Posted on 05/13/2004 9:13:32 PM PDT by kristinn
Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2004
Berg's father demands answers from Bush BY NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - The day he buried his son, Nick Berg's father angrily lashed out at President Bush - and said he had a question for him:
"I would like to ask him if it's true that al-Qaeda offered to trade my son's life for another person," Michael Berg told a small group of reporters early Thursday morning outside his West Chester home.
"And if that is true, well, I need that information," said Berg, a self-proclaimed peace activist who has marched against the Iraq war. "I think that the people of the United States of America need to know what the fate of their sons and daughters might be in the hands of the Bush administration."
In the video showing Nick Berg's decapitation, one of the masked men read a statement that Berg had been offered in exchange for some Iraqi prisoners. U.S. officials deny that.
Berg said he did not blame the terrorists for his son's violent death.
"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld," he said, shortly after posting a "War is not the Answer" sign on his front lawn. "The al-Qaeda people are probably just as bad as they are, but this administration did this."
Hours after his strong remarks, Michael Berg said goodbye to his son in a private burial ceremony attended only by family members. A private memorial service will be held Friday.
In other developments Thursday:
• The CIA confirmed that, according to voice analysis, terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the masked man who beheaded Nick Berg in the video that was beamed around the world on the Internet earlier this week.
• While U.S. officials continue to deny that Berg ever had been in U.S. military custody, Michael Berg produced e-mails from Beth Payne, the U.S. consular officer in Iraq, dated April 1, that said his son was being detained by the military.
• An alternative, left-leaning blog, www.breakfornews.com, posted a story theorizing that the Iraqi police had detained Nick Berg because his company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc., and his father had been named on a list of "enemies" of the Iraq occupation in March.
• More information - and theories - surfaced about why the Iraqi police had detained Berg and what happened to him after he lost contact with his parents on April 9. Meanwhile, in Mosul, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawl insisted his department had never arrested Berg and had no knowledge of the case.
• Luke Lorenz, one of Berg's best friends, got a Web site - www.nickberg.org - up and running in honor of his slain friend.
Late Wednesday, Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., sent a letter on behalf of the Berg family to Secretary of State Colin Powell seeking answers to the puzzling questions surrounding Nick Berg's final days in Iraq.
Thursday, Michael Berg addressed a number of questions that have surfaced in recent days, including why his son had refused offers by the FBI and the military to fly him home.
Berg said his son may have turned down the offer because he'd "had enough of the FBI." Payne, the U.S. consular officer, also told the family she'd try to get him on a military flight out of Baghdad, he said.
"I told my son this when I spoke to him on the telephone for the last time ever on April 9, and he said, `I don't take too seriously anything that the State Department promises,' " Berg said, just before taking off on his morning bicycle ride.
"I don't think he was doubting their sincerity but their ability in the situation. And it was only a promise for a try so that didn't give us a whole lot of confidence."
Berg also said that the FBI told the Iraqi police to hold his son after spotting him riding in a cab in Mosul late at night.
"The Iraqis arrested him," Berg said. "He was doing nothing wrong. He was not breaking the curfew. He was in a taxicab. It was late at night. They were suspicious. I don't blame them for that. What I do blame them for is detaining him for 13 days without due process."
Thursday, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that another reason that Nick Berg had been held for so long was that the FBI was checking into some contact he may have had with terrorists while he attended the University of Oklahoma.
Michael Berg said his son had attended the university and had been taking a course at a remote campus, near the airport, and had to take a bus to get there.
"Some terrorist people - which no one knew were terrorists at the time; they were just going as students - were also taking that bus," Berg said. "And someone asked him basically if he could use his computer. And he did. College kids did it all the time. And it turns out this guy was a terrorist and he used my son's e-mail address - amongst many other people's e-mail who he did the same thing to.
"He was not a friend of my son's, not even an acquaintance," Berg said. "Just a guy sitting next to him on the bus. The FBI was satisfied with that."
