Posted on 05/13/2004 8:35:22 PM PDT by SeenTheLight
First off, I'll get the obligatory stuff out of the way: the videotaped beheading of 26-year-old American Nicholas Berg, now believed to have been done by al-Qaida linked terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is truly horrifying and an outrage. It confirms that we must continue to fight the War On Terror using maximum force in any place necessary to ensure that these refugees from the Middle Ages are totally defeated.
Certainly Nicholas Berg is as innocent a victim of extreme Muslim atrocities as the 3,000 Americans killed on September 11, 2001, or the victims from the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings. But there are many questions about Berg's fateful visit to Iraq which do not square with information given by his family or the U.S. Coalition story of what exactly happened and why he was detained.
First, what has been given as Berg's college background and how he came to run a one-man communications firm seems a little strange if not outright preposterous. It was reported that Nick Berg attended four different colleges: the last was the University of Oklahoma where it is claimed he learned to install radio towers. But Berg never received a college diploma. Media reports said his one-man company was called Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc. Reality check: it is virtually impossible to obtain such technical work as installing radio towers without a Professional Engineering license, let alone not having a college degree!
The first reports of his life story said that Berg supported President Bush in the War on Terror and helped install communications equipment at the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia. But his father, Michael Berg, is a member of the off-the-charts anti-war group International ANSWER (''Act Now, Stop the War, and End Racism.'') While children occasionally do not share the politics of their parents (I didn't), you have to wonder if telling the media that his kid was a Republican was something of a ruse to direct attention from Michael Berg's (and his son's) true politics.
Then there are the two 2004 trips to Iraq. While most contractors travel directly to Baghdad, Nicholas Berg instead landed in Jordan and found his way by land into Iraq. If indeed Berg was a one-man contractor installing radio towers, it would seem difficult to get any work in Iraq without (a) initially consummating commitments while still in the United States, and (b) having a link to a larger construction company such as Bechtel or (dirty word alert) Halliburton! As yet no radio towers that Nicholas Berg may have built while in Iraq on either trip have been identified.
We know that Nick Berg was bouncing around Iraq until he was detained either by Iraqi police or the U.S. Military in Mosul on March 24. I'll give his dad the benefit of the doubt here: Nicholas was definitely being detained by the coalition for any of the following suspicions:
a) He was loaded with electronics equipment, supposedly for his work on radio communications towers. Possessing sophisticated electronic gear in a war zone without producing any paperwork to prove that he is building radio towers probably set off alarm bells.
b) It was likely that Berg was on an FBI ''watch'' list. FBI agents interviewed Berg a few years ago when they were investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks because, unbeknownst to him, Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, had used his e-mail account when both were in Oklahoma. On Thursday Fox News reported that the FBI dismissed the link between Berg and Moussaoui as ''coincidental.''
c) Speaking on condition of anonymity in one media report, a U.S. official said Iraqi authorities detained Berg ''for his own protection'' because his behavior in Mosul seemed unusual for a Westerner. Plus Berg, who was Jewish, had in his possession texts that were considered ''anti-Semitic'' in tone. One of his friends has been quoted as saying that the Iraqi police thought Berg was an Israeli spy. To add insult to injury, Berg was also carrying some literature written in Farsi including a book about Iran.
d) On April 10, after he was released, Berg visited an Iraqi man who was once married to his aunt. Question: did his former uncle have political ties that caused any suspicions for the coalition?
e) Because he belongs to a far-left peace group and was known to authorities, Nicholas Berg's father likely raised a red flag and was a possible reason that the FBI visited the family in suburban Philadelphia at least three times during the 13 days that Berg was detained.
On April 5, Michael Berg filed a lawsuit alleging that his son was being held illegally in Iraq. Either Iraqi police or coalition authorities released Nicholas Berg the following day. From both his e-mails and interviews with friends, we know that Berg was moving around Iraq through April 10. It is unclear what happened next. On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon claimed that the U.S. consular extended an offer to assist Berg to depart Iraq by plane to Jordan. But according to his dad, Berg refused, believing that flying out of Baghdad airport was too dangerous and instead he wanted to try driving to Kuwait. In another published report, a friend said Berg wanted to leave by riding through Jordan. Driving in Jordan or to Kuwait when offered a plane ticket home makes no sense: since the fall of Saddam, Baghdad Airport, heavily guarded by coalition forces, is probably as safe as any place in Iraq.
