming an engima wrapped in a riddle, or whatever that phrase is.
Said this on another thread... but at the rate things are going, wouldn't be surprised to see Kerry carring Berg's head around as a prop for his stump speeches.
Clearly the Berg story has the potential reaffirming the American sheeple's resolve to win this fight, and I think that is why Kerry and this father want to act so quickly.
Berg's father said today they (islamofacsistcutthroats) killed their best friend.
This statement is quite revealing. The FBI can evidently access any password, anytime and connect it with a specific individual and question them about it. Since passwords are presumed to be encrypted 'secrets' that's pretty eye-opening, ain't it?
Yes, that's another puzzle piece I'd like to have answered. Who is the in-law and why is the in-law in Iraq?
Maybe they waved enough cash at him and he thought he could do business. Maybe he was desperate for business if his own company stateside was having trouble.
But it looked like he was held for quite awhile so they didn't just decide to kidnap him and then butcher him.
She's dead but I don't know how.
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