A senior law-enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Nick Berg had volunteered information about the 2002 investigation when he was detained in Iraq. The official said that an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by an unidentified individual with purported connections to terrorism.
The investigation showed that Berg had never met the suspect individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person. Investigators concluded that Berg's e-mail address had been spread among dozens of people with links to the university.
The suspect individual appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaeda adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks, the official said.
Moussaoui attended flight school in Norman, Okla., home of the university.
Also Thursday, Michael Berg said he has been a member of International ANSWER - Act Now to Stop War & End Racism - for the past year and has participated in several anti-occupation marches. He said he planned to march on the Pentagon with the group, which is calling for Bush to bring the troops home now, on June 5.
The story on the alternative blog site theorized that information about the Bergs and the "enemies" list made its way to the FBI and, eventually, into the hands of those in Iraq who track or harass anti-war activists entering the country.
The list appeared on www.freerepublic.com, a neo-conservative, pro-war Web site, on March 7. It posted questions from an unidentified reporter from Salon.com Thursday.
Berg said his son was a supporter of Bush up until he died.
Bill Schneider, a CNN political analyst, said it's clear that both liberals and conservatives are trying to use Nick Berg's gruesome death to advance their causes.
"The Right seized upon his terrible death to try to reverse the momentum of horror over prisoners being abused," he said. "They immediately seized upon that to say, `You see. These are the people we're dealing with.'
"And now the Left is trying to say he was arrested because he was harassed because of his father's anti-war ideologies," he said. "Both sides are trying to use any scrap or evidence they can to discredit the other side. This whole tragic affair has gotten caught up in the controversy over the war. And it's probably not going to end anytime soon."
The danger facing American contractors in Iraq like Nick Berg is likely to continue, said Kathryn Rosenblum, editor of the Iraq Reconstruction Report, a newsletter devoted to Iraq business prospects.
"It's an incredibly risky place," she said Thursday, estimating that 30,000 to 50,000 Americans, Iraqis and Third World nationals are working there now. She said she's aware of 60 American workers who've been killed in Iraq and a handful who are missing.
At a ceremony Thursday in Center City, former Army Specialist and POW Shoshana Johnson said that Berg's death should be a warning to all non-military personnel over there.
"Get civilians out of Iraq," she said, after accepting the Freedom Award at Citizen Crime Commission's Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
Philadelphia Daily News staff writers Barbara Laker and Simone Weichselbaum and Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
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I still want to give a father time to grieve. That is human compassion. It is so strange, however, that his anger is not directed toward his son's murderers. It is not normal.
Nazis?
The more I read and hear about the Bergs, one can only surmise neither had enough smarts to act with intelligence in a very dangerous situation. The fact that the son had an opportunity to return home and decided not to on the advice of his father, says a lot about them. Typical the blame is placed elsewhere.
I just put him in the same bucket as the "9-11 Families". He is more concerned about being "right" about the war than honoring his son. It makes me sick.
This is so weird.
The normal reaction by a father would be anger, hate and revenge against those that killed his son - the ones that sawed his head off. No normal person would ignore those people saying "I don't blame the terrorists that did this" or "they are probably as bad as he is".
The normal father would be wanting every effort - war included - to go after the men that did this - the ones with the knife.
Something is really fishy here. I am almost beginning to feel the son may have been there for subversive reasons and the "support Bush" was a cover-up of the real purposes.
His father acting like he is indicates a loyalty to the terrorists and a rabid hate for this country and Bush.
Yet - why would they kill one of their own?
I don't think grief is causing Mr. Berg to act in this manner. I did at first, but not anymore. The guy is a radical leftist, crazy to the core with liberalism. I feel so sorry for Nick Berg to have a father such as Michael Berg.
I also cannot ,for the life of me, understand this. The butchers who commited this act did so with relish.
Leftist's use and like the term because it is close to neo-fascist. That is how they view us.
When you find a cockroach under your sink you simply step on it and go on.
