Vie shutka! b Chechnya?!
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/
1000 ft high? It's definately not for me either. I can't stand on a step stool in my own kitchen without getting dizzy.
Someone else mentioned an article which stated something along the lines of him looking like a marine. Yet, in the video of him, he looks almost identical to one of the terrorists on the FBI's website (name statrts with a Z).
Vie shutka! b Chechnya?!
... head scratching ping...
I heard Jayna Davis discussing this on WABC tonight as well. It was weird to hear her investigating Berg's suspicious terrorist connections after having seen her on Fox before doing the same with McVeigh. Guess she's the go-to girl on this type of stuff now.
She basically quoted news stories she had read about the suspicious connections. She said one newspaper story had Berg's father saying Berg gave his e-mail directly to Moussaoui, who he knew because they traveled on a bus together, but that Berg didn't know Moussaoui was with Al Queda. This is in contrast to the FBI saying Moussaoui got Berg's e-mail through a go-between and/or as a result of Berg carelessly leaving it around.
Personally I think Berg's father at this time of high emotion has given the most reliable information yet. When he proclaimed that Berg was "the best friend" the terrorists could have had, that was all I needed to hear. He seems to be admitting that he and his son had discussed in-depth their mutual sympathy for Al Queda and their desire to cooperate with and contribute to the organization. And if he is now saying Moussaoui getting Berg's e-mail was not merely an accident, we have to believe the two were friendly enough to share e-mails yet Berg had no idea Moussaoui was involved with terrorists, and Berg just coincidentally after meeting Al Queda cells in the U.S. ended up meeting more Al Queda in Iraq, where almost no American would go.
As far as Berg's concrete tower making business, I remember an article some time ago from somewhere saying an Israeli spy network had been set up in mall kiosks as some kind of front business selling toys. I think this is just the way spying works. You need a cover story for why you're going to be traveling the world or handling money and being involved with a plausible business venture can provide that.
I think if what appears to be here is true, it would be a tragedy to not pursue this story, yet I am afraid the general media will drop it so they don't look like they're tastelessly beating up on a grieving family, the right-wing media will continue to play the behading as a way to show the evil of Al Queda to bolster support for the war and distract from Abu Ghraib, and the left-wing media will of course try to ignore all aspects of the story entirely with the possible exception of portraying Berg as a brave liberal who risked his life to help the 3rd world. Meanwhile we could miss an incredible new window into the depth of connections between the American left and our country's sworn foreign enemies that hearkens back to the beginnings of the Cold War-era.
My take as well.
Excellent perspective.
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Check out the name at the bottom again. "PETE TRI-DISH???"
Anyone there named Al Cohol Bunzinburner or A. Gaskromatograf?
I remember an article some time ago from somewhere saying an Israeli spy network had been set up in mall kiosks as some kind of front business selling toys. I think this is just the way spying works. You need a cover story for why you're going to be traveling the world ...
^^^^^
You mean that charming Israeli selling toys that I chatted with at Towsontown Plaza wasn't just a college student in the States to practice his English?!
Perhaps not. And perhaps he was not an Israeli, either.
Is it just me or does the image on Berg's shirt look like a boy with the top of his head coming off?
mark
Bull!
I figured all of this out on day one. I told my family about everything I was thinking. However, does that make it ok for the mongrel satanists (and no, I'm not referring to our demoncraps in this country) to do what they did and get a free pass on it? It doesn't matter WHO detained him and when as the demoncraps are trying to divert to, but then again, it doesn't make it ok and give the satanists that did this a free pass. I'm sorry, I want nukes dropped on the middle east, on ALL of them! Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out... Then again, I believe the same for the satan spawn demoncrap in this country, but are we taking it to the streets and carrying it out? I rest my case!!!
Listen, I have read all there is read on the subject. Oswald was NOT a spy, or a right wing nut, or anything else. He was a leftist, a loser, and a nut.
He was very close with Ferrie--even as a kid. I saw a documentary on the History channel that showed Oswald and Ferrie together when Oswald was just a teen.
Pray tell, why did Ruby kill Oswald. The he was a Red lone wolf doesn't stand up at all.
Makes you wonder, if it was a "setup" and Berg thought he was doing a role for the US Military...maybe the "terrorists" gave him a sedative before the role playing started...He does seem awfully calm for a prisoner of Al-Queda...ya know? I havent and won't see the video, but my son has...and he says there are about 2 1/2 mins missing....Anyone else catch that?
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