Nicholas Berg: The Dots Do Not Connect

ChronWatch.com ^ | 5-13-04 | Ira Simmons

[Bartholomew Roberts]

FYI, here's an interesting poem. A couple of interesting passages in Bold

Sorry it is so long but after reading it my skin was crawling from all the potential comparisons and "clues".

Poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Birds of Passage

III

TOWER OF PROMETHEUS ON MOUNT CAUCASUS

PROMETHEUS.
I hear the trumpet of Alectryon
Proclaim the dawn. The stars begin to fade,
And all the heavens are full of prophecies
And evil auguries. Blood-red last night
I saw great Kronos rise; the crescent moon
Sank through the mist, as if it were the scythe
His parricidal hand had flung far down
The western steeps. O ye Immortal Gods,
What evil are ye plotting and contriving?

(HERMES and PANDORA at the threshold.)

PANDORA.
I cannot cross the threshold. An unseen
And icy hand repels me. These blank walls
Oppress me with their weight!

PROMETHEUS.
Powerful ye are,
But not omnipotent. Ye cannot fight
Against Necessity. The Fates control you,
As they do us, and so far we are equals!

PANDORA.
Motionless, passionless, companionless,
He sits there muttering in his beard. His voice
Is like a river flowing underground!

HERMES.
Prometheus, hail!

PROMETHEUS.
Who calls me?

HERMES.
It is I.
Dost thou not know me?

PROMETHEUS.
By thy winged cap
And winged heels I know thee. Thou art Hermes,
Captain of thieves! Hast thou again been stealing
The heifers of Admetus in the sweet
Meadows of asphodel? or Hera's girdle?
Or the earth-shaking trident of Poseidon?

HERMES.
And thou, Prometheus; say, hast thou again
Been stealing fire from Helios' chariot-wheels
To light thy furnaces?

PROMETHEUS.
Why comest thou hither So early in the dawn?

HERMES.
The Immortal Gods
Know naught of late or early. Zeus himself
The omnipotent hath sent me.

PROMETHEUS.
For what purpose?

HERMES.
To bring this maiden to thee.

PROMETHEUS.
I mistrust
The Gods and all their gifts. If they have sent her
It is for no good purpose.

HERMES.
What disaster
Could she bring on thy house, who is a woman?

PROMETHEUS.
The Gods are not my friends, nor am I theirs.
Whatever comes from them, though in a shape
As beautiful as this, is evil only.
Who art thou?

PANDORA.
One who, though to thee unknown,
Yet knoweth thee.

PROMETHEUS.
How shouldst thou know me, woman?

PANDORA.
Who knoweth not Prometheus the humane?

PROMETHEUS.
Prometheus the unfortunate; to whom
Both Gods and men have shown themselves ungrateful.
When every spark was quenched on every hearth
Throughout the earth, I brought to man the fire
And all its ministrations. My reward
Hath been the rock and vulture.

HERMES.
But the Gods
At last relent and pardon.

PROMETHEUS.
They relent not;
They pardon not; they are implacable,
Revengeful, unforgiving!

HERMES.
As a pledge
Of reconciliation they have sent to thee
This divine being, to be thy companion,
And bring into thy melancholy house
The sunshine and the fragrance of her youth.

PROMETHEUS.
I need them not. I have within myself
All that my heart desires; the ideal beauty
Which the creative faculty of mind
Fashions and follows in a thousand shapes
More lovely than the real. My own thoughts
Are my companions; my designs and labors
And aspirations are my only friends.

HERMES.
Decide not rashly. The decision made
Can never be recalled. The Gods implore not,
Plead not, solicit not; they only offer
Choice and occasion, which once being passed
Return no more. Dost thou accept the gift?

PROMETHEUS.
No gift of theirs, in whatsoever shape
It comes to me, with whatsoever charm
To fascinate my sense, will I receive.
Leave me.

PANDORA.
Let us go hence. I will not stay.

HERMES.
We leave thee to thy vacant dreams, and all
The silence and the solitude of thought,
The endless bitterness of unbelief,
The loneliness of existence without love.

CHORUS OF THE FATES

CLOTHO.
How the Titan, the defiant,
The self-centred, self-reliant,
Wrapped in visions and illusions,
Robs himself of life's best gifts!
Till by all the storm-winds shaken,
By the blast of fate o'ertaken,
Hopeless, helpless, and forsaken,
In the mists of his confusions
To the reefs of doom he drifts!