"• An alternative, left-leaning blog, www.breakfornews.com, posted a story theorizing that the Iraqi police had detained Nick Berg because his company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc., and his father had been named on a list of "enemies" of the Iraq occupation in March. "We are hearing this from "Duluth News Tribune "
You want answers? Ask your friends at ANSWER.
Lynndie wanted to go to college to become a tornado chaser. Where do people study tornado chasing? -- Norman, Oklahoma.
Nicholas Berg went to college. Where did he go to college? Norman, Oklahoma.
Moussaoui, who borrowed Berg's internet account. Where did Moussaoui go to flight school? Norman, Oklahoma.
A witness said she saw two Middle Eastern men driving a truck that was connected with the OKC bombing. Where was the truck stolen? Norman, Oklahoma.
12 years ago I used to be a democrat. I came to my senses and have been registered as an Independent ever since. Most Republicans aren't conservative enough for me and there are many things I don't agree with Bush on. But I swear, the demented squalling I've heard and read from the left ever since Nick Berg's demise makes me recoil in horror at the thought of ANY one of them EVER being in power in MY country again. They've made my decision for me. I will be voting for Bush.
As in all mysteries.....he knew too much. Now, don't ask me WHAT he knew...but I'd guess he knew something.
Are we in the Twilight Zone????
I also mourn the untimely death of your son. Could I have done so....I would have intervened to prevent that dastardly act......
But, Mr. Berg, your son was a "grown man" of "legal age" and he made a decision to go to Iraq.
His personal decision is not the fault of the President nor the Congress nor anyone of our government.
It is most unfortunate and I do understand your grief.
Please do not blame US for it. Instead place your blame on the swine who committed his brutal murder.
Your son, after all, was a "private contractor". He was not a "combatant". He was not in the military service of our country. Be that as it may, he was an American Citizen. It is my hope that his brutal murder shall be avenged a hundred fold.
Ask not if the President could have prevented this murder. Rather ask, instead, why the Islam population have stood by while their own people have "murdered" several thousand of our people in our own land...... people who were only "going to work one morning to provide for the needs of their families". When the Islamics begin to speak out against these brutalities.......Then, and only then shall I "listen" to your verbal attacks against our President, et al.
Mr. Berg, May God hold you in his hands in your terrible time of grief now. But, Please, Mr. Berg......Blame those who are responsible sir. Not US.....our President, our institutions of government, our military.
(Bad things sometimes happen to Good people.)
I can't figured out how, if the family was told of Nick's death and decapitation by Monday, they were out on the lawn Tuesday gabbing with the reporters preying there ... then, only on hearing it had been videotaped and put on the web, did the father collapse in grief?
Also can't figure out how someone who wants no media manages to go out and talk to them about Bush's guilt, while absolving the terrorists who butchered his son.
Nor can I fathom how Mike Berg seems to think it was the Bush Administration's responsibility to be in loco parentis for Nick in Iraq when he, the biological father, seemed to hold now sway over his son's going to Iraq in the first place.
Grief alone does not explain any of this ... it sounds as if his hatred for Bush surpasses his sorrow at the loss of his son, and he is venting his anger not only in the wrong direction towards Bush, but well away from himself for his own failings as a father. Maybe it's his only way to cope, but none of it makes a lot of sense.
I think that he was trying to say that after the terrorist used Berg's email account, the address was then passed on, perhaps through forwarding maybe?
Anyway, it seems to me that if his email address was passed on and actually used, there isn't anyway for Berg not to know it is there?
I hate to say it, but I am starting to think Nick Berg was not just some innocent contracter trying to make money.
I think that more than a few people listening to Mr. Berg will reach the same conclusion. Using the brutal murder of his son to further a political agenda is disgusting. Unable to restrain himself from trying to score political points for his "side", Mr. Berg may unwittingly open the eyes of some people to what leftists are all about....that for them, there is NOTHING that transcends the political.
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