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/
The more we learn of this dude's life, the more questions we have. A pile of week-old lutefisk smells better than this fella's story.
But I do have some foolish radicals like this in Domestic Enemies.
This is what we were discussing over dinner. What sort of work was he supposed to have been doing? Lots of questions.
Does anyone just go to Iraq looking for work, without having anything lined up ahead of time, or without being contracted to work with other people? Why would he cruise around at night looking for work? What kind of tower work can be done by one man?
Good catch--the comparison to Oswald!
bump for later along with the other related threads
Yes, Oswald. Or Terry Nichols in the Philippines.
Thanks for the ping! This just gets stranger and stranger as the night goes on!
the brother in law Iraqi connection set off my alarm bells. I worried that this seemingly naive young man had possibly been "set up". It does not change my fury at his death.
"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!"
She's wrong. A buddy of mine, no college degree, is with a group of soldiers of fortune types who travel the globe, installing radio comm. towers and gear. Last, in Africa.
Hmmm, I'm now starting to wonder. A radical, left-wing father aligned with ANSWER...a connection to Mossaoui...and he was wandering around the country with radio communications equipment. Was he spotting and intercepting US troop movements for the terrorists?
In the Norman Transcript which had local information on Berg it said he worked at night on a tower in "ABU GHRAIB" -- same place as the prison!
This is by far the best post about this story posted here!
Thank you for posting it.
I found it odd too that the people who worked at the hotel where he stayed said he would stay out all day, and return to his room after dark (around 10:00p.m.) every night with drinks, papers, and his computer. They made a point to say he loved his computer and was always on it while at the hotel.
It was also written somewhere that Berg helped his "uncle" set up a e-mail account. But the uncle got scared and they both left the house. Where is the "uncle" now?
I know emails are better than calling people and cheaper, but I also know his *new* email account was still out there for the FBI/CIA to recover. I wonder what was in his sent and received mail?
If our speculations turn out to be untrue you've got yourself a plot for a best selling novel. If our speculations here are true, then your novels are going to have to be moved to the non-fiction department.
Yup.
Have you read EF&D? Many readers report to me that they believe it as they read it.
Something just feels out of sorts here.
Speaking of videos. Check out what he Islamic Nazis did in Chechnya here and here.
Keep in mind these are the exact same people. Islam is a one world equal-opportunity cult.
Thank you, PM!
I'll post a few thoughts in a sec...
As yet no radio towers that Nicholas Berg may have built while in Iraq on either trip have been identified.
Question: did his former uncle have political ties that caused any suspicions for the coalition?
The contract that Nick allegedly was going to get a subcontract chuck of was the contract awarded to Florida based Harris Corp. The contract was worth 96 Million and was the second contract awarded to Harris in Iraq.
Link
--snip--
The Florida-based company told Reuters it had been informed late Thursday by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority it was the winning bidder to develop the Iraqi Media Network and an official announcement would be made Friday.
Apparently the contract as soon as it was awarded came into question by the Iraqi Comminications Ministry
Link
--snip--
Less than 24 hours after Harris Corporation announced that it had won a lucrative contract to rebuild the technical infrastructure of the Iraqi media, doubts have emerged about whether it will go ahead.
Here is a link that indicates he worked on a tower near Abu Ghraib
Link
Berg was inspecting communications facilities, some of which were destroyed in the war or by looters.
During his time in Iraq, he struggled with the Arabic language and worked at night on a tower in Abu Ghraib, a site of repeated attacks on U.S. convoys and the location of the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates.
His father, Michael Berg, told the AP that Michael's sister, now dead, married an Iraqi man named Mudafer, who became close to Nicholas. In one of the e-mails, Nicholas Berg describes going to the northern city of Mosul, where he introduced himself to Mudafer's brother, identified as Moffak Mustaffa.
''We got along splendidly,'' Berg wrote. ''We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account.'' --snip--
What else can comm equip be used for....IED
Bump for later.
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