LACHESIS.
Sorely tried and sorely tempted,
From no agonies exempted,
In the penance of his trial,
And the discipline of pain;
Often by illusions cheated,
Often baffled and defeated
In the tasks to be completed,
He, by toil and self-denial,
To the highest shall attain.

ATROPOS.
Tempt no more the noble schemer;
Bear unto some idle dreamer
This new toy and fascination,
This new dalliance and delight!
To the garden where reposes
Epimetheus crowned with roses,
To the door that never closes
Upon pleasure and temptation,
Bring this vision of the night!

[Nexus]

One-man communications firm?

I think the tower thing is a Nick's cover. When I hear "Communications Expert", I imagine someone who likes to pass messages, interconnecting people. Perhaps it was something he was good at, passing messages.

His father's politics are that of the obnoxious far left. Although it is often true that a son won't have the same political leanings as the father, maybe he at least inherited the same extremist streak, like a Uni-bomber, Oswald or McVeigh (McVeigh had Arab connections). Father/son agree that the status quo had to end, and were willing to do anything to achieve it.

After meeting Moussaoui, who he thought was a swell guy, the "Communications Expert" helps Moussaoui and the rest of his 9/11 buddies complete their goal (secure email comm and other methods), and realizes these methods just aren't secure enough anymore. He needs to pass a message from US cells to al-Qaida kingpin al-Zarqawi and decides to deliver it personally.

Now Nick has never met face to face with a real hardcore terrorist like al-Zarqawi, who is very unlike the punk Moussaoui, and got more than he bargained for when al-Zarqawi realized Nick was a Jew.

[McGavin999]

I read that he was identified as a Jew while he was in the jail at Mosul. They put him in a cell by himself because they had some real hard core types in there.

The thought that he was CIA or Mosad is silly, they wouldn't have a guy traveling around Iraq with a passport stamped with Israel.

I heard he had some anti-semetic literature with him as well as a Koran and a book on Iran.

The other strange link is the uncle's brother in Mosul. That was a center for Saddamites. Isn't it also where the brothers were were hiding out before the 101 got them?

[GOPJ]

Here's another possibility -- what if Berg was in the home of an Iranian and expressed interest in the book -- said it was beautiful. The Iranian host would be obligated to give Berg the book. If you're in a middle easterners home and you say the carpet is beautiful, they'll roll it up and insist you take it with you.

Iranians and Iraqis aren't natural friends, so if there was an Iranian in Iraq who gave him the book, it was an odd situation.

I see the books as go-between messages or bonafides. You're trying to meet Al Queda, and contact A says "give this book to contact B, tell them Achmed the blind sent you." Then you pay him some $$$, or whatever is expected. Maybe there is no contact B, and you just got rooked out of your money.

[bcoffey]

It's just that from what I have read and am hearing "here" from someone who has been on top of it... I think it's no more a stretch to think he was simply stubborn and reckless than to assume he was involved in something sinister.

I'm tending towards the "stubborn and reckless" theory, but I must admit it's fascinating to see how people "connect the dots" whether there are connections to be made or not.

[Travis McGee]

His "Prometheus" plan clearly was a "power to the people, free new for the masses" pipe dream. Not exactly like the plan of a so-called Bush supporter. More like a radical Marxist.

[faithincowboys]

Most of our people don't know Arabic either, but maybe I'm crazy, I think Daniel Pearl was Mossad. It is very useful for the intelligence agencies to have journalists on the payroll, why, you ask? Because it gives a spy cover to go in dangerous parts of the world and sniff around. Unfortunately, some times it isn't so safe.

I guarantee you that there are some people working for Al Jazeera who are Al Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic jihad and Hamas men. It's great way to get intel--give the people a press pass and they kind find out all sorts of things.

I think, and I hope, Berg was working for us or the Israelis. I like that story a lof better than the one that some of these dots lead to.

P.S. Have you noticed the abundance of Jewish journalists working for our major media in Baghdad??

[Travis McGee]

That's possible, interesting cultural observation on "gifting" in the ME.

