There are three primary groups of Kurds. Two of those groups can be friendly to the U.S.
The 3rd group, however, is Ansar Al Islam, a decidely unfriendly terrorist operation that got caught trying to pull the recent chemical attack in London.
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/
I too think he had no idea he was about to be whacked.
I have seen the Chechnya videos....not for weak stomachs.
I used to wonder why the Bear was so heavy handed down there....well we know now don't we?
There are three primary groups of Kurds. Two of those groups can be friendly to the U.S.
The 3rd group, however, is Ansar Al Islam, a decidely unfriendly terrorist operation that got caught trying to pull the recent chemical attack in London.
I play the gut game a lot--he doesn't look like a kid that would get involved with the terrorists.
When did he go to Kenya? If it was after the bombing, which happened in August, he might have went to do the forensic tecnhical work--like understanding the bomb they used and other things.
I highly doubt that he was bombing embassies where black Africans would die in significant numbers. If he is an ANSWER guy, he would have no interest at all in doing that!!
I mean this guy isn't responsible for everything--in 98 he was 20, right?? I doubt he was a radicalized fellow jihadist/commie bent on killing poor Africans. That doesn't follow with me.
I assure you, a lot of spies have a lot of stories. I'm sure, he didn't know he was going to get killed and be proven a liar.
Also, a lot of people are emerging now to say, "I knew him."
We're asking questions. We're not passing judgment. Not yet anyway. I hope this kid was idealistic and just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but there are too many unanswered questions. Heck, for all we know the Father may be an FBI underground informant and the Son may have been a CIA operative. If that's the case, then they are both heros. But there are things that don't add up. This is not conspiracy theory 101. It is reality test 101. It is smell the roses 101. There are questions that need to be answered. If we ask them here, perhaps they will be asked in the lamestream media.
Where did you find the info about his travels to Kenya and Uganda?
Yeah, I made the distinction that Sunni ARABS shared Mosul with the Kurds.
Uganda
Religions:
Definition Field Listing
Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%
just trivia...
We know, or some of us know, but America still doesn't have the stomach for it.
You're right. I don't know a lot about Ansar Al Islam except that they have some really tough b**stards who helped the Muja-hedin fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and sure know their way around weaponry, death and brutality. Their Afghan influence probably opened their affiliation with Al Qaida in the 90s.
Not yet, anyway. But we will...
We're just trying to make sense of it, and so much doesn't fit. WAY too many bizarro incredible coincidences.
Americans and Israelis do *not* send undercover agents to do investigative, public field (forensic) work after a bombing. We don't send Jewish kids with Jewish names with Israeli visa stamps into Islamic countries "undercover", either (because such a person can get killed by uninvolved locals who have nothing to do with terrorist organizations per se).
We don't send the FBI to visit the kid's house 4 times in 2 years, either.
He ain't CIA. He ain't Mossad.
He *might* just be an innocent kid with some coincidences.
Such as being at the Abu Ghraib prison. Meeting *two* terrorist big wigs (Moussoui and Zarqawi). Being in Kenya after our embassy was bombed, etc.
But those are some suspicious coincidences.
An article that was posted here on FR shortly after the war started, like June or so, told an interesting story.
The person being interviewed was a Jewish rabbi that lived in Iraq, along with his congregation. They had pictures of him and some of his congregation.
He was saying that although they were Jews, they were not persecuted in Iraq. They lived amongst Muslims without any problem and they all knew this group was Jewish.
Anyway, he said they were leaving Iraq, but only because the congregation was mainly older Jews and he (rabbi) was unable to find a Jewish wife in Iraq.
They loved Iraq, but he wanted to marry.
Also one of the Iraqi bloggers wrote a month or so later that his community accepted Jewish neighbors easily.
These were small isolated communities of course. They would not have been accepted in much of Iraq, but in these areas at least they were okay.
Maybe you're right-- I hope not!!
Yeah, I hear ya there. The coincidence/AQ timeline is quite thought-provoking. I'm gonna keep a skeptical but open mind.
Anyway, I've got my own conspiracy to uncover. We've had the power momentarily flashout 3 times now in the last hour and a half. All the storms are 70+ miles to the south of DFW, so it ain't lightning. Gotta go find the windup alarm clock...
"fog of travel similar to Oswald's..."
I thought the same thing! Mark David Chapman rambled around to Hawaii, Arkansas (to work with Viet. boat people in a refugee camp), and NYC where he finally killed John Lennon.
I read later that incessant, and dramatic, relocation is a fairly common trait among psychotic people.
I'm not saying that Nick Berg was psychotic.
After we lose some cities, or suffer a bio war pandemic.
After today, I'm not going to dismiss anyone's theories. No one's child is an expendable, ignorant asset, however. That's the kind of attitude we accuse fanatical Muslims of.
If you're serious, I would like you to explain how you've come to this conclusion.
What was his screen name?
;-)
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