Between April 10 and May 8, when his decapitated body was found hanging from an overpass in Baghdad, Nicholas Berg's whereabouts are unknown. In the rambling speech seen on the grizzly video just before he was decapitated, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicated that he could have traded Berg for hostages being held by the coalition. If true, and believing a terrorist is always a stretch, one question arises among many: why was there no announcement through Al Jazeera, similar to other hostages, that Berg was being held?
To be sure, Nicholas Berg's brutal murder is a great tragedy that has much of the nation and the civilized world outraged. Ironically, Berg's death may do what his old man doesn't want: galvanize American resolve to win the War on Terror! Perhaps amidst the haze of statements from government officials and from a father who may have a hidden political agenda, maybe we can eventually get the real story of the curious life and tragic death of Nicholas Berg.
Ira Simmons
http://www.topthecharts.net/
One purely speculative theory of mine is this:
Berg was in Iraq with the comm tower non-job for cover-for-action to travel around odd places.
His real mission was to act as a messenger, trying to become a go-between from Int'l A.N.S.W.E.R. to Al Queda. I mean, ANSWER can't exactly just pick up a phone to call Al Queda. To communicate with them, you have to GO to where they ARE, and fish around dropping hints, until you're picked up.
That's when you tell them the glorious news: you have come from a group "allied in the struggle against the Western imperialists" yadda yadda. You have a message, and an offer to coordinate activities, or perhaps hints on how to tweak their operations for the best effect, IOW, what and when to pull an operation which will result in the defeat of George W. Bush in November.
You expect to be treated fairly well, perhaps roughed up like the fake Japanese hostages/peace activists. After all, you can't talk to Al Queda, and just walk away like nothing happened.
But they saw the Jewish name Berg, and the Israeli passport stamp, and that trumped his ANSWER credentials. When the AG Prison scandal hit the papers.... Nick went on to serve a higher Al Queda purpose: human sacrifice on film.
That's why Daddy Berg (Mr. ANSWER) said "They killed their best friend."
The above is pure speculation on my part.
PING!
Somewhat similar to my theory with minor differences. I don't want to elaborate now (too lazy).
That is true. Plus, you gotta have boatloads of insurance as one slip of a wrench and the whole tower could crumble to the ground.
Nobody is going to leave a communications tower in the hands of a freelance 26 year old with questionable credentials and no Engineering license. Not even in Iraq.
I'm trying to remember this correctly. He was riding around in a taxi cab trying to dig up business or perform work on the day he was taken into custody. I have no idea what equipment is used to fix radio towers, but certainly more than what can be fit in a cab maybe?
He was wandering around in the dark "acting suspicious". So he was looking for work in the dark?
I've thought it strange people have accepted the old man's explanation that "Nick was a Bush Supporter". He may have been, but I would question ANYTHING an ANSWER hack would say.
Though there really are little exact similarities, the fog of his travels reminded me of the fog of Oswald's activities in the late summer-early fall of 1963.
Man...I am on a ping list involuntarily and for the first time I am very happy...
((((( PING ))))))
I like your speculation
RE:"That's why Daddy Berg (Mr. ANSWER) said "They killed their best friend."
He actually said that???
bttt
The photo circulating shows his body not hanging, but rather laying prone on the pedestrian walkway of the bridge.
Ping.
John Batchelor on WABC in New York reported that Berg bought the PC for Mousaoiu that the FBI wanted to confiscate in Minneapolis. Sounds enigmatic.
Vewy intewesting.
Travis, this is a book that almost writes itself. Are ya up to it? LOL
Great minds think alike (Oswald analogy).
Imagine an American leftist radical Jew (by birth only) wandering around the worst sections of Baghdad with an English-Arabic phrase book.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for Al Queda. Can you help me find Al Queda? I love Al Queda. Al Queda is my friend. I have an important message for Al Queda. Can you help me find Al Queda?"
My guess is, he found Al Queda.
Good article.
There is much more to be fathomed about Nick Berg and all these strange "coincidences".
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