[P-Marlowe]

Now that's scary. But who would have thought McVeigh and Nichols would blow up a Federal Building? They seemed like pretty nice people. They mowed their lawns. They had lawns to mow. McVeigh and Nichols certainly appeared to be a lot nicer than any ANSWER member I've ever seen. ANSWER people are, by and large, evil and during their demonstrations they make no pretense to be anything other than evil.

[faithincowboys]

A lot of people running around Iraq have Israel on their passports. I remember a non-jew Australian reporter getting captured and having to explain why he had been to Israel.

[Travis McGee]

Seen in isolation (stubborn at his business plan) that could well be true.

But there are just way too many coincidences stacked one on the other, stretching back at least to Oklahoma, and his "chance bus ride" with the terrorist Mousawi, when he "somehow" shared his email password.

[Southack]

"But no matter what Berg's ideological motivations were, no matter how sincerely he intended to pitch ANSWER's help for AQ, they would suspect him of being an agent for Mossad and or the CIA. They would figure he had trackers or beacons planted in his body. They would not trust this "walk on" in a million years."

They wouldn't care simply because he wouldn't be near them.

His credentials literally gave him access to a tower at a U.S. base at Abu Ghraib. That's what they wanted. What al-qaeda cell would turn down access to a secure U.S. base in Iraq?

Those are facts. What's speculation is whether or not he was willing to be used by such people.

[Travis McGee]

122: Bingo.

[Cultural Jihad]

His father listed Prometheus Tower as his place of business when he signed the anti war list. Has anyone found out what he did for the company?

He listed his profession as 'teacher' on the ANSWER Call to Action list, supposedly for this Prometheus Tower company. But elsewhere in news reports during the time his son was missing, he had stated that the company is his son's. I can only speculate that he chose to hide his actual employer on the ANSWER sign-up roster.

[Travis McGee]

Nah. What "credentials" did he have? He was a nobody, a wannabe "walk on."

He thought his radical schtick would win them over, but all they saw was a Jew.

[SeenTheLight]

If Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg were Mossad, then G-d help the Israelis. If Berg was CIA, then G-d help us...

[Nexus]

ANSWER people are, by and large, evil and during their demonstrations they make no pretense to be anything other than evil.

No doubt about it. Maybe evil enough to coerce his tech happy son into conspiring against the "Evil American Government" by associating with the likes of Moussaoui and al-Qaida.

[faithincowboys]

My thinking is that the father's act is too over the top!!

My thinking is that the father publically signed the ANSWER thing--perhaps, his father's public bs is phony.

He has to know that saying that Al Qaeda is probably as bad as Bush--like he has done.Translation: Bush is worse than Al Qaeda is not attractive. If he is a student of Leftist propaganda--he had to know that that was an alienating thing to say.

In additon, the kid was a whiz early on. He was a technical whiz in his early teens. This kid could've been a Doogie Hauser MD type who managed to become a CIA or Mossad assett early on.

Also, it should be remembered that Moussaui got caught. Perhaps, Berg could've provided a tip.

The rigging of the RNC--if he is Mossad, he could have been doing that to bug areas to hear discussions of some of the big RNC types.

Also, the Iraqi Man in Mosul could be a Kurd-- Kurds are our friends.

Also, Berg might have known Arabic and pretended not to know it.

Just some things going on in my mind.

[McGavin999]

Might well be so, but why would CIA or Mosad be dumb enough to have an undercover guy with an Israeli stamp on his passport. That would be just asking to be exposed.

[Southack]

"Nah. What "credentials" did he have? He was a nobody, a wannabe "walk on."

What he did with his credentials is open for speculation. His credentials themselves, however, are facts.

1. He had met Moussoui (or a close collegue, shared email, etc.).

2. He's American.

3. He's Jewish.

4. He has a business that *obtained* clearance to work on a tower at the secure U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib.

5. He's been to Kenya and Uganda (hotbeds of al-qaeda activity including at least one U.S. embassy bombing).

6. He has an Israeli visa stamp on his passport.

7. He has an Iraqi uncle (via marriage).

8. Rather than fly directly to Baghdad with other American contractors, he enters via Jordan (Zaqarwi's home country).

9. He's a radio and email guy.

Now again, we don't know what he did with those credentials, but certainly they *could* have been used to present a tempting case to al-qaeda, e.g. I'll radio you when a convoy leaves, where your mortar rounds hit inside the prison, etc.